FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Crust: 1 cup unbleached white flour 1 cup wholewheat pastry flour (you really do want ww pastry and not plain old whole wheat) 2/3 cup of chilled butter (this is one stick plus 1/3 to 1/2 of a second stick) tiny bit of salt 5-6 tablespoons of cold butter If you have never made pie crust from scratch... its not complicated but it requires attention and patience. I followed the instructions on page 247 of the cookbook very carefully. Very important! Keep butter and flour cold as possible. Ice cubes in the water. Handle the flour mixture with your hands as little as possible . Put a rolling pin in the freezer. Sift the flour together in a big shallow bowl. Add the salt. Cut the stick of butter in half the long way and then cut slices off the end of the stick like 1/8-1/4" thick and add these little pieces of butter to the flour. Then cut the butter into the flour with two knives. Using the knives keeps the dough from getting tough. think cutting a piece of steak into pieces as small as a pea. When all the pieces of butter are getting real small (it may take 5-15 minutes depending on how handy you are with knives) add the water 2-3 tbps at a time. I use the knives for the first half of the water. Try to get the water mixed in evenly but don't worry if it doesn't happen. Then mix in the last 2-3 tbps of very cold water by hand. We want the mixture to hold together. You can gently press the dough down toward the bottom of the mixing bowl to pick up dry flour. You can knead it a little but only as much as necessary to get it to hold together. Add an extra tbps of water if need be. When you have a ball of dough, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes. When dough is chilled dust a cutting board w flour and roll out half the dough at a time. When it comes out of the frig it will not be pliable. Before you roll it, form it into a roughly circular shape by smooshing it with the palm of the hand, then start with the cold rolling pin. Dough will stick to the rolling pin and the cutting board. Scrape it off and dust the pin and board with flour. Push straight down and then away from you or down and pull towards you. Eventually the dough will "work" and you can get it to where you'll be able to peel it off the cutting board or even use a knife to free it from the board. One half of the dough, the larger half goes in the bottom of the greased pie pan. Add the filling. Then the top half of the dough covers the filling. Pinch the top and bottom pie dough layers together and trim the excess dough. Put fork holes or slits in the top of the dough to let steam escape. Recipe calls for 15 minutes at 425 and 30 minutes at 350... I found that I had to cook it for about an hour. It's cooling as we speak.

Blueberry Pie I am a crunchy-chewy, tree-hugging kind of baseball fan (think Bill Lee). So the recipe is adapted from Horn of the Moon Cookbook, Vermont's original vegetarian restaurant. See page 247 for great instructions on how to make a pie crust from scratch. Pie Filling for 10" pie pan: 5 cups of blueberries. Wild blueberries are the best. 5 cups is about 1 1/2 pints. Usually sold by the pint so two pints gives you leftovers for pancakes or muffins. 1/2 cup honey, (or agave or maple syrup) 4 tbps of arrowroot (supermarket equivalent is cornstarch) 1/4 tsp salt 1 tbps butter 1 tbps lemon juice 2 tbps of unbleached white or wheat pastry flour cinnamon and allspice to taste (a little allspice goes a long way) On super low heat melt butter. Don't scorch. Stir in honey, lemon juice, salt, spices. Add berries and stir to get the berries coated. Cook over low heat until you can catch a hint of berries cooking. Don't overcook or overstir. Take off heat and mix in flour and arrowroot (or cornstarch). filling is ready.

Canucks? ****? Where are the B's!?