Patriotic Pie!

For the filling:
30 oz. red pitted cherries in juice
15 oz. blueberries in juice
3 tablespoons gelling agent (tapioca, corn starch, etc.)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon margarine or butter
dash salt

For the crust:
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 butter/margarine/shortening
dash salt
3 tablespoons ice water

1. Mix the flour and salt for the crust, slowly work in the shortening. Once shortening is mixed OK, add the three tablespoons ice water and continue to mix with hands. Once it is smooth and dough-like, set it aside in the refrigerator for later.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
3. Drain the cherries and blueberries, but save 1/2 cup of each juice!
4. Combine the juices (1 cup), the gelling agent, sugar, margarine and salt in a pot and cook over medium heat. Once thick and bubbly, let cook for one minute more. Remove from heat and separate out 1/4 of the mixture.
5. In the 1/4 of the mixture, add the blueberries; in the 3/4 of the mixture, add the cherries. Stir and let cool.
6. Roll the pie crust out and place in pie-pan, leaving a little bit for decorating the top. With the remaining crust, use your best artistic skills to create some stars and stripes.
7. Once the mixtures are cooled, try to place the blueberries in 1/4 of the pie and the cherries in the other 3/4. Then, add the stars to the blueberries and the stripes to the cherries.
8. Bake for 35-45 minutes until crust is brown.


[My first pie before cooking]

I'll admit that this recipe is not quite perfected, since when I did the blueberries and cherries separately, the blueberries did not congeal properly. In the second pie, when I completely mixed them, it did congeal, but didn't give a good distinction between the stars and the stripes.


[The first pie, half cherry half blueberry after baking.]

But, the stripes should also reach all the way out to the edges, perhaps just for aesthetics sake.


[The second pie, more stars and stripes like, but the stripes are a little strange]

All in all, both the pies were well-received. I really would like to perfect the recipe, but I'm not sure there is any other holiday where this pie is appropriate! If improvements are made, there will be updates.


[Me with the final product!]