Memorial Day Cooking

In addition to gardening, I spent some time during the holiday weekend to prepare a fun meal! We made ribs, collard greens, salad, and strawberry-rhubarb pie. Sunday was the first day of strawberries at the Dupont Circle farmer's market and also my first day taking the risk and buying some rhubarb.


I looked in How to Cook Everything by Bittman to get some ideas about the pie, but then decided to go online. Since I only wanted to use what I had on hand, I finally found a simple recipe that didn't call for cornstarch or vanilla (I didn't have either of these available). I found piechef.com and used it as my inspiration.

I started with the following:

• 2 9” pie cursts (I purchased them frozen from Whole Foods, but next time would prefer to make my own)
• 2 cups strawberries, hulled and cut in half
• 4 cups rhubarb, washed and cut in one inch pieces
• 1 cup brown sugar (maybe a bit more)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 egg mixed with 2 tbl water

Here is what I did:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Clean and cut the fruit, mixing in large bowl.
3. Mix sugar and flour in small bowl.
4. Add sugar and flour mixture to fruit and stir to mix.
5. Let the mixture of fruit and sugar sit for around 15 minutes.
6. Pour the filling into one of the pie crusts.
7. Place second pie crust on top of the pie carefully.
8. Brush with egg mixture.
9. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
10. Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees.
11. Lower heat to 325 and bake for an additional 40 minutes.
12. Let cool and enjoy!

The pie turned out wonderfully, as well as the rest of the dinner. It was a perfect way to start off the summer.