Raspberry Pie & A Winter Seed Giveaway

Between work, Jeremy, and the five million side projects I have going on at any given point in time, sometimes weeks end up going by before I make the time to hang out with my girlfriends. My friend Alana and I were talking about this a few weeks back and decided to do a ladies' gathering once a month. We all signed up to host it one month out of the year, but since there aren't twelve of us there were some empty months, including this one. So, I suggested we go raspberry picking, and a-raspberry picking did we go! We drove up to Oak Glen, a beautiful and scenic community that is filled with field after field of apple orchards which they harvest in the fall, but in the late summer they have small crops of various fruits for u-picking, including raspberries. Before the picking we had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, ever. It is called the Hawk's Head Public House and it is a colonial-themed restaurant where the waiters dress like it's 1782 and all the food is made from scratch and completely amazing. For a simultaneous founding fathers and foodie nerd like myself, it's pretty much the best place to eat ever (niche geekdom forever!!!). Afterwards, we went to Snow Line Orchards and filled up 3 pints each of fresh raspberries, then after exhausting ourselves having labored in the fruit fields for a full 50 minutes, we munched on a bag of their tasty apple cider mini-doughnuts and inhaled their homemade apple cider under the shade of a large oak tree. For our final pit stop we pulled into Mom's Country Orchards, which is my absolute favorite jam shop in the world. They have almost every kind of seasonal jam, jelly, or preserve you can think of, and they're all home made. So, of course, I left with 16 ounces of fresh Tangelo Marmalade (so zippy and light for a jelly!). The next morning I set about making a raspberry pie and came out with this little number. Sweet, fresh, with a slight tang from the lemon juice & zest, and warm and cinnamon-y. Just the way a summer pie should taste.

Click Here For Printable Version

Also, since fall is nearly upon us, I am having another seed giveaway! Yes, I ordered many different winter seeds and once again my eyes are bigger than my yard, so either I share the wealth or let the tiny seeds wither away in my desk drawer, which would just be sad. I will be giving away about 5 of all of the following plant seeds:

• Green Broccoli
• Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli
• Catskill Brussels Sprouts
• Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach
• Glory of Enkhuizen Cabbage
• Red Leaf Lettuce
• Kale
• Bush Buttercup Squash
• White Acorn Squash
• Long of Naples Squash
• Queensland Blue Squash
  
• Baby Blue Hubbard Squash
• Delicata Squash
• Shishigatani Squash
• Butternut Rogosa Violina Gioia Squash
• Seminole Pumpkin
• Beet (mix of varieties)
• Atomic Red Carrot

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below about your favorite vegetable-based fall or winter dish. For extra entries, you can:

• Subscribe to Adventures In Cooking Posts (in either of the "Subscribe" via email or rss boxes in the column to your right)
• Follow me on Twitter & leave a separate comment on this post saying you did
  
• Like Adventures in Cooking on Facebook & leave a separate comment on this post saying you did
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• Follow me on Instagram @eva_kosmas & leave a separate comment on this post saying you did

If you already do any of those things, just leave a separate comment on this post saying you do. The deadline for entries is 11:59 pm PST September 9th, and the winner will be announced September 10th. Only open to United States or Canadian residents.

Click Here For Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Raspberry Filling

2 Pints Raspberries
6 Tablespoons Corn Starch
1 Cup Sugar

2 Tablespoons Honey

1 Tablespoon Chopped Fresh Basil

2 Teaspoons Lemon Juice
1 Teaspoon Grated Lemon Zest
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cloves

Flakey Cinnamon Crust

2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Butter, very cold

6-8 Tablespoons of Ice Water

2 Teaspoons Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon

First, make the crust. Mix together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut the butter into pea-sized pieces over the bowl, or pulse together using a food processor. Add the ice water, a tablespoon at a time, mixing with a wooden spoon rather than your hand to help keep the dough cool, until fairly well mixed (it's okay if there's still some small blobs of butter). Grab a handful of the dry crumbly dough mixture and squeeze. If it holds together you don't need to add anymore water. Roll out into two circles 1 cm thick onto a well-greased and well-floured surface, then cover and refrigerate them.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. To make the filling, simply mix together all of the ingredients in a large bowl, crushing the raspberries with the end of your wooden spoon, until well blended. Grease and lightly flour a 9-inch pan with about a 2-inch height. Place one of the dough circles in the pan, pressing the crust into the bottom of the pan. Pour in the filling, then place the second dough circle on top of the pie. Press the crust together with your thumb around the edges of the pan, then trim off any extra dough hanging off the sides with a sharp knife.

Cut several slits in the center of the top layer of pie crust to allow any air inside the pie to escape while it's cooking. Place in the oven and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. If the crust begins to brown too quickly, remove the pie from the oven, cover the crust in tin foil, and place it back in the oven. Allow to cool to room temperature until serving.