NO BAKE BLUEBERRY PIE

This recipe is for an open face blueberry pie with filling that is not baked.

It’s rare for me to bake a pie because it just seems like so much work. However, when you use a premade crust, such as Pillsbury Pie Crust, and fill it with no baked goodness you get a delicious summer pie. With blueberry season in full bloom, so to speak, I had to try this. It was a hit and I’ve made it twice. It’s a must try for anyone who loves blueberries.

I’m sure you could make it with other berries too with a little experimenting. If you want to make it vegan, there are a lot of vegan no bake pie crusts online, so I’ll try one of these next time or I may just put the filling into small serving size mason jars for a nice pudding type dessert. Thanks Linda (sv Sapphire) for the recipe.

Ingredients:
3 pints (6 cups) fresh blueberries, washed, rinsed, and drained
1 lemon, grated rind and juice
2/3 cup sugar (original recipe calls for 1 cup, but I’ve reduced it and it still tastes plenty sweet)
3 TBSP cornstarch
pinch salt
1 cup water
1 TBSP butter (I use vegan butter)
1 unbaked 9” pie shell

Directions:
-Bake the pie shell according to package directions
-Mix sugar, cornstarch, and water in a pot. Add 1 ½ cups of blueberries with the lemon zest and juice. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened and the color is a deep purple. Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Let cool (I stir a few times while it’s cooling to keep it from setting up). Cool at least 30 minutes or until there is no longer steam coming from it when stirred.
-When cooled, fold in remaining blueberries and pour into the baked and cooled pie shell. Refrigerate approximately 2 hours, or until set. I let mine set overnight.
-Slice and enjoy.

Enjoyed fabulous blueberry pie, recipe courtesy of Linda Knowles
Enjoyed fabulous blueberry pie, recipe courtesy of Linda Knowles

Cuttyhunk

We headed out of Bristol about 10 am on July 19th. When we got just past Newport we encountered fog. Paul turned on the radar only to discover it wasn’t working. So we about turned and headed into Newport harbour, anchored and set about to troubleshoot the problem. P checked everything while I heated up some leftovers for lunch.

After some food, Paul went back over the wires and sure enough while fixing something else a few days back he’d jiggled a wire out of place (P actually it is a Raymarine ethernet connector that is defective so I had to jury rig it to keep it connected). So two hours later we headed back out into the fog on route to Cuttyhunk. Lucky for us the fog mainly lifted and we could see at least a mile or two the whole trip. We had a pleasant sail and arrived to Cuttyhunk around 6pm.

Temporary anchorage while fixing the radar.  Very crowded and busy!
Temporary anchorage while fixing the radar. Very crowded and busy!

Upon arrival we were met by the Raw Bar boat, a boat that serves up locally grown oysters in the half shell to those who wish to pay for it. The people on the boat actually shuck the oysters right in front of you as they ready your plate. Of course, Paul wasn’t about to pass that up and he tells me they are the best he’s ever had.

We went ashore the following day for an explore. It’s a small island so a few hours of walking and you’ve seen most of it. While I really enjoyed the quiet here, after a few nights we were ready to head on. Paul had another serving of oysters the night before we left. We departed on the morning of July 22nd and made our way to Martha’s Vineyard.

Bristol, Rhode Island

We arrived to Bristol on June 30th from Hampton after two stops. The first stop was at Cape May and the second at Block Island. We didn’t go ashore at either stop as we’d done both last year and the weather wasn’t great for going ashore so we continued on each morning.

Along the way we saw 50-100 sharks all around the boat while we were about 20 miles off the coast near Atlantic City. Not sure what they were feeding on, but I can tell you I would not be swimming in that water. It was churned up in patches for quite a distance.

We rigged the parasailor three times during the trip and left it up overnight once. That was a bit frustrating because the winds picked up for an hour or so in the middle of the night, causing Paul to lose nearly a full sleep shift as he helped me get it down in the dark. We knew we were tired when we let one of the lines fall into the water and it ended up under one of our keels. Luckily we managed to get it out from under the boat without having to go into the water. We kept the motor off and I just kept working it until it released. Whew!

We debated whether to put it up again or not after all the frustrations getting it down in the dark. But we decided to go for it and we sailed all the way into the Bristol Harbour with it up. It’s clearly pretty rare to see a parasailor, as we had a lot of gawkers as we sailed in.

After arrival we readied the boat for house guests arriving on July 3rd for the 4th of July festivities. Leslie (our winter guest in the BVI) joined us for a couple evenings along with her 8 year old son, Jack, and on the evening of the 4th her friend Ben and his daughter Skylar joined us as well.

Leslie brought fresh lobsters along with a pot to cook them in. We had a feast on the evening of the 3rd with leftovers for a few sandwiches which we took to the parade with us on the 4th.

On Saturday we went to the parade (the longest running parade in the US, this was the 230th year). We adults enjoyed the marching bands and floats. Let’s just say Jack wasn’t himself and preferred to be on the boat. So about half way through the parade, P dinghy’d him and his mom back to Blue Sky then returned to me along with Charlie to watch the rest of the parade.

Later that evening we all headed to the Salty Dawg Rally clam boil event at Mary’s place (Mary is a lady in Bristol who has offered her place for these events for a few years now). After dinner Ben and Leslie took the kids to the carnival in town and we met up at the dinghy about 10 pm. A long and busy day.

On the 5th the kids helped to inflate the kayaks and took them for a paddle. Then they swam while we waited for enough wind to take them for a sail. After lunch the wind piped up and we had a lovely 3 hour sail down the bay towards Newport and back. It was perfect except for the fact that the electric winch we use to haul the mainsail up, wasn’t working. So we were happy for the extra help to crank it up by hand (thanks Ben).

We enjoyed beers after the sail and our guests packed up and left before dinner. It was lovely to have guests on board as it happens so rarely. Come on family, all you have to do is get yourself to the boat and we are happy to have you (hint, hint).

The following week we spent our days fixing things on board and doing some cleaning. We spent time with Bill and Linda (Sapphire) and their dog Zoe, who Charlie just adores. Many evenings we went over to Mary’s place and enjoyed her yard. Bill and Linda took us in their car to the market, the store, the vet, and pretty much anywhere we needed to go. Big thanks for all the rides and help hauling it back to the boat. It was so much fun having someone to hang out with. We also had a great time watching the races around our boat with racers from age 6 up!

So at last it was time to leave and we did it with mixed feelings. We tend to get comfortable in a place and have a hard time pulling up the anchor. But on the morning of July 19th we did just that and said our goodbyes to Bristol for now.