Spring is my second favorite time of the year — just behind fall. The fruits and veggies are amazing and everything outside is fresh and new.

In late spring/early summer you can find an abundance of blueberries. We have friends who go to a local blueberry patch and pick their bounty each year. I haven’t had the chance to do this yet, but I hope to in 2015.

The hubs and my father LOVE blueberry pie in the peak of the season. That is the most requested pie I ever get from them. I really enjoy watching their faces as they bite into the scrumptious sweetness and flakey goodness of pie.

I’m not much of a recipe follower. I use them as guides and then attempt to do my own thing depending on my personal taste. I often find that I’m not actually that inventive, someone (like Ina Garten in this instance) actually has a similar recipe. That’s okay, I’m thrilled to know that we have similar tastes in this area. I mean come on – Ina Garten is fabulous!

Here is my recipe:

Note: I don’t make my own piecrusts. I will at some point, but these days I don’t have the attention span to do it correctly so I buy them from Pillsbury. Don’t judge me.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups blueberries, washed and picked through
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup of all purpose flour
• Juice of 1 lemon
• ¼ cup of real butter
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon course sugar (or regular sugar reserved from above)

Instructions:

In a bowl, mix together the blueberries through the lemon juice. Be careful not to break the delicate skins of the blueberries.

Roll out one of the piecrusts on a floured surface and place it into a deep pie dish. Pour the blueberry mixture into the piecrust and smooth out with a spatula. Sprinkle the lemon zest over the blueberries evenly. Cut the butter into 1-tablespoon sections and place them all over the top of the blueberries.

Roll out the second piecrust and place it over the top of the pie. Fold the edges under the first crust and crimp all the way around. Cut little holes in the top of the dough around the center for steam to escape. If you are kind of adventurous, you can cut out shapes before placing the top crust on the pie (see picture). If you are really adventurous, you can make a lattice on the top.

Coat the entire top of the pie with a brush dipped in the milk and sprinkle with course sugar. You don’t have to do this step, but it gives a nice shimmer to the top of the pie when it is finished cooking. It’s the little extra steps that make your presentation extra special.

I like to cut three strips of aluminum foil and place them around the edge of the crust so it doesn’t get burned during baking. There are also pie rings that you can purchase that will do the same thing. If you use the foil, make sure you coat the side that goes on the crust with a little cooking spray.

Bake the pie for one hour at 325. When the pie is cooked, let sit for at least an hour for everything to set up before serving.