It's time for some pie.

So our last post was all about picking strawberries.  Well those berries turned into A LOT of jam, lots of snacks, strawberry cinnamon rolls, strawberry shortcake, and (my favorite) strawberry topping for some banana pancakes. But at church on Sunday, somebody left this on counter in the kitchen!

Rhubarb! I asked to whom it belonged and the kitchen manager said it was just left by somebody so if I wanted it - go for it!

My grandma passed away 15 months ago.  We all miss her dearly and it was the joy of her life to make and bake food for people. It was always the joy of my life to eat that food.  Her strawberry rhubarb pie was my favorite - it wasn't even close. She used to make these large flat pies that were the size of a large pizza and cooked on a pizza pan.  Very thin, but there was plenty of the best part - the crust!

Here's where we started:

Pie Crust

2 1/3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Cold water as needed to make doughy (used about 1/3 cup)

Mix everything but the water til it's crumbly.  Add water till it was like play dough.

Wrap dough in plastic and stash in the fridge for an hour until its solid enough to work with.

After chilling, cut dough in half and roll out for the pie pan.

Okay, so my wife made the filling.  It's 2 cups of strawberries, 2 cups of rhubarb, 2 cups of sugars, and some flour/cinnamon/nutmeg/love/deliciousness.

Now a little lattice work, egg wash, and sprinkle sugar.  Ready for the oven at 400 for 50 mintes.

Looks good.  I'll give you the verdict tomorrow.

Doug



Berry Picking!

Our Summer is off to a great start. The kids have only been out of school for 2 weeks and we've already completed our first trip of the season. We went out to New Jersey to visit my family and celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. It was awesome! As we enter a week with not much going on, we decided to do some strawberry picking. We are so lucky to have Spooner Berry Farms so close to us. They have the most delicious strawberries! Having a lot of local, fresh produce is crucial to living a real-food lifestyle, so we are excited to stock up on frozen berries, homemade jam and even some treats like pie filling. The girls were very excited to go berry picking. JD wasn't too sure. If we do anything that doesn't involve some sort of game or competition, he usually doesn't want to do it. So...the whole morning he's begging me to go bowling. Once we got to the farm and started picking he exclaimed..."This is the best place ever" :-) It was a great morning getting out of the house and picking some yummy berries. Next on the list is blueberries. Doug found a great place that we hope to hit up this week. Talk to you all soon!