Easy, amazing blueberry pie!

My virtual friend Helen Jane has been posting a bunch of really cool summer recipes lately. Now it's my turn.

Yesterday we were visited by dear friends, the Mitchells, formerly of Providence and now of North Carolina; and for their visit I (quickly, easily) made this fresh blueberry pie, the recipe for which fortuitously had been featured in the morning newspaper. This is wondrous when blueberries are in season – huge and sweet. And you don't have to bake anything!

Enjoy. It's as easy as .... pie.

Note: This doubles well. Yes, I made two.

Aunt Molly's Unbaked Blueberry Pie
(featured in the Providence Journal)

1 quart blueberries
3/4 cup water
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 9" prepared graham cracker pie crust
Topping:
1 half-pint whipping or heavy cream
1 Tbsp sugar

Put 1 cup of blueberries in saucepan. Mix water and flour with fork or small whisk; add to the pan. Add sugar and salt.
Start cooking on high until bubles appear, then lower to medium heat, stirring frequently until thickened and the berries are a deep color, 7-10 minutes. Some berries will pop.
Remove from heat and let sit a few minutes.

Add remainder of uncooked berries to the pan, using a spatula to fold together. Let it sit a few more minutes, then pour mixture into pie shell. Gently level off.

Allow to set at least several hours in refrigerator, or overnight.

Put cream in large mixing bowl with steep sides; whip on high speed with a hand-held electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar (powdered or granulated) and mix in well. Plop gobs of whipped cream on top of pie; spread with a spatula. Use all the whipped cream!

Refrigerate until ready to serve. Cut in slices. Swoon.

Colorful legacy

Our front gardens have been spectacular this June. A single lily stalk I planted about five years ago is an enormous patch of sunrise colors now. My salmon roses never fail to please the eye, and their scent is sweet and tea-like.





I'll miss these gardens after we move. The new property is my blank slate; I look forward to transforming it as I did this one.

Happy Poppop Day

Michael and granddaughter Caroline enjoy some June sunshine.

I've looked at clouds

Many years ago
A young, day-dreamy girl,
I scanned the clouds for shapes.
Mustangs and trains rode overhead,
Lambs tumbled, demon faces leered –
All white and roiling; never still.

Once behind our house
I – five years old – lay on my back and
Watched a creamy cloud
Grow, and reach, and grow
Into a towering thunderhead
Lit bright by slanting sun.
I stared at it so long, it dizzied me.
I ran inside, abashed
By vastness, and I so small.
“Mama!” I cried.

All week clouds have
Lowered, scudded, glowered,
Tumbled, grumbled. Thunder's
Growled, first muted, then aloud.
One evening, sun broke through,
And in a parking lot I found myself
Surrounded, bounded on high by
Whipped-cream cumulus majesties
Gathered round.

Fifty years past childish fear,
I gaped at mounds of white, gold,
Pink, and black against blue skies.
Clouds climbed each other’s backs,
Puffed heavenward, anviled out, and shined.
These days no vaporous animals or
Imps appear to me. Clouds are but clouds -
Complete; unwittingly sublime.


Cloud images taken with a low-res camera phone.