Happy Thanksgiving! Blueberry Pie Bars

I am so thankful to have a man that takes care of us. A roof over our head. That our health is on the up and up. And that I don't have to cook a whole Thanksgiving dinner! This year we were invited to Hubby's cousins home an hour East about. And I never come empty handed. So I decided to try a recipe I saw on Pinterest for Blueberry Pie Bars. Yum!!


A recipe that uses one mix for both the crust and topping?! I had to jump on this train. It was so easy. Be sure to not mix things too much. And stick the topping in the fridge till you need it if it's warm in your home. The whole point is to keep your butter chilled till baking.



This was a perfect idea for Thanksgiving! I baked it up in the prefect brownie pan and got 16 pieces but left them in the pan and made sure not to cut through completely (there was 18 but I ate two, shh!!). Once they cooled I put the whole thing in the fridge over night to set up. This morning I unmolded it and cut the 16 in half each so 32 pieces ready to go, bite size!

Here's what it looked like once it was out of the oven all golden brown. I probably cooked it an extra 30 minutes because I'm always paranoid about undercooking my food. I'm just thankful it wasn't burnt!

The original recipe from Life's Simple Measures

And here's how I did it

Ingredients:

Crust and Topping:

1 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. whole wheat flour

3/4 c. sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

3/4 c. unsalted butter, chilled and cubed

Filling:

2 large eggs

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. sour cream

3/8 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

splash of lemon juice

16 oz. fresh blueberries

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease your brownie pan (8x8 etc) with non stick cooking spray; set aside.
2. In the food processor, combine the first four ingredients. Add the butter cubes slowly, processing until the butter is evenly distributed but the mixture is still crumbly.
3. Reserve 1-1/2 cups of the mixture for the topping; set aside.  Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.
4. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, mix in the next five ingredients.  Gently fold in blueberries.  Pour over the crust and sprinkle the reserved topping mixture evenly over the filling.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until top turns golden brown.  Cool 1 hour. Cut carefully and serve or cool over night in the fridge and cut. Enjoy!

I used the frozen blueberries from Cooperstown earlier this summer and it was delicious! I also used up leftover cinnamon sugar from an earlier project. It was only 1/4 cup and it barely made a difference ^_^ Probably I should have mixed it with the topping only. And I splashed a little lemon juice in the filling too.

Let me know if you make it and what changes you'd make!
xo,
Bri

Updates

**This blog was written before "son rise". While researching how to clean the stench from vintage luggage, closing a third gmail account, and crocheting.

Updates. They make me crazy! Why does the world have to move so fast? Don't people miss not knowing everything about everyone else? And then Pinterest comes along and nobody can keep up with the Joneses anymore. It's like Americans are losing their mind from all of these social updates. Make it stop!

And then she unplugged the laptop and lived happily ever after. 3000 miles away from her newborn niece and happy family. And her and her son and hubby did not concern themselves with what people ate. Or how anyone else felt. They focused only on each other, and loved it. They missed out on who went where and with whom. And as it was an election year they missed out on the bombardment of political propaganda. Since they never spoke ill of any U.S. President, present or former, they were elated. They missed out on the best photographed blogs and feeling like they weren't doing enough things for their family and home.

End dream sequence.

I have to unplug. For the safety of my family AND the sanity of myself. But I'll still be back. It'll just be scheduled. Like when you used to go to the library. You wouldn't spend all day there willy nilly... Ok, some of us actually did. Bad example. um.. The Dmv? Only more distracting? Or Ikea? haha. That is what the internet is like to me. Ikea, the dmv, the library, everything and more all wrapped up into one laptop.

So, for now I think every other day will be internet free. On my phone too. Well, no social update apps.  No Pinterest or Safari. Only camera, text, phone/facetime. AND ETSY of course.

It feels like every time I check my phone I'm saying "son this is more important than you".
I have goals dangit! And these updates are delivering too much pressure. Being a perfectionist doesn't help. I feel like, no matter what I do for my family that it's not enough, that I could be doing more and better and healthier and prettier and made from scratch and all natural and home grown etc etc. Slow the train down. *sigh*
That's not fair to me. I shouldn't feel that way. And I don't blame the internet. I blame myself. But instead of throwing a pity party I'm here organizing my thoughts and a plan of action. Now I have to go and put that in effect.

The son is up. Today internet. Tomorrow not. See ya!