Strawberry Pie nights

Back in the summer of 1981 I was very pregnant and enjoying the last of the time my husband and I would have together to just do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted (well, within the constraints of  our "starving college student" budget).  He was working at the campus radio station, and many nights I would go over there with a pot full of dinner so we could eat together when he had a break.  When he got off at midnight we sometimes went to JB's for a treat.  JB's was the only restaurant in town that was open late at night back then.  The next summer, we had a cute little baby girl who we took along on these middle of the night outings.  It turned out that Cara didn't actually cramp our style at all.  Often our friends Jim and Neil were with us for those middle of the night snack attacks....and in the spring we all usually ordered the strawberry pie.

Strawberry pie still reminds me of those carefree nights when we laughed a lot and ingested too much pie and too many chocolate milkshakes.  I miss the company we had on those cool summer nights in Logan, but I am no longer so fond of those restaurant strawberry pies covered with plastic-like glaze.  Now I make it "all natural", and it's delicious.  Give this easy and yummy pie a try this summer.

Fresh Strawberry Pie


1 9-inch baked pie shell
2 quarts strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch

• Separate the "prettiest" strawberries (about half of them) to put into the pie shell whole or halved, depending on how big they are.  Remove the stems from the remaining strawberries and smash them up with a fork or potato masher until they are juicy mush.
• Add the sugar and cornstarch to the mashed up strawberries and heat on medium, stirring often, until the mixture is thick and boils.  Let cool.
• Remove the stems from the remaining strawberries and arrange them in the pie shell.  You can leave small strawberries whole, but cut large ones in half.
• Cover with the cooked strawberry mixture and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
• Serve with sweetened whipped cream.

Spring Mix Pie

Today was a perfect, lovely spring day - and perfectly lovely for hanging out on the front porch.  The only thing that could make porch sitting more ideal would be having some pie out there.  So I decided to make some pie and invite friends over to share.  Since this was an unplanned pie event on a Sunday, and we avoid doing any shopping on Sunday, I had to use what I could find around the house to create a pie.  I came up with 3 apples, half a container of strawberries, and an orange in the fridge - and a big rhubarb plant in the yard.

I combined these fruits with some sugar and flour and hoped for the best.

Curtis and Mary came over.  Their two sons, and a fiancée, tagged along when they found out there was pie at our house.  Everybody said they liked this pie - and not one crumb was left over.  I loved it.  This is one I would  make again "on purpose".

The only thing that could have improved this pie would be a scoop of vanilla ice cream  Sadly, we had none on hand....and it's Sunday....

Here's how to make this - it's an easy one!

SPRING MIX PIE


Pastry for double crust pie
3 apples, peeled and chopped
8 oz fresh strawberries, chopped
2 large stalks rhubarb, chopped
1 large orange
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour

• Combine the chopped apples, strawberries and rhubarb in a bowl.  Add the sugar and flour.  Squeeze the juice of the orange into the bowl.  Stir to combine.  Let this mixture sit while you prepare the pastry.
• Roll out bottom crust and place in pie pan, pour fruit mixture into the pan.  Top with rolled out top crust.  Brush ice water onto the top and sprinkle with sugar.
• Bake in preheated 425* oven for 15 minutes.
• Turn oven down to 350* and bake for 35 minutes, or until top is lightly browned and the fruit is tender.
• Let cool for half an hour or so before serving.

Fruit basket pie

I was a little disappointed when I got my basket from the produce co-op this week, because the berries we received were not looking daisy fresh.  They really needed to be used right away.  We also got more mangoes, but still had a couple of mangoes left from last week.  You know what that means, right?  Time to make pie!  Do these fruits look like an odd mix for pie?

They look pretty together, so why not try them together in a pie?  I think the combo ended up beautiful in a pie, and it tasted great.  This is a pie worth making "on purpose"!

Fruit Basket Pie

Pastry for deep dish 9" double crust pie

3 mangoes, cut into chunks

1 quart strawberries, cut into halves or quarters

1 cup fresh blueberries

Juice of one lime

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

Mix the fruit with the sugar, flour and lime juice and let sit for 10 minutes to juice.

Pour fruit into pie shell and cover with top crust.  I like to brush on some ice water and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for an addition 30 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling.

Serve slightly warm with ice cream.

Apple Strawberry Pie

I've been making pies since I was about 14 years old, and developed some favorites along the way.  My family likes those tried and true pies and I could have kept my pie-eating family happy by continuing to make the same pies over and over.  But a couple of years ago I challenged myself to try new things more often, and that has led to the discovery of some fabulous new pies.  This pie is one that I never would have thought to try in the past, and it was a delicious revelation.  This is why trying new things is worth it!  It was National Pi Day (3.14) and I thought that was a fun excuse to make a pie, but I didn't have time or money to go shopping.  So I had to come up with a pie using what I had on hand.  Who knew apples and strawberries could play so deliciously together?  Give this one a try!  We ate it slightly warm with sweetened whipped cream, it would be great with ice cream as well.

