Visitors

There is nothing quite like inviting people over for dinner that motivates one to get that lengthy to-do list done. My house received its thorough cleaning yesterday evening. Once I got started, I couldn't stop. Laundry got folded and put away, dishes got cleaned up and the bathrooms got bleached. All the furniture got moved and the floors washed. Some of the windows even received a good cleaning. It's amazing what looking out a clean window does for a view out the window!

Yesterday I invited my parents over for dinner and then I cleaned until midnight. I thought and thought about what to make for dinner, it had to be good, you see. Ryan suggested sweet and sour meatballs and fried rice. But, I had just made meatballs for a different occasion, and even though Ryan can live off meatballs, I was up for something different. I settled with lasagna, which was super yummy (if I may say so myself).

Then I was thinking that I should come up with a yummy dessert and figured it should involve some of the 40 lbs of blueberries that I harvested last week. I went to my favourite recipe website: www.tasteofhome.com and searched for blueberry recipes. I found Blueberry Crumb Pie. Then I needed a recipe for a good pie crust, so I searched for that too. Apparently a flaky crust is desirable for pastry. But I need to be able to roll it! This recipe was super flaky and was difficult to roll. I ended up just pressing it into my pan instead of rolling it. This 5 star recipe did not make it to my "to make again" recipe book. I've never made a pie before (except for a pumpkin pie that I made last year for my brother that he let go bad without even tasting. He said he loves pumpkin pie. He said mine tasted yummy. Without even trying it.) so I was a bit nervous to use my family as guinea pigs. After all, if I screwed it up, I would have no choice but to visit them again and it would haunt me. "Remember when you baked that blueberry pie?..." So, as my pie is baking, I start thinking about the magazine "Country Woman" and the article "My Most Embarrassing Moment" and I begin wracking my brain, trying to think of any embarrassing things I might have done to screw the whole thing up. I read and re-read the recipe, and as far as I could tell I had done what it said to do. I wanted this to be a "remember when you baked that awesome blueberry pie?" situation. When it came out of the oven, it looked yummy at least! It's a start in the right direction, right?

For the top of the pie, I got this idea from a friend who made a cherry pie for our most recent monthly potluck. I thought it looked pretty neat so I decided to give it a try. I am excited with how it turned out. The dough was a bit difficult to roll, but once it was rolled, it worked fine. I patted most of it down, and rolled out the rest. I tried coating the rolling pin with a light dusting of flour, and that helped lots. I did have to do a bit of patchwork since it broke due to the flakiness, but from the distance this photo was taken, on can hardly tell. :) The pie turned out yummy and was eaten all up...except for one piece, which was gladly taken home by my brother.

After dinner, Camia got a story with Opa. I took the opportunity to get a photo of it.