Summer Days... Raspberry Pie!

About a month ago now, I took on some house cleaning jobs. It's been interesting and enjoyable meeting new people and entering their homes in such a way.

One lady has several acres of land and probably at least 5-6 extravagant flower gardens, a bountiful vegetable garden, and a long row of black raspberry bushes on the south side of her property. She had told me recently that I was welcome to pick them when they became ripe enough. She mentioned that the birds and deer usually get to them first.

Just today I was amazed at how many had ripened since I was there just over a week ago. They weren't very big, but the did seem to be ripe. We (Amber and Clayton helped too) picked several today, and I had thought of how wonderful it would be to make a raspberry pie. It's been years since I've had one.

I guess I'll just go ahead and admit, it's been awhile since I've done anything so.... fulfilling to my culinary ambitions. (*smile) I make several types of cream pies, but I don't "do" fruit pies. My Mom makes an awesome apple pie, usually mainly for Amber- I think. Amber fell in love with it several years ago now. There will probably never be an apple pie like Mamaw's apple pie. Anyways, back to the raspberries... I wasn't even sure we had picked enough to make an 8" pie. I got them home, spent about 15 minutes looking each one of them over to make sure they were completely clean, rinsed them, and prepared them to cook. I even kind of felt good about my raspberry stained fingers and scratched arms! I cooked the raspberry filling and then had to let it cool for about an hour. What a process!! I felt like I was back in the olden days! Finally, it was all put together and I was able to bake it. And yes, I've been the only one to try to it so far!!! Dan didn't care for a piece. He's kind of a creature of habit, and raspberry pie isn't a habit. Ha! Clayton was a bit "iffy" about trying it. Oh well, this "Mother Hen" just ate a piece of homemade raspberry pie topped with ice cream, and it was absolutely scrumptious!!! Amber was on the phone and so I shared a bite of mine with her and she seemed to really enjoy it. I'm just hoping someone will come along for which I can share it, because I certainly don't need the whole pie!! Ha!

Here are some pictures. Don't let your mouth water too much. Ha!
I'm sure you won't when you see my fancy lattice work.
But, hey, I'm not well versed at this.

I really could have doubled the recipe for the raspberry filling, because there would have been room in my pie crust for another portion.