Apricot and Blueberry pie

When a friend gave us some apricots, I started looking for an apricot pie recipe.  Most of the recipes I found involved cooking and pureeing the fruit to make a chiffon or the use of dried apricots.  Neither of those options was appealing at the time, so I decided to do it as a regular fruit pie - and throw in my last bag of frozen blueberries.  This was yummy pie paired with vanilla ice cream.

Apricot and Blueberry Pie

Pastry for two crust 9 inch pie

About 3 cups of sliced apricots

1-2 cups frozen blueberries (or fresh)

2/3 cups sugar

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

4 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon

• Combine the apricots and blueberries in a bowl with the sugar and lemon juice.  Let sit for about 30 minutes to juice while you prepare the pastry and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
• Stir the cornstarch and spice into the fruit and pour into the pie shell.  Put on top crust and flute edges. Bake for 15 minutes.
• Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake for an additional 35-40 minutes.
• Let cool for an hour or two before serving.

Apple Blueberry Pie

A couple of weeks ago I decided to enter a pie in a pie contest at the Gardener's Market, just for fun.  It was advertised that it would be judged by "local pie lovers".  So I made a nice peach pie and took it on over.  It was fun to browse the market while waiting for the judging, and my children got to make some Halloween crafts.  Now, I didn't enter the contest because I was hell-bent on winning - which is a good thing because my pie won third prize.  But the funny thing was that the "pie" that won was a pumpkin cake which one judge said "tastes just like pumpkin pie".  You would think that "pie lovers" would know the difference between pie and something that "tastes like" pie, so that was funny.

We ran into our friends Jim and Eleanor at the market, and Jim tasted my pie.  He was kind enough to praise it, so the next day I made a pie for our families to share.  People who appreciate good pie are the ones most likely to get more of it!

I had some apples on hand, and remembered the blueberries in my freezer, so Jim and Eleanor got to try my first Apple Blueberry Pie. We all loved it with ice cream.  Here's the recipe:

Apple Blueberry Pie

1 double crust pastry dough
5 cups peeled and sliced apples
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons lemon juice

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Roll out half of pastry dough and line deep dish pie pan.
• Mix together apples, half of the blueberries, sugar, flour, cinnamon and lemon juice.
• Pour into pastry lined pie pan.
• Sprinkle remaining blueberries on top.
• Roll out remaining pastry and place on top of pie.  A lattice top is pretty on this pie.
• Bake for 25 minutes.
• Reduce oven heat to 375 degrees.
• Bake an additional 40 minutes.
• Let cool for an hour before slicing.