Pie! What would a 4th of July BBQ be without pie?!? Every year, I make one and this year, it ended up being Vanilla Bourbon Cherry Blueberry Pie … Cherries from from Washington State, Blueberries from Maine, Bourbon from Kentucky. That pretty much covers it. Celebrate well this weekend, folks, and Happy Independence Day!
We interrupt this holiday weekend to bring you something that is *not* a cupcake or a pie and actually bring you something *healthy*. OK, mostly healthy. I’ll be going on a picnic or two this weekend, so I thought that I would make something to stash in the basket. These Cherry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, with Toasted Almond Slices seemed to fit the bill.
Today is Canada Day so for my friends in the Great White North, happy celebrating. South of the border (so strange to say that in New England!) we’re gearing up for the big Independence Day weekend. Thought I would make another set of cupcakes to make the occasion, and no better excuse to make red velvet. As always, managed to drip a drop on the floor and one of the cats walked through it, leaving a nice trail of what looks like blood at first glance. Eeks!
Another friend’s birthday so in my way predictable manner: more cupcakes. I like giving cupcakes better than cakes because it makes sharing easier .. no cake cutting and plates and such, just grab a cupcake and eat out of hand. These are summery with the raspberries (local ones are just coming into season) but would be easy enough to make in January too, with the overload of chocolate.
You guys know me: always putting slightly odd ingredients in sweet, baked dishes. Sometimes it is by mistake (i.e. the chili powder that accidentally replaced the cinnamon in an apple pie — though that was a happy accident as it was really good) and sometimes intentional (pepper and bitters in strawberry pie the other day; also really good). This time I thought I would do another “intentional experiment”: red wine and Chinese 5-spice powder in cherry pie. While there is some dispute about what is even in five spice powder (some mixtures have anise, cinnamon, star nnise, cloves, and ginger while others replace the ginger with Sichuan peppercorns or fennel. And then there are other 5-spice mixtures what have all of those, which would actually make it 7 spice mix, but who’s counting?!?). And the red wine of course goes great with the cherries. So, another happy experiment.
I’m not sure this is tremendously “summery” really. I guess this strikes me more as an autumn pie, but cherries are harder to come by then, but you could always used jarred cherries, I suppose.