Summer Pies

I love fresh summer pies. I come from right near the Blueberry capital of the world, Hammonton, NJ. This year, my mom and I went and bought 20 pounds of blueberries. It will get us about 5 pies each. As a family we sorted through all 20 pounds of them and picked off stems and weeded out bad blueberries and put 4 cups each in a bag. We then place them in the freezer for instant gratification when the urge for a pie comes along. If you're going to do this - do not wash the blueberries before putting them in the freezer, wait until you take them out to thaw.

Fresh pies are well....easy as pie. Sometimes I make my own pie crust (I have an amazing recipe too) and sometimes I buy it. So kill me, I'm lazy.

Fresh Summer Blueberry Pie -

1 Box Pillsbury Pie Dough or Homemade Pie Crust

4 cups blueberries

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup tapioca

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tbsp butter

Combine blueberries, tapioca, lemon juice and cinnamon in a bowl, let stand for 10 minutes. Line pie dish with one pie crust. Add blueberry mixture. Dot butter on top of blueberry mixture. Top with remaining crust, crimp edges and cut vents. I recommend covering the crust edges with foil for all but 5 minutes of baking time to prevent burning. Bake on 450' for 45-50 minutes. Enjoy!

Tip - Place the pie on a cookie sheet in case your filling over flows.

Pic of Portobello staring down the pie and licking his chops. Crazy pup, pie is for people!

Mt. Icing

I went to a local diner with my parents last Friday (See my yelp review here). I had already eaten dinner but figured I could grab dessert while they ate. I surveyed the dessert counters and settled on Mt. Icing.

1.) Because I love red velvet for the cream cheese icing (who doesn’t)
2.)Who could resist a cupcake the size of my head piled with enough icing to cover Mt. Rushmore?

Ultimately it took me three sittings to finish this cupcake. Some at the diner, dessert after dinner the next night and lunch the day after that. Believe it or not, it was best on the third day. It stayed moist and the candied walnuts were quite tasty. I had at least a 1/3 of the icing mountain left over too.

My only complaint? The cream cheese icing was made with way too much butter. Good cream cheese icing doesn’t need much butter. Therefore I’m going to skip sharing the Mastoris recipe and give you my favorite straight from the Philadelphia box:

Ingredients
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar (about 4 cups), sifted
BEAT cream cheese, butter and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended.
ADD sugar gradually, beating until well blended after each addition.

Road Trip Cupcake Review

I've been meaning to try some of the local cupcake places and decided my weekly roadtrip up to Albany for work was as good a place as any to give one a try. I stopped at Petite Cafe, Home of the Stuffed Cupcakes. I quickly snabbed four and picked up my coworker at the train station and off we went.

Here are my choices:

Red Velvet: Delicious moist cake, I'd give the cake part 5 stars. The cream cheese icing was 99% cream cheese and could use a bit more powdered sugar to cut 5% more of the tart cheese taste.

Chocolate Caramel: Not too caramel-y and quite tasty. Solid cupcake.

Peanut Butter Blast: Both mine and my coworker's favorite cupcake by far. Nice moist cake, delish icing. Not too peanut-buttery dry either.

Banana Chocolate: Tasted like a muffin I would get from Starbucks, not even close to a cupcake. Dry and way to dense. Not a favorite and wouldn't order again.

My coworker and I weren't the only one's to enjoy roadtrip cupcakes! Portobello was given a little taste of peanut butter cupcake. I can tell you it didn't last long.