Although I love to bake, I only started baking pies recently, and my attempt at a homemade blueberry pie was only my second-ever attempt at a  baking a pie at all. It was such a success that I can’t wait to try it again.

I pulled a recipe from my favorite recipe site, Spark Recipes, and picked up ingredients from the store. I was impressed at how basic the ingredients list was for the pie. Here’s what it called for:

3/4 cup white sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
1 tablespoon butter
1 tsp fat free milk
1 tsp raw sugar

I had most of the ingredients at home already, so I snagged fresh blueberries and headed home to experiment with my very first blueberry pie!

I cheated a little bit this time, using a crust mix instead of making my crust from scratch. I assure you I’ll learn to make my own crusts soon, too, but a girl’s gotta start somewhere, and this time the box mix seemed to be the way to go.

The directions were simple enough to start…

Wash and pick through fresh blueberries.

In a small bowl mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour over cleaned blueberries.

Use refrigerated pie crust and line pie plate. Pour blueberry mixture into crust. Divide butter into small pieces and scatter over berries.

Blueberry Pie in the Making, photo by MilliGFunk

The directions from here were to:

Add second pie crust to top pie. Be sure to crimp and seal two crusts together. Cut several small slits in top crust. Brush top crust lightly with milk and sprinkle with a teaspoon of raw sugar.

I found that I could have used a bit more than two crusts to make the dough spread far enough to use as a bottom and top crust. I made it work though,  placing my (fingers crossed) masterpiece in the oven as directed.

Bake 40-50 minutes on lowest rack.

I use Pampered Chef stoneware when I bake, and I can’t recommend it (or another brand of stoneware) enough for baking. Stoneware bakes your food much more evenly than metal or glass containers do, and it keeps the food warmer longer, as well.

45 mintes later, my entire cabin smelled like cinnamon and blueberries, and my mouth watered as I pulled my first blueberry pie out of the oven.

Blueberry Pie, photo by MilliGFunk

The directions said to Chill for 2 hours before serving. Yeah right.

Call me gluttonous, but there was no way I could wait two hours to taste my pie. It’s possible that I waited two minutes before sampling the steaming hot, delectable goodness that was my first blueberry pie, but it’s not likely. My guess is that it was less than a minute before I broke the crust with my fork and discovered that my first blueberry pie was just as great as it smelled.

It’s blueberry season in Missouri, so if you’re looking for a place to snag some fresh blueberries for your summer baking, check out Liberty Farms between Farmington and Fredericktown, Missouri on Highway OO.

The last email newsletter I received from them said that opening day is today for blueberry picking, so what are you waiting for? Pick some blueberries and get to baking! Still not convinced? Check out this post I wrote in 2010 about how much fun I had on my first time picking blueberries.

Find this recipe on Spark Recipes

After the March Race to the Rocker 4-mile run, my mom and I enjoyed lunch at the Back in the Day Cafe with a Cuba native named Jane. Jane had offered to give us a tour of Cuba’s fantastic murals, but first, we needed lunch. Back the Day Cafe sits in one of the Cuba Historic Preservation Commission’s official historic buildings.

Immediately inside the restaurant door sits a long, pink buffet used for Sunday brunch. Behind it is one of Cuba’s unofficial murals depicting a young girl, an adult farmer, and rolling Missouri farmland.

On the opposite side of the cafe is another large mural depicting women making bread and cake:

The cafe serves soups, sandwiches, bakery items, sodas, coffee and teas. I’m not sure exactly what the Sunday brunch or lunch options are, but if the sandwich and fruit bowl I ordered are any indication, the other meals at the Cafe probably taste good and are reasonably priced.

The Back in the Day Cafe is located at 615 East Main Street in Cuba, Missouri and can be reached by phone at 573-885-0122.

Amelia

I’ve written in the past about Cuba, Missouri, a central Missouri town with a population that just tops 3,000 people. Cuba is home to the World’s Largest Rocking Chair, which I blogged about in the Summer of 2009.  As a fledgling runner and an explorer of all things small town Missouri, I was ecstatic to learn that Cuba is also home to a 4-mile road race each March which ends at the giant rocker.

Another thing that Cuba is home to is a collection of really nice outdoor murals. CubaMoMurals.com is a website devoted to all things Cuba, including the town’s public art. One of the site’s writers (who also happens to write for the local paper), Jane, discovered Small Town Girl’s Guide when I posted prior to the Race to the Rocker. Jane introduced herself to me via email and offered to give me a personal tour of the Cuba murals following the race.

War

What followed was a lovely day spent with Jane driving my mom and I around town, telling us the histories of murals, buildings, and even the people of Cuba. Even now, I’m touched that she’s passionate enough about her own small town to take this small town girl on a several-hour tour.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll write about as much of that day as possible.  I took dozens of pictures, and Jane shared countless stories with me. If you like small towns, or if you like public art, I think you’ll like reading my upcoming posts on Cuba.

Historic Route 66

As a case in point, here I am lacing my running shoes:

The morning brought 40 degree temps and a strong wind. Despite the cool air, I think I speak for most of the runners when I say that I was content with wind and low temps in exchange for a lack of rain (which was impending that day).

A very cold Small Town Girl, pre-race:

I’m infamous in my circle of friends for having cold hands no matter the outside temps, so forgetting to wear gloves wasn’t good for me. The windy 40-degree day in Cuba left my hands beet red.

2010 was only the second annual race, but already the race has grown in popularity. According to Big River Running’s race results, there were 155 finishers in 2009 and a whopping 433 in 2010 (JOG, Inc. had set its goal participation at 300 runners).

