Two-Pie Weekend

I’m coming off of a two-pie weekend and it was everything I hoped it would be. If you follow my blog, you know that I only make dessert on special occasions or when company’s coming. So when one of our favorite people in the whole world came to spend a few days with us at the end of last week, I made both a “special occasion” dessert and a “company’s coming” dessert. That’s how we ended up having a two pie weekend. And what yummilicious (is that a word?) pies they were! Best of all, these pies were new creations — I had never made them before. They were so good, I seriously need to remember what I did exactly and write them down for a future cookbook. For now, I’ll just describe the process.

First up (and pictured above) is the Mixed Berry Pie in Winter. The “in winter” part comes not just from the dusting of confectioners’ sugar “snow” but because although berries are summer fruits here in Virginia, I was able to find beautiful blueberries from Peru and strawberries from Florida. I only bought one container of each — not enough to fill a pie of any distinction, plus the strawberries weren’t super-sweet. Solution: I sliced the fresh strawberries and mixed them with a can of blueberry pie filling. The two-color berry filling was gorgeous and the sweetness of the pie filling complemented the strawberries, just as the freshness of the strawberries boosted the filling.

I prebaked the pie crust (which I had stashed in freezer for such an occasion) for a few minutes, then spread the filling and baked it about 30 minutes. After cooling for a few minutes, I topped it with fresh blueberries, pressing them into the baked filling. When ready to serve, I dusted the pie with confectioners’ sugar. This pie was so good and fresh-tasting. Like a taste of summer in the middle of winter. The combination of blueberries and strawberries was wonderful and the burst of fresh berries along with the cooked berry filling and flaky pie crust was amazing.

I’ll tell you all about the second pie in my next post, but for now, here’s a hint: “Apple Cream Pie.”

Before I close, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has written me such nice e-mails about my books.  It means a lot to me!  And now I'd like to ask a favor:  if you can spare a few minutes, please leave brief reviews on Amazon or wherever else you can leave a review on my books that you enjoy.  It will be a huge help to me and also helps others trying to decide what books to buy.  (thanks!)