For months, now, blueberries have been ridiculously expensive. Like, $4 for a half-pint, which is crazy. But when Mom and I stopped at the A&P yesterday to pick up stuff for a Father’s Day pie, they were on sale for $1.28 for a pint.

So, naturally, I bought blueberries! Six pints of them.

So, I baked a blueberry pie, using a recipe from one of the “America’s Test Kitchen” cookbooks, which are always fabulous. The only problem was that I didn’t have the recommended potato starch for thickening, so I used cornstarch instead.

Um, there’s a reason I don’t make pies very often. (grin) I’ve basically got blueberry soup in there, and a half-raw bottom crust, despite the fact that it was in the oven for well over an hour, as per the recipe. It certainly looked done to me! Except, obviously, with this much liquid UNDER the top crust, the bottom crust had some challenges, so, well … Dad liked it, anyway.

In addition to the pie–which used only 4 of the 6 pints I bought, I made this cake, which was entirely successful. This was the Brown Sugar Blueberry Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking. This is a fantastic cookbook, and this cake? Wow. Really simple, and the batter was so light, the blueberries sank to the bottom and turned into this intense blueberry flavor with a delicate flavor on top, and … yum. This recipe is a keeper.

I made granola, too, for the first time. I got this recipe from Coconut & Lime–Almond-Cherry-Coconut granola. It came out great, too, and the interesting thing? Every other granola recipe I’ve ever seen has the granola spread out on cookie sheets and baked dry in the oven. This one uses a slow-cooker, which I just thought was really intriguing. It doesn’t have the “clumps” that granola usually has, but then, it didn’t have the quantity of oil and honey that some other recipes have, either. And, of course, the stirring probably broke up a lot of the clumps, too, but that’s fine with me. I actually prefer non-clumpy granola.

The irony is that I never actually EAT granola. I eat oatmeal for breakfast in the morning, so a bowl of granola with milk isn’t going to happen, and I don’t eat yogurt or ice cream to sprinkle it over. (It’s that dairy product thing, you know.) I DO add some to my oatmeal, when we have it in the house, and did you know it’s great for baking with? Granola baked into muffins or bread … mmmm. That said, though, I’ve been eating this by the handful all day. It’s yummy!

Otherwise? I don’t think we’re ever going to see the sun again. Although, there WAS about half an hour of sunshine today. I figure that was a special Father’s Day treat.

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