Blueberries! Rosie Makes A Blueberry Pie And Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream.

Blueberries.
What to do with 5 pounds of blueberries?
Let's see ...
I could make blueberry muffins.
A lemon custard highlighted with blueberries.
A cheesecake accented with blueberries.
As I'm pondering what to do with 5 pounds of blueberries,
Mr. Hawthorne told me to do something fast
as I only had 4 cups of blueberries left.
Pesky kids.
They eat everything.
Mr. Hawthorne wanted a blueberry pie.
And, of course, Mr. Hawthorne always gets what he wants.
Isn't that right, Mr. Hawthorne?

Here's the money shot

so I'll hope you'll continue to read on.

Ahhhh ...
My beautiful berries.
For $2.00/pound.
Handpicked by Mr. Hawthorne and me.
In 93 degree heat.
Fresh.
Picked with LOVE.

And I'm certain they were much better
than the California berries at Food Lion
for $1.88/pound.

Mine were bursting with just-picked blue flavor.
Food Lion's were bursting with ethylene
and the flavor of containment
and possibly Botrytis and Anthracnose.


Now, on to my pie.
First, the crust:

My mise en place:
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
grated zest of 1 lemon
2/3 cup Crisco, chilled
1 TB lemon juice
4 TB ice cold water

I combined the flour, salt, and grated lemon peel.

With a pastry blender,
I cut in the shortening
until the pieces were the size of small peas.

I lightly mixed in the lemon juice and ice water ...

... until the dough held together.

I rolled the dough out
on a floured board.

To transport the dough to the pie dish,
flour the dough,
and gently roll it up with the rolling pin ...

... and place at one end of the dish
and carefully unroll.

Trim off the excess
and crimp the sides.

Now for the filling:

4 cups blueberries
7 tablespoons corn starch
2/3 cup sugar
(I actually used 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup Splenda
to make Mr. Hawthorne happy.)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
5 TB lemon juice

First, I mixed the sugars,
the cornstarch,
and the cinnamon.

Then I added in the lemon juice.

Stir to make a smooth mixture.

Pour the blueberries into the prepared crust.

Pour the sugar/Splenda/cornstarch/lemon
mixture evenly over the blueberries.


Next I made a crumb topping.

My crumb topping ingredients:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter

Just mix the ingredients together ...

... and sprinkle over top.

Here's my blueberry pie ready for the oven.

Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.

As you know,
nothing goes to waste in the Hawthorne Household.
I took the excess pie dough,
rolled it out,
and cut these little rounds.

I sprinkled cinnamon and sugar over top
and popped them in the oven for about 10 minutes,
or until nice and crispy and browned.

I ended up with these yummy little bites.

While the pie was cooking,
I thought to myself,
"Self, you need to make some homemade ice cream."
Nothing better than home made vanilla ice cream
to top a hot, fresh-out-of-the-oven blueberry pie.

Not too long ago,
I had made some home made vanilla ice cream
when Mr. Hawthorne requested a blackberry cobbler
for the Fourth of July.
That particular ice cream base
was a custard.
It was a cooked base with cream, milk, and eggs.
And it needed to cool in the fridge
before being poured into the ice cream maker.

I didn't have time to cook a custard mixture
and cool it, because I wanted the ice cream ready
when the pie came out of the oven.

Sooo ...
I made up an ice cream.

My ingredients:
3/4 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups whipping cream
1 TB + vanilla

(I used 1% milk since that's what
we have in the house.
Otherwise, I probably would have bought whole milk.
And I already had whipping cream in the fridge.)

I mixed the milk and sugar ...

... and whupped it up for about 2-3 minutes.

I added in the vanilla.

I added in the whipping cream,
mixed well, then poured it into my
ice cream maker.

After about 20 minutes,
my ice cream is ready.

And so is my pie.

I took my little cinnamon/sugar rounds
and decorated the pie edge with them.

There are no words to describe this.

So I'll just shut up ...

... and eat.


Caution:
If you make this,
there's a very good chance
you'll experience a foodgasm.

Highlights Of Our Trip Back To The Outer Banks.

When Mr. Hawthorne and I travel from
the Outer Banks to our
respective birthplaces and families,
we take the same route each time.



After making the trip back and forth,
Danville to Outer Banks,
Outer Banks to Danville,
(since the early 80's)
both solo and duo,
so many times,
and my experimenting
with different routes
and their merits and demerits,
I finally figured out the
best route,
both time-wise and mileage-wise
and scenic-wise.

From Danville, Va.,
I take 86S
to the first intersection in Hillsborough, NC.
And sadly,
I take a left at the light, on 70E,
and don't even go into Hillsborough.
Hillsborough is a lovely, quaint, historical town,
and one of these days,
we will stop there so I can take photographs.

One of the places I wanted
to go to this Monday
on our way back home,
was Montrose Gardens, in Hillsborough.
I called on the way and
naturally they are closed on Mondays.

My friend, Marion,
recently sent me this gardener's blog,
GardensGardens,
and there's a post about Montrose.
That will have to tide me over
until I actually get there myself.


One of these days,
I'll go to Montrose Gardens.
Just like I'll perfect my Parmesan Frica Cups.
And my Corn Fritters.
And golly,
wasn't there another one on Rosie's list?
Seems like I had another thing to perfect
on my list.

Edited to add:
Yes. There was another one.
See this post.
It was minted tomato slices.

