Note: The winner of Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life by Kim Severson is announced at the bottom of the post. If you’re impatient, scroll down to the end to find out who will receive this wonderful book.

*   *   *   *   *   *

We spent the weekend in Miami for my medical school reunion (ten  years!). The reunion was held at the stately Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. We’d visited the hotel for a couple of wedding receptions in the past, but we’ve never stayed there before. It was both elegant and comfortable, and I’d go back in a heartbeat. Plus, the shower had the best water pressure of any hotel I’ve ever stayed in. That alone is reason to go back.

While we were in Coral Gables, we visited old haunts – including our old condo on Majorca Avenue. A festival for Carnaval was going on downtown on Miracle Mile, and we took advantage of the warm, breezy weather and wandered in and out of the art vendors’ tents. A highlight of the trip – besides catching up with people I had not seen in ten years – was getting to meet a couple of food blogging friends, Reneé and Eleanor, over dim sum.

Here are some photos of our 36 hours in Miami. You can click through each photo to go to my Flickr photostream for more details.

And, the giveaway results? By a random number generator, the winner of Kim Severson’s Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life is:

Congratulations, Sherri. I’ll be contacting you soon for your shipping details. You’ll love the book!

Some days just require pie.

Think about it a minute. I bet you can think of a day or two this year that could have been enhanced by a warm piece of blueberry pie.

Every day over the last month, with the exception of maybe two, I leave work at the end of the day to visit my dad in the rehabilitation center. My mom visits him in the morning or early afternoon, and I visit in the evenings. I sit with him in the rehab cafeteria or in his tiny, shared room, or I wheel him outside in his wheelchair so he can get fresh air and sunlight. Mostly I just keep him company. I’ve tried to stay out of the medical aspects, but it hasn’t worked. So, sometimes I question the staff about his medications, and occasionally I make polite suggestions for changes that I think should be made. Some days he’s encouraged by his progress, and other days he gets depressed. And, without fail, he tells me how much his grandchildren mean to him. That is his goal – to get well enough to spend time with his grandchildren again.

There have been more than a few days that could have been improved by a slice of comforting pie.

So many of you have asked about my dad – and about me and my mother – and for that I am touched. My mom and I (and my brother, too) have spent the last month learning how to care for and interact with a loved one with a brain injury. We’ve had some interesting experiences – and some heartbreaking ones – but mostly, we’ve learned how strong we can be during times of family crisis. My dad is supposed to go home from rehab later this week, and we (my mom, especially) will be faced with a new set of challenges.

But we can handle challenges. After this last month, I’m sure we can handle whatever is thrown our way.

So, let’s have that piece of pie, shall we?

Remember those Chilean blueberries I was suckered into buying? They were the star of the show in this blueberry pie that I made recently. My son, a devoted blueberry fan, requested a blueberry pie one weekend. Since I love him, and since I am not one to say no to making a dessert, I made a pie for him. Well, and for me too.

For this pie, I used my all-butter pie crust dough recipe, but you could easily use a package of refrigerated, rolled pie crust if you like. I chose to make a lattice crust, but you don’t have to. [I’ve included a couple of links at the bottom of the post, below the recipe, that give great guidance on making a lattice crust.] I think lattice crusts are beautiful. Plus, I get to eat the extra pieces of raw dough after I cut all those strips.

As you can see from the photos, I didn’t wait for the pie to cool off completely before cutting a slice. If you’re impatient like me, you’ll get a warm, juicy piece of pie, with plump blueberries oozing out onto your plate. If you have patience and can wait until the pie cools completely, it will set up more and your slice of pie will be prettier than mine.

Regardless, it will be a wonderful piece of pie. And you will thank me.

Yield: Serves 8-10.

Blueberry Pie

You can use refrigerated pie crust instead of making your own, but be sure to use the roll-and-fill kind. If you choose not to do a lattice top, be sure to cut decorative holes in the top crust using a cookie cutter, or at least cut some vents in the top crust.

Ingredients:

1 cup packed light brown sugar
5 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
6 cups fresh blueberries or 3 (10 ounce) packages frozen blueberries (not thawed)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Pasty dough for a double-crust pie, such as this recipe (or 1 package of refrigerated, rolled pie crust dough)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:

Put a large baking sheet on middle oven rack and preheat oven to 425°F.

Whisk together brown sugar, tapioca, cinnamon, and allspice, and toss with blueberries and lemon juice in a large bowl. Set aside.

