Some people are cake people. Some people are pie people. You might be able to guess what I am. But every now and then I can go for a really good berry pie.

Last Wednesday I decided to be daring and make my own pie crust and at the same time, get rid of some of those blueberries we picked. We had stopped at Whole Foods earlier in the week and nabbed some peaches.

Peaches + blueberries = PIE!

There weren't enough peaches to follow recipes online for a blueberry-peach pie, so I had to improv and make up my own recipe.

It wasn't bad! I ended up eating it each morning when I came back from a run. We kept it in the fridge and it was a cool (and delicious!) treat after being out in the sun.

Blueberry Peach Pie

INGREDIENTS

2	pre-made pie crusts or make your own (I used the Perfect Pie Dough by Cook's Illustrated)
3	cups blueberries - washed
3	cups peaches - washed and sliced (about 4 peaches)
3/4	cups sugar
1	tspn cinnamon
1/8	tspn ginger
1/8	tspn coriander seed
	pinch of nutmeg
1.5	tablespoons cornstarch
2	tspn lemon juice
1	egg - lightly beaten

INSTRUCTIONS

1.	Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Have dough prepared ahead of time. Prepare 9" pie plate with one pie crust.
2.	Wash and cut fruit, and place into medium bowl.
3.	Add sugar, spices, cornstarch and lemon juice to bowl of fruit and mix to coat fruit evenly.
4.	Carefully pour fruit into prepared pie plate. Some people add a little bit of butter to the top of the fruit before covering, but I forgot here.
5.	Roll and place remaining pie crust on top of the pie. Cut four slits in pie crust (to vent) and brush the top of the pie crust with the lightly beaten egg white.
6.	Place pie on a cookie pan to catch any drips. Reduce the oven temperature to 425 degrees and put pie and pan into oven for 25 minutes. A tip to prevent the crust from burning: I place tin foil around the edges and remove it after 25 minutes of baking.
7.	After 25 minutes, rotate the pie and reduce the temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for another 30-35 minutes. Your crust should be golden brown and the juices should be bubbling at this point and will be ready to come out.
8.	Place pie onto a wire rack to cool before serving. Suggested cooling time: 4 hours.

Memories of Meat Pie

*Disclaimer* Before you read further, I totally understand that this is normally made during the winter months, usually around Christmas, but sometimes you can't help having cravings*

When I think about food from my childhood, one of the dishes that pops into my head immediately is meat pie.

If you have never had meat pie, you're missing out. Especially if it is my mom's. Her meat pies were incredible. Every now and then I'll smell something that reminds me of it. After doing research, I discovered that it is a French-Canadian dish, which would explain why the recipe was passed down from my Grandmother on my dad's side. His family was definitely French Canadian.

In fifth grade I made a cookbook not realizing how thankful I would be for it today. At the time I thought that I would always have my mom around to make me delicious food. Had I known differently, I would have asked her how to make everything she made, including her potato salad and egg salad - two dishes that I miss a lot and don't think I'll ever eat again unless the recipe is somewhere hidden in our house.

I am very fortunate that my 5th grade self asked my mom how to make meat pie so that I could include the recipe in my cookbook. I'm pretty sure she didn't use a recipe the entire time I was alive, she just threw it together as she cooked. The recipe that I wrote down was pretty basic. It said to add water, but didn't say how much. And it had a range for the amount of spices to use.

My brother has been asking for it for a year, and my dad talks about it all the time. We needed our meat pie fix. I bought potatoes at the farmer's market yesterday, had an onion from last week's market, and bought the meat at Hannaford. This afternoon, after planting herbs and peppers in containers on our porch, and after running my final long run before my marathon next week, I  began the cooking process. 

Gail's Meat Pie

3 pounds lean ground pork

1 pound lean ground beef

4-6 medium potatoes, peeled

1 onion

2-3 teaspoons salt*

1 teaspoon pepper*

1/2 to 1 teaspoon cloves*

1/2 to 1 teaspoon nutmeg*

2 cups water

2 pre-made pie crusts from dairy section (if you're feeling ambitious, feel free to make your own from scratch)

*The spices are used to suit your taste. I used slightly more than the recipe called for.

Wash and peel potatoes. Cut in half and grind using a course meat grinder. This part may be altered. My mom always used a meat grinder, and so I did as well when making the recipe. After peeling the onion, cut it in half and place this in the meat grinder as well.

In a large pot (I used a 10 quart but it doesn't need to be that big), put in potatoes and onion. Add 1.5 cups of water to begin with, then add the ground pork and beef. Add spices and cook on medium low until the meat is no longer pink. Drain the liquid from the pan. At this time, do a little taste test of the meat. You may want to add more salt or pepper, maybe even more of the cloves or nutmeg. Some of the flavor may have left the meat when the liquid was drained. Flavor to your liking. My advice, don't add too many cloves, and you can't have enough salt and pepper.

While the meat is cooking, prepare two glass pie dishes with the bottom pie crust. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the meat is fully cooked, scoop the mixture into the prepared pie dish. Lay the second crust on top of the meat and fold the edges around. Trim off excess crust. Cut slits in the crust to let out air.

Bake the pie for about 14 minutes. Let it cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

My favorite memories are eating it cold for leftovers. 

Thanksgiving

I'm starting to get used to living in Montpelier, however, I'm getting too much into a pattern. I get home from work and am too tired to do anything. I watch TV at night, something I never did before. Not that it's bad, but I'm not being as productive as I'm used to. I signed up for a cake decorating class at Michael's that starts this coming Monday. I'm hoping that'll jazz things up a bit and make my work days better since I'll have something to look forward to when I get out. It has four classes that'll meet during the next two weeks, and it was actually very cheap, only $22.50. I'll have to buy my own supplies during the first class, but since I'll have them for years to come, I'm quite OK with that.

This Thanksgiving I went home to my dad's house. It was just us, my brother, and his girlfriend. I made my very first apple pie the night before. We also had a Costco pie there as well so I was able to compare the two. I have to admit, I liked mine a lot more. It didn't look pretty, but I liked the taste. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart, except I used Hannaford-brand pie crust instead of making my own. The only think I would have changed was to put less lemon juice in it.

I also had my first attempt at making homemade rolls. They didn't come out as fluffy as I was hoping, and I definitely realized why we buy our bread in the bread isle already sliced. It took me so long to make them. I know that I could have bought rolls or even the frozen dough, but Thanksgiving for me is about home-cooked-meals, that take time. It's one of the few times I get to go home and have a meal with my family.

I really enjoyed the time at home (even though it was 83 degrees in my house!). It's always a little bitter-sweet since my mom's not there with us. I don't think I'll get used to holidays without her.

So it's now Christmas season, which means its time for me to start making fudge. I had wanted to make some today and it was one of the reasons that I took today off. However, my car decided to crap out on me. I need a new muffler badly. I brought it to a garage that wanted to charge me $419. If only I was made of money... Luckily my brother offered to fix it tomorrow. I'd so much rather pay him than someone else but I feel bad for taking time out of his weekend. I'm definitely very lucky to have him and my dad around.