When I was growing up, pie seemed to always have a starring role in summer gatherings at my Grandparents’ home on Higgins Lake.  I remember how my Grandpa always liked his strawberry-rhubarb pie.  I remember how any leftover pie from the night before would always be eaten by someone for breakfast the next morning, whoever was up early enough to gobble it up.  I remember how my Grandma always had (what seemed to me like millions at the time) homemade pies stacked in the freezer just waiting to be presented for dessert.

Seeing all of the ripe, sweet, summer berries that are so abundant here in Michigan right now, inspiration struck and I decided to celebrate old family tradition and bake a blueberry pie.  My mom recently reminded me of a time when I was little and put a bunch of strawberries in a pie tin and announced that I made a strawberry pie.  Let’s just say I decided to step it up a bit this time.

In the absence of my Grandma’s recipe, I used a traditional blueberry crumb pie recipe from Williams & Sonoma.  The few pies I’ve made in my adult life have been with pre-made dough (along with canned pumpkin pie filling) – and let me tell you, the home made dough was very easy to make and tasted so much better.

After rolling out the dough and a short pre-bake, my crust was ready for it’s yummy blueberry filling!

Then I sprinkled on the crumb topping and off to the oven it went.

As my pie got all bubbly and golden brown in the oven I began to wonder about my lack of pie making over the years.  While living in the city, I never had the desire (or need for that matter) to bake a pie.  Pie was something you purchased at the store – bakery instead of frozen if you really wanted to impress – not something lovingly crafted in your oven.  I don’t know if it’s thinking about all the pies from summers past or a new found appreciation for the beauty of summer fruits, but it now seems to me that pies have truly been missing from my kitchen and I’m looking forward to changing that.

So it’s with a feeling that I have accomplished something grand today that I ask …. “Who wants pie??”