Gosh, there's been so much anger, frustration, fear, depressing news, and Pie Fights just before so many interesting holidays - I believe it's time for Pie and Cocktail recipes!!!
I'll start.
For Pie, I'm going to go with my very own most favorite-ist awesome-ist, tasty pie.
I grew up in Northern California picking buckets of blackberries in the fields and among the river banks where I grew up. My Sister and I would bring these buckets (and our prickle-filled fingers, with indelible purple stains on fingers, thumbs and faces) home to Mom. Mom would take them and clean them up and sprinkle sugar on them in a bowl and put them in the refrigerator. They would make delicious blackberry syrupy goodness.
Favorite Cocktail? Well since I don't drink anymore, I'll just have to work from memory - but I am often asked to be bartender as well as designated driver. It all works out.
So, without more ado, below the Fleur de Kos, I offer you my finest Blackberry Pie recipe, which my Great Grandmother wrote down on a card, somewhere near Wichita, Kansas, during the Great Depression - and the best Cocktail I know how to make.
Okay, for my best Blackberry Pie - I do take shortcuts from Great-Grandma's recipe, but only for the crust. I hate making crust when I can be a lazy consumer and buy the crusts ready made at the supermarket. That said, here goes:
Ingredients:
1 big bowlful of blackberries, rinsed, sprinkled with sugar, and let to set in the refrigerator for several hours, or overnight
2 ready-made Pie Crusts (I know, cheating)
3 tablespoons of flour (any kind you want)
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons starch (to thicken the filling)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 egg
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (F).
Pour some of the blackberry syrupy goodness into a cup (1/4 cup should do) and set aside.
Mix however much of the blackberries and syrup you think will fill the pie in a bowl with the 3 tablespoons of flour.
Then mix the starch with a little water to make it a paste, and add the salt and the lemon juice. Mix this all into the blackberry/flour mixture.
Pour into the bottom crust (in a pie pan of course).
Put the top crust on, and thumb-down the edges, and press them with a fork to seal them. Cut away any extra crust from the edges.
Using an extremely sharp knife (I use a clean utility razor), make slices in the top of the crust, like 4-5 of them.
Now, take the blackberry syrup you left in the cup, whip it with the egg, and paint the top of the pie crust with it, thickly.
Bake the whole deal in the bottom of the oven for 30-40 minutes.
And the Cocktail?
Evolutionary's DFM (Dirty Fucking Martini) -
Using a shaker or a tall glass with something on top to keep the stuff in while shaking the cocktail - add enough ice to fill the glass/shaker half-way.
Pour in enough Stolichnaya (or Russian Standard if you have access to it) to just cover the ice.
Add a shot of extra-dry Vermouth.
Add another shot of olive brine from a bottle of olives.
Shake the hell out of it, pour into cocktail glasses (straining out the ice), and plunk some green olives in it. Drink it really fast, while you are making another one to sip.
Anyone else for Pie & Cocktails???