Minted tomato slices.
Certainly sounds simple enough.
My problem was I followed
the directions against my better judgment.
My mind went somewhere else
since I was doing about 7 different things at the time,
and I ended up burning the crap out of them.
Hey. It happens.



Back to Hwy 86S.
I've been traveling 86S,
from Danville to Chapel Hill,
since the late '60's.
I loved Chapel Hill and Franklin Street.
The Rathskeller.
The bookstore that is no more on Franklin.
The record store on that side street.
I loved the campus of UNC-CH.
Chapel Hill is a beautiful place to me.
I was very proud and thankful
when Daughter Hawthorne
went to college at Chapel Hill.
That was supposed to be me.


Back on topic.
Route 86S.
We're driving along and
I told Mr. Hawthorne
I wanted to take a left turn
sometime in the near future
so's I could photograph
a certain building
I anticipate every single time
on my trips between Danville and Chapel Hill.

I spot the turn ahead
and tell Mr. Hawthorne
in plenty of time.

He easily braked and turned left.

Unbeknownst to me,
but knownst to Mr. Hawthorne,
there was an 18-wheeler
on our ass.


Mr. Hawthorne pulled the truck over
to the side of the road and stopped,
directly in front of what I wanted to shoot.

Mr. H: (Rather frenzied and actually breaking out into a sweat.)
Can you just get out and take the damn picture?
Rosie: (Opening the door.) Hmmm? What's that smell?
Mr. H: (Rather peevishly.) You mean the burning rubber?
Rosie: (Quite innocently.) Oh. Is that what that is? What happened?

There's some trucker out there
who probably has my license plate
etched into his brain
and, no doubt,
some fecal material
in the seat of his carefully appointed cab.

Hey, TRucker:
Don't you be text messaging
whilst driving right on my ass.

When we pulled back out onto 86
there were about 100 feet of black skid marks
zig-zagging across the road,
a near jackknife.


So, now,
on to the place
which for 40 years

I've wanted to stop at and shoot pictures
and for which, apparently,
I had just risked life and limb.

Warren's Store in Prospect Hill, NC.
Warren's Store was built in 1858.
The post office at Prospect Hill
was established in 1823
and on the adjoining lot of the current post office
is the building that housed it for more than 100 years -
Warren's Store.
The old store building still has a corner set aside
by Mrs. Geneva Warren that contains
the Prospect Hill Postal Museum
with all sorts of post office memorabilia -
letter scales, records, call letter boxes,
receipts, and ancient postal manuals.
Also on display is a copy of the pardon
given to Franklin Link Warren,
postmaster from 1842-1865.
The pardon was for having operated the
Prospect Hill Post Office
under the Confederacy during the Civil War.

You GO! Franklin!!

Is this not worth the wait?

Look at this gas tank.
And check out the picture in the link
from 1940.
This tank is the same one
as in the old photograph.
The tank on the left has been changed.

I don't know why I didn't take a close up
of the left side gas tank.
Oh well, maybe it was because
Mr. Hawthorne was constantly
telling me to hurry up.
On my to do list for next time.

Now, another place
we wanted to stop at
is the blueberry farm on 86.
We stopped at the farm last year
on September 15 for the first time.


I searched for blueberry on my blog
and found a blueberry recipe
and the Sept. 15 visit to the blueberry farm.
Just scroll down on the above link.

A road sign
for the blueberry pickin's.

Upon our arrival,
we were cheerfully greeted
by these friendly signs.

I love admonitions and extraneous punctuation,
especially when accompanied by a smiley face.

A welcome and instructions
to sign in with name, rank, and serial number.
I actually looked around for surveillance cameras.

Ahhh.
Trust.

These are the blueberry "bushes."
They're 7-8 feet tall.

Ripe blueberries with plenty of green ones.
Remember, last year,
we picked in mid-September.

The blueberries we picked were $2.00 a pound.
Usually, they're $4.99 at Food Lion.
We tromped through the bushes,
sweating like pigs,
for about 30 minutes
in 93 degree heat
to get 5 pounds of blueberries.
We were quite proud of ourselves.

Here's Mr. Hawthorne going to slip his $10 bill
for a little less than 5 pounds of blueberries.
In the tool box.
Honor system.
This is the south, you know.


Next, I wanted to stop at the Citgo station
at the Hillsborough light,
at the turn off to 70 E.

I've stopped here before and wanted to get
the sign in the bathroom.

I think this is very admirable.
Outside the door,
there's a light that will go on,
indicating that someone
has pushed this button.
This is a very clean bathroom
and rivals the restrooms
at the Outer Banks Welcome Center
on Roanoke Island.



Now, for the piece de resistance.
MOBILE MEXICAN FOOD!

I'd seen this truck on Saturday
when we drove to Danville and
Mr. Hawthorne would not stop
for me to take a picture.

Thankfully,
it was in the same place Monday
when we drove back -
at the Citgo station in Hillsborough.

And Rosie is curious,
as you can well imagine.

The name of a business should
plainly state what it's about.
Sometimes, however,
the name is just too much information.

I find the name of this particular business,
Mobile Mexican Food,
somewhat ambiguous.

Is the vehicle mobile?
(It hasn't moved for 3 days.)

Or is the Mexican food mobile?
(It will move in 3 minutes.)

I didn't care to find out.

Ahh ...

The irony.

After sweating in 93-degree heat
for 30 minutes
to pick five pounds of blueberries,
for $2.00/pound,
we stopped at Food Lion in Nags Head,
where we found them
for $1.88/pound.

Such is the life of Rosie.