Monday, June 21, 2010

MORE PIE: Blackberry

One of my Purl Gurls, Beth, is an awesome gardener. AWE. SOME. Her entire backyard is full of lush vegetation, flowers and what seems like, magic. Sometimes she'll be giving me a tour, and pointing out what everything is and then she'll say, "And that's a potato plant. How did THAT get there. Oh well." ...Stuff just grows! She doesn't have to do anything! Stuff just shows up! It's pretty much THE place for vegetables; You aren't a squash if you aren't in Beth's garden. :)

Anyway, one Sunday a couple weeks ago, Beth was going on about how awesome she is and how she's the best gardener ever and how she'll soon have blackberr--"YESS," I say, "BLACKBERRIES. WANT. LOTS." BTW, Beth doesn't really go on about how awesome she is, although she could, because she is. That's just what I'm thinking when she tells me things like, "I have an old bath-tub full of worms eating and pooping and making compost into fertilizer." I should probably keep a better check on my awe/jealousy, but it's so hard!

Beth followed through on her blackberry promise and it was up to me to turn those beautiful berries into something delicious. I was considering blackberry cupcakes for a while, from this cake recipe and this frosting recipe, but that was too complicated. I didn't have a lot of time. Then I remembered a recipe I saw for rhubarb tarts a while back. That recipe, specifically the corn crust, also seemed too complicated, with a bunch of crazy ingredients I didn't have.

However, the idea stuck, and after a little research, I decided on this recipe for the crust, and this one for the filling. Yes, I actually made the crust this time, and you know what, it wasn't that bad. Super easy, actually. And the inherently sloppy, or charmingly rustic, as I call it, method of making the tarts was super chill and turned out pretty great. I think if I ever do these again, though, I'll put a layer of ricotta or something in there too. Yumm.

I had some leftover filling and a super-old Pillsbury crust in the fridge, so Sean's mom got this lovely giant tartlette/regular tart.

In conclusion, my friends are awesome and I'm super lucky to know them, let alone eat their blackberries. :) <3

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