Blueberry-Raspberry Pie and a Day Off?

Today was to be my day off, but the weather was crappy enough that I went into town around noon and worked until 4. Was sure nice to sleep in though. I didn't wake up until 7:18 and then read for about 45 minutes and fell back to sleep to not awake until 9:15 am. It was wonderful and something I never do. I am usually an early bird and waking up at 5:30 is not unusual.

Sometimes at work, we are plagued by old accession numbers. We have been have some youth workers do an inventory and they frequently find items with old catalog numbers. These items seemed to have no direct corresponding number to our museum cataloging system, which is PastPerfect. Today we had a few numbers like that so I went on a search to find the book that may have those artifacts cataloged and I found it! No more stumbling in the dark wondering who, where, what and when they became part of the collection.

The nice thing was that we noticed that the last number was the number of the year the item were received so we can now go forward and give them a number like the ones we are presently using, which follows recommended cataloging criteria. This means that we use the year first, give a number to the donor, and each artifact is numbered following a 1,2,3, pattern. An example of this is the following. Say you gave us a a donation in 2009 and were the 10th person to do so. We skip the first three numbers so that we can use those numbers for unknown, anonymous, and staff donated items. An example would then be 2009.10.1 for the first item you gave us. If we ever needed to clarify the object, manuscript, etc, we can then go to database in PastPerfect and find the item and we would know who donated it and what year. Prior to 2003 we used a different system where we did consecutive numbering from 1 to 12000 plus. The pattern we use now makes so much more sense and is so much easier to use when cataloging. We use the universal nomenclature to identify an object. We love the PastPerfect program, the new program has wonderful amenities. The search program is very easy to use and we have started adding photos to the photo area so when we go through them we are able to know instantly what they look like. There is lots to do but we are getting to the point where we will be able to have all photos attached to the file.

At our local supermarkets, blueberries have been in abundance for the last two years. Each summer I purchase extra cartons and freeze some. A large peanut butter jar is a wonderful way to do this. They stay dry and don't get the frost in the jar very easily and they freeze well. In the evening when we want some ice cream or frozen yogurt I will add a few of the blueberries to the treat. They are just as good frozen as fresh!

Today I decided to make a blueberry-raspberry pie. I improvised a recipe from Betty's Pies.

Blueberry-Raspberry Pie

Preheat oven to 375 for 50 minutes

Two ready made pie crusts (leave on counter for about 1/2 hour prior to using.) Roll one crust about 2 inches larger than pie pan and place in pie pan.

Pie filling
3 containers of blueberries, two containers of raspberries. Place in large bowl and mix together.

1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients together and pour over berries and fold in well. Pour berry mixture into pie pan and dot with about 4 tablespoons of butter.

Take other pie crust roll out a little and cut designs near the center with small cookie cutters. Place on top of pie and seal edge.

Bake 50 minutes. Let set for several hours before you cut into pie so it can set.
Enjoy!

What a "sweet" way to end a great day!