Patriotic Pie & Lemon Blueberry Buckle

On Monday we lazed around our house most of the day watching a Roseanne marathon on Oxygen (don't judge). Later in the day we were due at the home of friends for dinner. I had wanted to make an actual-real-from scratch cherry pie for awhile and the 4th of July seemed as perfect a day as any to make it. Since we don't get sour cherries around these parts I used the sweet cherry pie recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I used the butter-based pie dough recipe too. I feel like I worked the dough a little too much and it chewier than it should have been. The pie turned out well but it didn't slice up into neat triangles since there was no gelatinous goo to hold the cherries together. I attempted to use a USA shaped cookie cutter for the vent in the center. It looked somewhat abstract but most everyone knew what it was supposed to be. 

I have a lot of cookbooks, most of them are baking-themed, and I'm trying to do better about using them. Over the weekend I pulled out Rustic Fruit Desserts and made the Lemon Blueberry Buckle recipe. It was very, very good. I did manage to accidentally caramelize the lemon syrup but it didn't diminish the overall taste. If have access to blueberries you need to make this. You also might consider doubling the crumb topping - just a suggestion...