According to the Cuba Mural Project blog, the race raised $12,800 for the Cuba high school track program. In addition, 650 pair of shoes were donated for Shoes4Souls, a Nashville-based nonprofit supported locally in Cuba by Hayes Family Shoe Store.

Race to the Rocker is organized by JOG (Joggers of God), Inc. and proceeds benefit the Cuba High School Track team. To read more about my experiences with Race to the Rocker and the World’s Largest Rocking Chair, click on the following links:

Previous post on Race to the Rocker

Summer 2009 post on the World’s Largest Rocking Chair

Cuba Mural Project Post about my post about Race to the Rocker

Cuba Mural Project’s most recent post, including a photo of me (look for the royal blue sweatshirt).

Happy Humpday.

Crossing the Courtois

Two weeks ago I set out to hike the Ozark Trail from Onondaga Cave State Park to the Narrows Trail Head. This section of the Courtois (pronounced code-a-way) Section of the Ozark Trail is considered mile 0-7.6, and fair warning: it involves a “creek” crossing that’s more like a river expedition. For the full story, you should pick up the April issue of River Hills Traveler, but the short story is this: The Courtois Creek is not just a creek – it’s a large creek. It’s a creek that, on a map, looks roughly the same width as the Meremac River.

I can imagine that crossing the Courtois in the heat of Missouri summer would have felt great…refreshing…awesome. Crossing the creek in early March on a 40-degree day was chilly…bitter…freezing. The first five miles or so of the hike – from Onondaga Cave State Park to the Courtois Creek – wasn’t bad. The highest elevation was approximately 900 feet, and much of the trail was wide and gravel-covered. There were some fun rock formations and cliffs, and even a few small springs and caves. There’s a beautiful pine glade several miles into the hike that would make a lovely picnic spot, but beware that in the late summer months, there are also spiders as big as your head. *** I estimate that I’ve now hiked somewhere around 45 miles of the Ozark Trail’s 350 total miles. Fore more posts about my Ozark Trail adventures, see my Ozark Trail page. For longer, print stories on my Ozark Trail expeditions, pick up the February or April issues of River Hills Traveler.

Okay, that’s not true at all. I didn’t win the Race to the Rocker, but let me tell you a story about the guy who did…

Cuba, Missouri’s Race to the Rocker ends at the World’s Largest Rocking Chair, adjacent to which sits the Fanning Outpost, a quirky general store where customers can potentially purchase everything from a taxidermied bobcat to round of archery to a cold Pepsi.

When the race ended, my mom and I walked into the Outpost to try to warm up a bit. As Small Town Girl’s official photographer, my mom began telling me about the shots she’d gotten during the race. ”I don’t know if you’ll want it or not, but I took a photo of the man who won the race today,” she told me.

“That depends” I teased, “Is he cute, buff and single?”

She thought for a second before commenting on just how fit the winning runner was. Having seen a gentleman who matched a similar description near the finish line a few minutes before, I wondered if it was the same person.

“Was he the one with the really big arms?” I asked.

“He was definitely built,” she answered.

“It’s unusual to see a runner with such big arms and shoulders,” I commented. “It seems like usually the fast runners are lean, but on the skinny side.

Mom said, “his picture is on your camera – I wonder if it’s the same guy?” I found the picture of the winning runner crossing the finish line in a white sleeveless running shirt and blue shorts.

As I was looking at the picture of the man on my camera, I realized I was in the way of a costumer perusing the sweatshirts on the shelf behind me. I apologized for not getting out of his way sooner, and my mom and I continued to jabber, teasingly, about the cute runner who’d won today’s race. Wearing a Mizzou hat and a black long-sleeved shirt, the man nodded at my apology and continued to examine the Route 66 goods for sale immediately beside me in the Outpost.

Fast forward twenty minutes or so.

I was taking pictures of the awards ceremony when the overall race winners were announced. You can imagine my absolute and utter horror when the winner of the race, who’d donned a Mizzou cap and a black long-sleeved shirt over his white running tank and blue shorts since finishing the race, stepped up to accept his award.

So, man who won today’s Race to the Rocker, if you happened to overhear my mom and I talking about whether you’re cute, buff and single, please know that while I don’t embarrass easily, I’m pretty much mortified right about now.

For a real race recap, come back in a day or so. For more pictures and posts about Cuba, Missouri, check back often this week!

***

Previous post on Race to the Rocker

Summer 2009 post on the World’s Largest Rocking Chair

Cuba Mural Project Post about my post about Race to the Rocker

Cuba, Missouri, home of the largest rocking chair in the world (which I blogged about last summer), has a 4-mile road race that ends at the giant rocking chair. The race will be held on March 27th, 2010.

@meghoulihan @jenn_if_er and @soleilune have been my inspiration lately as I’ve started training for my first half marathon. I ran four miles for the first time last Monday, and I ran five for the first time last night.

I see LOTS of road races in St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, but most of the small town, MO races are 1-mile fun runs or 5Ks. The Race to the Rocker is so totally up my ally…

I mean seriously – It’s a road race in a small central Missouri town that ends at a 40-foot rocking chair. It doesn’t get much better than that. So am I gonna run it? Absolutely.

Race to the Rocker, here I come.

***

To see my Summer 2009 post on the World’s Largest Rocking Chair, click here.

For more information on Race to the Rocker, click here.

To download a Race to the Rocker registration form, click here.

Are you interested in running the Race to the Rocker? Let me know so that we can meet before or after the race!