Fresh Blueberry Pie with Cinnamon Almond Crust

Variation E

Performance Photos


Blueberry pie will forever be held in the lore of the Burgund family due to the debatably innocent, but certainly hilarious, behavior of my sister way back in the late 1970s. You’ll have to listen to Variation E to hear the full story, but suffice it to say that if you are at all susceptible to the humor that unintentionally lies in kid’s behavior, you will enjoy it. To this day, no one can so much as mention blueberry pie without me getting a grin on my face. It think this is what is so amazing about the experience of food together as a family. Nightly dinners together as a group, shared likes and dislikes, incessant complaints about culinary skill, you name it, all provide a pretty amazing glue in a family, I think.

In my case, the blueberry pie story will always reign supreme, but what I learned by interviewing people for this piece, was that most families have their own blueberry pie. It might not be funny; it might be serious, mundane or even scary, but it seems that there is something about the rote activites of survival that when done habitually as a group effect people deeply.

I'm hoping that my sister forgives me for publicizing her evil-doings!