Special occasions call for special things to happen in the kitchen. That’s why there’s blueberry pie just out of the oven. For dessert after dinner tonight.

I make my crust from scratch. I think I could make the crust in my sleep. It’s very simple, very easy. For me anyway. Here’s the recipe.

Pie Crust             for a 9” two crust pie or two 9” crusts

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup shortening
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 or 5 tablespoon COLD water

Blend together flour, salt and shortening with a pastry blender or two knives.

Add 4 tablespoons COLD water and continue blending with knives or pastry blender. Add additional tablespoon water only if needed.

Divide dough into two balls and let sit for an hour. Then line your pie pan. Freeze the other ball of dough for another pie in the future.

Like the crust, I have the recipe for Blueberry Pie memorized. As a matter of fact you may have seen my blog post about Apple Pie. It’s nearly the same. Only difference is the fruit. And I occasionally put in a bit of lemon juice on top of the apples before the crumb topping goes on. Here’s the blueberry pie recipe.

Blueberry Pie

Oven temp. 425° for first 20 minutes. Lower temp. to 375° and continue baking for an additional 40 to 45 minutes.

• 1 – 9″ crust, unbaked
• Blueberries, about 5 cups, or enough to fill your 9″ crust
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) softened butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Fill pie crust with blueberries.

Cream softened together butter, salt, cinnamon and sugar. Add flour and continue blending until crumbs are a uniform size and are well blended.

Top blueberries with your crumb topping.

Bake at 425° for 20 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 375° and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes until blueberries are bubbling. Cool and serve. Vanilla ice cream makes a perfect topping for the pie.

All my blueberry bushes are in bloom as I’m typing this, bringing many bees that will pollinate the flowers.

Soon the bushes will be loaded with green orbs that look like they’ve got little crowns.

Perhaps by the end of May I’ll be able to harvest a few of the berries. By the middle of June there will be plenty of berries to make me, and birds like this female Scarlet Tanager, very happy.