A Slice of Heaven

I used to think that I loved slices because of pizza, but in reality I love slices of food in general. For example, a slice of greek pizza and a slice of blueberry pie make up my favorite dinner and dessert! See below for recipes.

I made these two pies during one long hot cooking session. First start with your pizza crust then make your pie crust.

Pizza crust:
1. 1 1/2 cups of flour
2. a pinch of salt
3. 1 packet of instant yeast
4. 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
5. 1/2 cup of hot water
6. Mix
7. Cover and let rise while you make your pie

Mom's never fail pie crust recipe:
1.  4 cups of flour
2. 1 teaspoon of baking powder
3. 1 teaspoon of salt
4. 1 tablespoon sugar
5. 1 3/4 cup Crisco
6. 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
7. 1 egg
8. 1/2 cup of cold water
9. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Mix together the dry ingredients then cut in the Crisco. Don't substitute store brand shortening for the Crisco, it might be more expensive but it is totally worth it. Mix together the cold water and apple cider vinegar, then whisk in the egg.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until your pie crust forms a large ball. Separate into 3 equal parts. Each 1/3 is a double pie crust. My mom uses this crust for sweet and savory pies, so I recommend dusting with cinnamon and sugar if it is a sweet pie!

Rollout a top and a bottom for the pie. Put the bottom crust in your pie plate and set the top aside for a few minutes.

The next step is to make the pie filling. For a blueberry pie mix 4 cups of blueberries, 1/2 - 3/4 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup of cornstarch together. As a side note, blueberry pies call for more cornstarch than a berry berry pie, which only uses about 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.

Put your pie filling in your pie crust and put your top crust over the berries. Use your fingers to close the two crusts together. Make sure that the top is firmly attached to the bottom crust to avoid any blueberry juice from spilling out into your oven.

Sprinkle the top of your pie with cinnamon and sugar and cover with foil. Cook your pie for 25 minutes with the foil on and then cook for an additional 30 minutes without the foil. Let your pie rest overnight or until it comes to room temperature, before you cut into it. Enjoy!

Now that you are salivating over pie and cannot control your appetite anylonger, make your pizza!

Greek Pizza - inspired by pizza eaten with Anna Kovaliv on the island of Santorini!
1. Press out your pizza dough onto a pizza stone or baking sheet.
2. Coat your crust with a thin layer of olive oil. The olive oil traps the heat from below down to your crust so your crust is nice and crisp and brown! This makes a big difference in how your crust cooks.
3. Use your favorite red sauce. For this recipe I like red sauce with garlic.
4. Top with feta, halved grape tomatoes, onion, green pepper and kalamata olives if the mood strikes.
5. Cook at 425 degrees for 15 - 25 minutes depending on your oven. My old oven only took 15 minutes to make my pizza, but my aunt's oven takes almost 25 minutes to cook the same pizza!

Enjoy!!!