Broken Oven Strawberry Pie

  Life Happens.....
     Our oven is broken. Or, to be more specific, the touch pad that controls our oven is broken. A replacement part has been ordered, but it will take 7-10 days to arrive, so we remain oven-less until that time. Thankfully though, since it is the touch pad and not any of the heating elements, our stove still works :) Last weekend we had a cookout for Father's Day and my parent's wedding anniversary, which happened to fall on the same day this year. The strawberries are in full swing, *insert Lynn's happy dance of summer berry glee here*, and our original plan was to either make strawberry shortcake or take a crack at this luscious looking strawberry cake, but our sans-oven status pretty-much negated that. Perusing my Mom's cookbook shelves I came across a small, paperback cookbook from the late 1970's that was published by the Pulaski, NY, ABE Program (basically an Adult Continuing Education program). Seeing that I had taken it out, my Mom flipped through the book also and noticed this Strawberry Pie recipe. It called for a graham cracker crust, and she happened to have a pre-made crust on hand. It looked quite easy, didn't call for the oven since we already had the crust, and we had just gotten a flat of strawberries at the Farmer's Market. It was meant to be :)

   This pie is sweet and simple. Strawberries, Cream Cheese, Sugar, Cornstarch, Water. Yup, that looks a lot like just FIVE ingredients to me!  Okay, five ingredients not counting the pre-made crust that we already had. There are certainly some decent pre-made pie crusts out there, choose your favorite brand or label read until you find one that doesn't have a lot of junk in it. Or, heck, if you have one on hand that YOU made, so much the better :)

Broken Oven Strawberry Pie
- taken from the *Pulaski ABE Recipes* Book, 1979 edition. Inspired by "Glazed Strawberry Pie", submitted by Maureen Labrake of Oswego, NY.

- Pre-baked 9 inch graham cracker pie crust (a regular pie shell would be fine too)
- 1qt drained, hulled strawberries (fresh, local, in season strawberries will be best, but out of season strawberries will do in a pinch)
- One 3oz package cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup of sugar (or to taste, depending on sweetness of berries)
- 3 tbsp. cornstarch

- Spread softened cream cheese over the bottom the pie shell and cover with half the berries (use the choicest and most attractive berries for this)

- Mash the remaining berries and add a little water to them if necessary until you have about 1& 1/2 cups. Transfer the berries to a saucepan, bring to a boil and stir in sugar and cornstarch. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture returns to a boil. Boil one minute.

- Allow mixture to cool slightly. Pour mixture over berries in pie shell. Chill pie for at least two hours or overnight. Serve with whipped cream :) Enjoy the berries while they last :)

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Hello!

I apologize to my readers (*giggle* I have readers :) for the long delay between posts. Sadly, I had several family emergencies in the past few weeks, which kept me away from posting. But now, Thank God, life has returned to a more normal pace. The end of June brings the height of strawberry season. Entire flats of strawberries appear in grocery stores and farmer's markets, and recipes for jams, pies, cakes and shortcakes flood the local papers and seasonal cooking magazines. I, for one, could not be happier about this. If Strawberry Shortcake is the most popular "baked" dessert during Strawberry Season, then Strawberry Rhubarb Pie is a very close second place. Although all the women in my family make strawberry rhubarb pies, I have no distinct memory of tasting one until today, and WOW. It's like eating springtime. Enclosed is the recipe for Strawbery Rhubarb Pie that graced our table today for Father's Day. It originally came from a wonderful old cookbook called The Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook and was made today by my wonderfully talented Mommy.

My mother's method for making pie crust is as follows: for a two crust pie, use 2/3 cup shortening, 2 cups of flour, and 1 tsp salt, mix together with fork or pastry cutter. Add a small amount of COLD water and continue to stir with fork until dough begins to form a ball, roll out to desired size, etc. If you have your own method, or you'd rather just buy a ready-made crust at the store, that's obviously fine too. My personal preference is to make pie-crust from scratch, because then I get to eat the pie-dough scraps, small pleasures in life and all that :)

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

-Pastry for 2-crust pie

-1 1/3 cups sugar

-1/3 cup flour

-1/2 tsp. grated orange peel

-1/8 tsp. salt

-2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

-2 cups fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (ish)

-2 tbsp. butter

-Preheat oven to 425oF

- Combine strawberries and rhubarb in mixing bowl

-Add sugar, flour, orange peel and salt to strawberry mixture, mix to combine

- Pour mixture into pastry-lined 9" pie pan and dot with butter (a deep-dish pie pan will work best here)

-Adjust top crust over filling, seal edges by pressing with the tines of a fork or by crimping/fluting the edges with your fingers. Cut vents in top crust.

-Bake at 425oF for 40-50 minutes, or until juice begins to bubble through vents and crust is golden brown

-Allow to cool, at least partially, can be eaten alone, or with whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream on top.

WARNING: This pie has a tendency to boil over. Place the pie pan on a cookie sheet when it goes in the oven, so that any drips will end up on the sheet pan, and not baked or burned onto the floor of your oven.

Okay, this is my first attempt at uploading pictures of my culinary endeavors, any and all pointers on how to improve my food photography are most welcome!

Happy Summer Solstice!

Lynn