Blueberries and boiled peanuts

[BamaGirl]

Odd combo in the subject line, sorry lol! My neighbor gave me a big bag of frozen blueberries and a bag of frozen boiled peanuts today.

I love hot boiled peanuts. I put these in the fridge to thaw out, but do you think they're ok to eat? I've never heard of anyone freezing them before. Think I can microwave them? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

I going to make a pie with the blueberries. I'll search my cookbooks for recipes tomorrow. I think I'm going to try my own crust for this, so if anyone has a fool-proof method I'd appreciate tips. (I'm a disaster at bread so I'm kind of reluctant to try my own pie crust lol.)

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. Microwave just a few of the peanuts

See if they're OK to eat. My guess is that they'll be fine. Use the "warm" setting, maybe?

I love raw peanuts. Raw cashews, too. So much better than roasted.

[NMDemDist2]

2. pie crusts, use ICE COLD water. that's my granny's trick for flaky crust

don't see how boiled peanuts can go bad :shrug:

[Dora]

3. "Irene's Fool-Proof Pie Crust"

I got this recipe from my stepdad who got it from my stepsister. I have no idea who Irene is.

1/2 C shortening (I prefer palm oil shortening because it's trans-fat free)
2 sticks butter
3 cups flour
1/2 t salt
1 egg
6 tablespoons ice cold water (I fill a glass with ice and set it out to melt as I work)
1 t vinegar


Have all your ingredients as cold as possible. I freeze my butter and cut it into small pieces before using it. Cut the butter and shortening into the flour/salt. I use my cheapo food processor to do this. It's messy but it does the job well. I stop when the mixture looks pretty evenly crumbly, but there may still be some larger pieces of butter/fat.

Mix together the egg, vinegar, and water, and then add it to the flour/butter mixture. You may want to use your hands to do the mixing. If so, rub an ice cube between them for a minute in order to keep your body heat from melting the butter in the mix.

The mix will come together, and don't worry too much about overworking it, because this recipe doesn't easily get tough.

Roll out on a large, floured tea towel. Keep your pin floured too.

This recipe makes enough for a large two-crust pie, or two lattice-topped pies, or three smaller single-crust pies. You'll likely have dough left over - I use that to make sugar pie.