APPLE STRAWBERRY PIE

Prepared pastry for a deep dish double crust pie

4-5 apples (I used Braeburn because that's what I had in the house.  Any kind of apple could work)

1/2 cup sugar

1 lemon, juiced and zested

1 quart strawberries, hulled and sliced

1/4 cup flour

• Roll out half of pastry and put in bottom of deep dish pie pan.
• Combine the apples, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest and mix together well.  
• Mix in the strawberries, then carefully stir in the flour.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Spoon the filling into the pie shell.
• Roll out remaining pastry and place on top of pie and flute edges.  The strawberries make this a pretty pie for a lattice top.
• Bake pie for 30 minutes.
• Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees then bake pie 30 minutes more, or until apples are tender and juices are bubbling.

Berries and chocolate - doesn't get better than this!

A couple of years ago one of my sons brought me a little box for Mother's Day that contained some absolutely delectable chocolate covered strawberries.  What a treat!  Chocolate and berries is one of those classic food combinations that almost everybody likes.  Everybody who tried this berry and chocolate pie really liked it, although my husband said the chocolate was a little "too rich".  (Too rich?  What the heck is that?)  We served it topped with sweetened whipped cream.  Try it out if you can handle the richness!


Patriotic Pie


1 baked pie crust (I used a deep pie pan, but would have been better off with a "regular" one - the recipe didn't fill this up well)
6 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon butter
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons orange juice concentrate
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Whole strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, rinsed and stems removed
2 tablespoons red currant jelly


Combine the chocolate and butter in a saucepan.  Heat and stir over medium-low heat until melted.  Add cream cheese and orange juice.  Heat and stir until combined.  Remove from heat and stir in the powdered sugar.  Spread in the baked pastry shell.  Arrange whole strawberries and other berries on filling, placing strawberries stem ends down.  Melt jelly and brush over the berries.  Cover and chill for at least 4 hours.

Let pie stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.  Top with sweetened whipped cream.

Berries!

When I picked up my basket of produce from the co-op this morning, I felt somewhat guilty when I saw that we got strawberries again.  I still had an almost full container of strawberries and blackberries from last week!  I got home and opened the refrigerator and also found some blueberries that were about to go past their prime.  I don't know how this happened.  How could we not eat these beauties for a week...or two...?  I couldn't let this situation continue, so of course I made a pie.  I enjoy making fresh strawberry pie that is "all natural" - none of that packaged "goo" that the grocery stores sell and restaurants use.  That stuff is a nasty way to ruin perfectly lovely berries. No - the berries in a good fresh berry pie just need to be held together with a bit of sweetened, mashed berries.  I used my tried and true fresh strawberry pie recipe but tossed in a few blueberries and the half pint of blackberries as well.

Tonight our friends Curtis and Mary dropped by, so of course we invited them to try out this pie.  Mary loved it and named it "Triple Berry Pie".  It was great with sweetened whipped cream on top. (I hear vanilla ice cream was good with it too.)  My son and my husband may have had more than one piece.  Give it a try and see what you think.

Triple Berry Pie

1 9-inch baked pie shell

You need a total of about 4 cups of berries.  The combination of strawberries, blackberries and blueberries is very nice.

1 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

• Wash, drain and hull the berries and set them aside.
• Mash about 1 cup of strawberries with a potato masher until well juiced, making about 1-1/2 cups of pulpy liquid.  Put them into a medium saucepan and stir in the sugar and cornstarch.  Cook over medium-low heat until mixture comes to a boil.  Boil and stir 1 minute, until thickened.  Cool.
• Toss berries together and pile into pie shell.
• Pour the cooked mixture over the berries in the pie shell, covering the top of all the berries.
• Chill at least two hours, then serve topped with sweetened whipped cream.

Fruits of the Forest....an interesting forest....

On Sunday I thought some of my "adult" children would stop by, so definitely had pie plans.  Unfortunately they changed their plans.  I went forward with the pie anyway.  I found this recipe called "Fruits of the Forest" pie and already had almost all the ingredients on hand.  It's an interesting variety of fruit and I can't imagine where the forest would be that contains all these fruits, but I'd love to visit!  My 16 year-old daughter said she didn't like it after taking a bit of her brother's pie, but she was already  prejudiced because it looked purple (because of the blueberries) and she said she hates purple food.  Everybody else LOVED it.  My dear husband ate about half the pie over the course of two days.  I will definitely make this one again. (It was especially great served warm with vanilla ice cream).

Fruits of the Forest Pie

1 double-crust recipe of pie pastry (for deep dish pie pan)
2 peaches or one small can of sliced peaches, sliced more thinly
1 pear, peeled and sliced
1 apple, peeled and sliced
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1 cup pineapple, fresh or canned chunks (I used fresh! Yummy!)
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 fresh squeezed lemon
3 Tablespoons cornstarch

• Prepare the pastry and line a deep dish pan with pastry.
• In a large bowl combine the fruit with 1/2 cup sugar and the lemon juice and spices.  Set aside for about 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Mix the remaining 3 tablespoons fo sugar and the cornstarch together in a small bowl, then stir into the mixture of fruit.
• Pour the fruit into the pastry-lined pie pan and top with pastry.  Flute the edges and cut vents into the top pastry.  I like to brush the top with ice water (left over from making the pastry) then sprinkle with sugar.
• Bake pie for 30 minutes.  Then turn the temperature down to 375 degrees and bake for 30-35 minutes more.
• Let cool a little before serving, or serve at room temperature.