Rosie & Blueberries.

Remember the lovely blueberries Mr. Hawthorne and I picked the other day? I'll show you what I've done with them so far. And I haven't even made a dent in the 3 pound pile.

But first, here's my rose on my new table. OK, now on to the pie dough.

This is my go-to recipe for pie dough because it works every time. 4 cups flour 1 tsp salt 1 TB sugar 1 1/2 cups Crisco 1 egg 1 TB vinegar 1/2 cup cold water

Mix dry ingredients then cut in bits of chilled Crisco with a pastry cutter.

You want to have a coarse texture, with some blobs the size of small peas and others the size of rice.

Mix wet ingredients and add to dry.

Turn out onto a floured surface and form it into a nice ball.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This dough makes about 3 large pie crusts, but I decided to make tartlets so I wouldn't be stuck with huge pies. That way, I can give away some of the tartlets to friends and neighbors and won't have to eat them all myself. And no, Frank will not be getting any, because I'm a bitch that way and he's a jerk.

I rolled the dough out and filled 3 small ramekins.

Then I used a biscuit cutter to cut smaller circles.

And filled muffin tins.

Even smaller biscuit cutter.

For smaller muffin tins. At this point, I asked Mr. Hawthorne to come over and help. He started with two little muffins and I had tell him to stop. This is not rocket science here, but his were a mess. I think he does this deliberately so I won't ask him to help with stuff. Just like the time I asked him to help in my garden. Big mistake there. He pulled up all my little carrot seedlings and my radish seedlings. After filling up the ramekins and muffin tins with the dough, I put them all in the freezer for 30 minutes while I started on the fillings. After 30 minutes in the freezer, I preheated my oven to 375 and partially baked the pie crusts for about 25 minutes. (The pie crusts were in the freezer, not Rosie.)

First up is an Almond Cream filling: 6 TB unsalted butter, room temperature 2/3 cup sugar 3/4 cup toasted almonds, ground up 2 tsp all-purpose flour

1 tsp cornstarch 1 egg

Mix butter and sugar until smooth and satiny.

Add the rest, one ingredient at a time.

I rinsed my berries, then dried them before filling my partially baked crusts.

I filled my tartlets with blueberries, then put the almond cream on top.

Preheat the oven to 350 and bake for about 50 minutes, or until the almond cream puffs up and browns a bit.

And here's my Blueberry and Almond Cream Tartlet.

The pastry is sweet and flaky and the almond cream is delicious.

Here's a closeup so you can see all the flavors.

Are you salivating yet? Now, on to another blueberry tartlet - Blueberry Custard.

The ingredients for the custard: 6 TB unsalted butter, melted and cooled 2/3 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract

I whisked the eggs and sugar, then added the melted butter.

Beat until nice and smooth.

I filled my muffin tins with blueberries.

Then poured the custard over top.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for about 25 minutes.

And here they are - Blueberry Custard Tartlets.

I can't decide which I like better.

Here's a closeup of the custardy goodness. Almond Cream Tartlets on the left. Blueberry Custard Tarlets on the right. I still have 2 1/2 pounds of blueberries left. Any suggestions? Remember ... Just Ask Rosie ...