Pie! Pie! Pie!

Me and sister, taken by Michelle Citrin

The other week me, my sister Kim, and our friend Michelle C. went berry picking on Sauvie Island, an island a few miles from Portland that has many farms and beaches (including a nudie section that I've never even accidentally come across). I am not that into berry picking, I must confess. After the first initial "Yum! These berries are so good!" when you first start picking, it gets old fast. My sister loves it only a little more than I do, but she can keep up her excitement with thoughts of baked goods, freezing, jamming and carrying on that goes on at her house when she has fresh fruit. My mom comes every summer and enjoys helping with the berry picking. However, she isn't coming this year and she's very sad to be missing out (I'm sure my sister is also sad to not have as many berries tucked away in the freezer). Michelle C. on the other hand LOVES picking. Like, really LOVES.  Kim and I are on constant roam, looking for the magnificent and Michelle C. is all calm and meditative, sitting by a bush and picking all the ripe ones in front of her. It's the way to go since she picked more than we did....

We did end up with plenty berries, including some raspberries, which weren't quite ready for picking.

I had bought blueberries for mini cupcakes (below) I had made for a July 4th gathering at my friend Corinn's house.

Vanilla w/Buttercream from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World"

I still had a lot left of those inferior-tasting blueberries and decided to make a pie with them and freeze mine from Sauvie Island for future awesomeness. I didn't have any pie plates, so I went to a store and bought frozen crusts. The brand was Marie Calendar, I believe. I used a recipe for the filling that I found online (it's the one that VeganLunchbox's Jennifer McCann uses) and then used Julie Hasson's crumb recipe since I didn't feel like making the yummy, pretty lattice kind. Crumble topping is just so dang easy!

Of course, I had to have a piece after only letting it cool for about 20 minutes, so the filling was quite runny. It screamed for ice cream and so I put the only kind I had on it: Trader Joe's Cherry Chocolate Chip. It would do better with plain Vanilla, but it still worked and it was tasty! I was worried the pie would stay runny, but my mom assured me that once it cools it would thicken and, you know, moms can be so right sometimes....

I was expecting to make only one pie, but it turns out that that 4 cups of blueberries makes 2 pies. When you're me anyways. Julie Hasson's Blueberry Pie (see crumb recipe link) calls for cooking the berries and I think perhaps that would make it so they would all fit in one pie crust, but my recipe wasn't precooked and they weren't all going to fit. I was happy to have another pie and I got to take one to my brother-in-law's birthday cook-out.

mmmm....pie....

My favorite pie is still cherry, but I'm proud of my delicious blueberry pies...

By the way, I *finally* ended up at Proper Eats in St. John's area! Yum! We three girls split Tempeh Tacos, Tempeh Reuben and a half order of 3 dips w/raw crackers and veggies. Everything was fresh, delicious, and beautiful! Best reuben in town! So many explanation marks!!

Canadian 'Couv...oh, and Thanksgiving

Across the border, of Oregon that is, there is a town called Vancouver in the lovely state of Washington. My sister lives there in a cute house and i, occasionally, visit her. Most people call Vancouver by it's nickname, the 'Couv. I am one of those people. Kinda how we call Beaverton (a Portland suburb) "Beavertron" and Gresham "Shithole." Heh...i kid on that last one. Seriously, no ill will towards Gresham, i just don't want to live there. 'Cause it's not Portland....

anyhoodles, this is all really just to say i went to the "real" Vancouver this past weekend. Yeah, as Michael from a recent The Office episode says, i went abroad. I have a friend that lives there and i haven't seen him since moving to the Northwest 3 1/2 years ago and i wanted to see Vancouver again. I had a 5 day weekend because of Thanksgiving. It probably would've been better had i used all 5 days, but i really wanted to spend Thanksgiving here with my sister and her in-laws and also with my friends (i had two Thanksgiving meals). 

Short side note on Thanksgiving:

I made my first Pecan Pie!

I had leftover filling so i made some pie dough (i had to make a second batch, the first was with whole wheat flour which is why there's such a color difference in the one to the very right) and smooshed it into some cupcake/muffin tins. I loved these mini pies! i'm sure i'll make them again. I used a premade graham cracker crust that needed to get used for the big pie. I do believe graham cracker crusts aren't the best for pecan pie. The Pecan Pie recipe comes from a PPK thread, it's Toddx's recipe and it was adapted by Jess, which is where you'll have to go to get the recipe b/c i can't seem to copy it from the document i have it on....

But back to Vancouver. The weather was rainy and my feet got wet and cold (wearing Chucks in the rain = ridiculous), but other than that, it was a great trip. I walked around downtown and shopped and ate. I ran across Gorilla Food, which i had heard about, and decided to eat some raw food. I had a kale/seaweed salad that was tasty and a carrot-beet-apple juice that was large in size and kinda tasted like dirt. You know how sometimes carrots have that dirt flavor? yeah, that. I could've used more apple....i left there early b/c there was a strange guy that sat next to me and made me uncomfortable with his words, such as "can i come visit you?" and "will you remember me?"....and also b/c when i shook his hand, he didn't let go and he rubbed it...

i also ate at Naam, which i was excited about. Unfortunately, half way through the meal my stomach became upset. But, this place has big portions and, best of all, open 24 hours! I got a dragon bowl, but i think i should've picked something else...it was good and all, but i have a feeling i would've liked something else more. grass is always greener, eh?

I also had a hot dog at Japadog, a hot dog stand known for its' japanese style toppings. I just had the  holy trinity of toppings: sauerkraut, ketchup and yellow mustard. The grill there dogs, so it takes a little longer than the boiled kind, but it's definitely worth it.

I also picked up a 24 pack of Dr. Pepper. They don't use high fructose syrup there. Or any other country, right? We're the only ones that refuse to give that shit up, i think....

I had a good time in Vancouver and hope to go again when it's sunny out....