Baking Catch 22

Have you all had those strawberry preserves that people make using figs and strawberry jello? You can't tell it's made of figs; you think it is 100% strawberries in that jar, right down to the seeds. Well, I had a little half-pint (quarter-pint?) of gigantic blackberries that I purchased at Winn Dixie last weekend. I thought Penny might could have them, but they turned out to have a lot of seeds. I decided to try to find a recipe in which to use them, but there really weren't enough to do anything with - until I found a pie recipe for apple/blackberry pie. The trick is that you basically fill up your pie with apple slices and mix in a handful of blackberries (one or two cups, whatever you've got really). The relatively small amount of blackberries completely infuses the apples with blackberry flavor and it tastes like it is totally a blackberry pie. You can't taste the apples at all (not that it would be bad if you could). What a great way to get a lot of mileage out of a few blackberries. It is an awesome pie. It makes me wish I had twice as many blackberries -- but, then, if I did I would never have had a reason to make this pie.