Roll out one piece of dough, keeping remaining piece chilled, on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round. Fit into pie plate. Trim excess dough, leaving a 1/2 inch overhang. Chill shell while rolling out dough for pie crust.

Roll out remaining dough on lightly floured surface with floured rolling pin. Using a ruler to measure, cut 1-inch strips out of the dough. Re-roll the dough and re-cut into 1-inch strips wiht any remaining dough. Chill in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.

Spoon filling with any accumulated juices into shell, dot with butter pieces, and layer with the top crust pieces, weaving into a lattice formation (tips below). Trim any overhanging crust to a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold top crust overhang under bottom pastry and press against rim of pie plate to reinforce edge, then crimp decoratively, using your fingers or the tines of a fork.

Bake pie on hot baking sheet in oven for 30 minutes, then cover edge of pie with a pie shield or foil to prevent overbrowning. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F and continue to bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 45 to 50 minutes more. Cool pie completely on a rack, about 4 hours.

Adapted from this recipe in Gourmet, August 2006.

Print

• How To Make A Lattice Top for A Pie Crust from Simply Recipes
• Latticed and Loony from Smitten Kitchen

One afternoon early last May, not long after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I received a phone call from Kim Severson. In the day or two prior, I had posted something on Twitter about Gulf Coast seafood, and she happened to see it. She was doing research for a story on the New York Times – this story – and she was interested in talking to home cooks in the southern states potentially affected by the spill. She contacted me and we set up a time to talk.

I can’t even describe the excitement I felt after our Twitter exchange. I was ecstatic. And nervous beyond belief.

That day in May, I had just picked up my daughter from her after-school program. Madeline and I had just buckled up, I started up my minivan (yes, it’s as glamorous as you might imagine), and my cell phone rang. I answered it, and with butterflies in my stomach, said hello to Kim Severson – a writer whose work I had admired for some time, and whose recent memoir I had just read.

And then Maddie decided to have a tantrum over a broken cookie.

I was mortified. I apologized profusely to Kim, knowing her time was valuable, and asked her to hold on for a second. It would have been great if I’d thought to put my phone on mute, because I have no idea what I yelled at Maddie in those next moments. I believe I even bribed my daughter with candy to get her to stop the screaming. What I do know is that when Maddie finally settled down, and when I put the phone back up to my ear, Kim was completely gracious and understanding. I think she actually got a kick out of it. She told me that, hearing Maddie screaming, she was reminded of her daughter.

Making connections with people like Kim Severson has been one of the real highlights of this food blogging experience. Had I not been cooking and writing about food, our conversation never would have happened.

Kim Severson’s memoir, Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life, came out last April, and I read it cover to cover within a matter of days. Not only is Kim an excellent journalist, but she’s a wonderful storyteller. The story she writes is of her relationship with eight women and their kitchens. She writes honestly about her relationship with alcohol, her path of becoming a food writer, and of learning lessons from a series of women cooks – including Leah Chase, Rachel Ray, Ruth Reichl, and Marcella Hazan. And though the book deals with serious issues and draws you in emotionally, she writes with her signature sense of humor, making it a pleasure to read.

Spoon Fed comes out in paperback on Tuesday, March 1st. However you read it – paperback, hardcover, or on a Kindle – I recommend reading it. It’s completely worth your time and money, and when you’re done with the book, you’ll feel like you’ve made a friend. I sure did. And when I met Kim in person in Birmingham at Food Blog South, the hug we gave each other reinforced that feeling.

Kim’s hardcover edition maintains a spot on my bookshelf, next to Ruth Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires and Amanda Hesser’s Cooking for Mr. Latte. Thanks to Riverhead Books, I was given an advance copy of the new paperback Spoon Fed to review, and since I’ve already read it, I’d love to share this copy with one of you.

In the comments, I’d love to hear about a cook who taught you a life lesson or who made an impression on you in some way. On Monday evening, March 7th, I’ll use random.org to select a winner, and I’ll ship – at my expense – my review copy of Spoon Fed to that person.

Giveaway rules: A review copy of Spoon Fed was provided to me by Riverhead Books. Comments will be open until Monday 3/7/2011 at 12 noon EST. Only one comment per person, please – duplicates will be deleted – and winner will be chosen at random using random.org on Monday 3/7/2011. Since I’m shipping the book at my expense, open to residents of the US and Canada only.