Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

As those of you on Facebook might know, I had to "prove" to our pastor and his family how delicious a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie tastes. Our family had eaten a whole one, so I made his family one...and since I was making them one...I made our family another. Just to be sure it wasn't a fluke. Haha!

As we were making both pies, I had Peter help me. As we were finishing up, he said, "wow, now I know what it means when people say, 'it's easy as pie'...it really is!" The real trick to a delicious pie is the crust. Just don't knead it. Handle it as little as possible, and it will be tender and flaky. If you knead it too much, gluten develops - that's the elastic structure that makes great bread, but not such great crust. If you handle it too much, the heat from your hands melts the fat. The fat between layers of flour are what makes the crust flaky.

I'd love to be able to take credit for this recipe, but as I always say, I'm a good cook because I can read. That's it. This is Betty Crocker's recipe.

PIE CRUST (makes 2 crusts - top and bottom)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

⅔ cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening

4 to 5 tablespoons cold water

Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).

Gather pastry into a ball. Divide in half and shape into 2 flattened rounds on lightly floured surface. Roll one round on lightly floured surface, using floured rolling pin, into circle 2 inches larger than upside-down pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side.

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB PIE

1½ cups sugar

½ cup flour

½ t. grated orange peel (optional - good, but I usually leave it out because I don't often have fresh oranges in the house)

2 1/2 cups cut-up rhubarb

2 1/2 cups cut-up strawberries

3 T butter

Heat oven to 425°. Prepare pastry.  Stir together sugar, flour and orange peel. Turn half the fruit into pastry-lined pie pan; sprinkle with half the sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining fruit and sugar; dot with butter

Cover with top crust with slits cut in it, seal and flute. Sprinkle with sugar if desired. Cover edge with 2- to 3-inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust.  Let cool and enjoy with a little vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.  Whatever you don't finish, refrigerate and enjoy for breakfast!!