It all started with the new issue of Cook’s Magazine, Summer Grilling & Entertaining.  I picked this magazine up at the grocery store, thinking it might give me some ideas for a dinner party I was planning.  Did it ever.  Like the good Weight Watcher that I am, I decided to begin with dessert.

The recipe is called Easy Summer Berry Pie, and calls for two baskets each of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.  Yup, that is six baskets of berries.  At $3.99 a basket, this dessert could really put a dent in the weekly food budget (mmm hmmm, it sure did).  Only pausing for a moment, I decided I was in for the long haul.  I brought these beautiful berries home and put them in a colander and rinsed them all off.  The sight of those colors together and the anticipation of making them into a pie was worth the price of admission, don’t you agree?

Using the food processor, I put together a simple graham cracker crust, and while it baked, filling my kitchen with the most delicious toasty aroma, I worked on the pie filling.  The first step was to puree two and half cups of the berries in the processor, then smoosh the puree through a wire strainer into a sauce pan.  This took a few minutes, and a bit of elbow grease.  Those raspberry seeds are pretty stubborn and tend to block the wire mesh, and scraping and pressing is required to get the puree to squish through the strainer.  Once you render a cup or so of seedless puree, you add in some sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch to thicken up the mixture over medium heat on the range top.  Once it is pudding like in consistency, you set the puree aside to cool.  Toss the remaining berries with a couple tablespoons of melted red current jelly, fill the cooled crust with the puree, then the whole berries, and you are *done*!  Isn’t it the prettiest thing ever?