eyeball stew

Okay, so it's really the filling for a Concord grape pie that I made a few days ago. The insides of the grapes do have the firm but slimy look of eyeballs. Green alien eyeballs, maybe. This was my first attempt at grape pie, and I learned a few things:
1. It takes a long time to make. You have to squeeze out the insides of 3 cups of grapes (reserving the skins), then boil the insides to break down the pulp, then put the pulp/juice through a strainer to get rid of the seeds. I started to make the pie at 9 pm and was up until midnight (one of my rare late night baking impulses).
2. The filling, as my wise mother told me, is a lot like grape jelly. Her adjective to describe grape pie: "hideous." I enjoyed it for the freshness of the taste, and just that I got to eat something so deeply purple. It got me thinking that maybe I should attempt to make a peanut butter and jelly pie...peanut butter filling on the bottom, topped with this delicious grape filling. Or maybe just serve a peanut butter pie alongside this grape pie, so you can have a slice of each and eat them together.
3. Next time I will cut back on the sugar. The recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar per pie. I put in 3/4 cup. Next time I will do 1/2 cup.
4. My oven is a wreck. It looks like a grape jelly factory exploded in there. I tried my best to put a cookie sheet under the drippy pies, but they found a way to drip outside of the sheet. Thank goodness I have a self-cleaning oven.

Here's the final products (one for us, one to share at work), followed by the recipe (taken directly from Simply in Season). My recipe notes are in parentheses.

Grape Pie
3 cups Concord-type grapes (skins removed and saved)
In saucepan simmer pulp for 5 minutes. Press through a sieve to remove the seeds. Combine the pulp and the reserved skins. (Simmer until the pulp is mostly broken down, which may take a total of 7-8 minutes. I was doing a double batch, so maybe that makes a difference. If the pulp is still clinging to the seed it's much harder to press through the sieve.)

1 cup sugar (see above on reducing the sugar)
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
9-inch pastry shell
Add sugar, flour and lemon juice to grapes. Pour into pastry shell.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons oil (I used all butter...I love butter.)
Combine and sprinkle over the grape mixture. Bake in preheated oven at 425 for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for 30 minutes. (I had to bake it for 10 minutes longer for the crust to brown how I like it.)