Strawberry Pie

A friend gave us 2 pints of very fresh strawberries last week.  I knew they wouldn't last long, so the best thing to do was to cook them into something quickly.  I immediately decided I wanted to make a strawberry pie.  I researched several options, finding that some strawberry pies are raw and some are baked.  I knew I wanted to bake the pie, or the strawberries wouldn't last long enough.  Here is my adaptation of several different recipes.

The crust : 1 stick of butter (1/2 c), 1 1/2 c flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 3+ tbsp cold water.  Cut the butter into the flour and salt until mixture is crumbly.  Add cold water 1 tbsp at a time, mix until dough forms a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for an hour.  Then divide the dough into 2/3 and 1/3.  Roll out the 2/3 portion and place in a pie plate. Roll out the 1/3 portion and cut into strips.

The strawberries : Wash and hull the strawberries.  Separate the mushier ones from the firmer ones. Slice the firmer strawberries, mash the mushier ones.  I ended up with about 1/2-1 cup of mashed strawberries.  I added those plus 1/2 cup fresh blueberries to a small saucepan along with the juice of 1/4 lime, 1/4 c sugar (much less than online recipes call for), 1/2 c water, and 2 tbsp corn starch.  Cook, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens.  Place sliced strawberries in pie plate on top of the crust.  Pour over the cooked strawberry mixture.  Place strips of top crust over the pie in a lattice pattern.  (I was in a hurry and feeling lazy so mine is not a real lattice...just strips laid in one direction, and then on top of those I laid the strips in the other direction instead of weaving them.

Bake at 425 for 35 minutes, or until crust just starts to brown.

Lazy lattice crust because I care way more about taste then presentation...

I have no pictures of the finished pie...I was too busy eating it.  It was delicious!  We ate it for breakfast all weekend.  I also had some for an evening dessert with chocolate ice cream...so good!

Strawberry - Ginger Fruit Topping

Ingredients

12 strawberries, chopped

c. 1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger root

1 spoonful of brown sugar

orange juice

Brown the ginger in a little bit of olive oil in a 2 qt saucepan, then soak up as much oil as possible with a paper towel.  Add enough orange juice to cover the bottom of the pan.  Add the chopped strawberries and the sugar.  Stir for a bit, then bring it to a simmer and let simmer til it has reached the desired thickness. 

Strawberry Mint Sorbet

RECIPE OF DELICIOUSNESS

-boil 1 c water with 1/2 c brown sugar, 1/4 c white sugar, and a bunch of fresh mint, and 1/4 tsp salt.
-clean, de-leaf, and puree 2 qts of strawberries. 
-once the sugar water has boiled, remove it from the heat.  Fish out the mint leaves and throw them in the blender with some of the strawberries.  If your blender is better than mine, you probably won't end up having to fish out any intact stems or leaves...like I did... but most of the mint broke down small enough that I could leave it.
-mix everything together in a big glass bowl, add about 1/4 qt of chopped strawberries
-cover with plastic wrap and freeze.  If you have time, stir every hour or so, so that it doesn't freeze solid into ice.  I only got to stir mine once before bed, and then again in the morning when I woke up.  If I had used a shallower bowl, it would have been frozen pretty solid by morning.  Lucky me, I used a bigger bowl so the middle was actually still soft enough to stir. 

simple (minty) syrup in the making

go blender go!

the red sea...of strawberry goodness

contemplate the deliciosness

mmm strawberry chunks

let the freezing begin!

a whole bunch of ice fell off the plastic wrap when I opened it...I had to pick it off with a fork...then I used the fork to "fluff" the sorbet.  I had to use a knife on some of the chunkier parts.

Dessert tonight is going to be epic-ly delicious!

By the way...this is by far my most successful sorbet ever.  Not too sweet OR too salty!  And not frozen solid as a rock either!  Hooray!

strawberries! and more strawberries!

I ended up with 4 quarts of fresh strawberries today.  Many of them were already getting mushy so I had to do something with them before they went bad.    

So this:

Became this:

(strawberry-mint sorbet)

*recipe coming...later...

Which left me with this:

So I made this:

(pure, unadulterated, strawberry ice cubes)

Which left me with this:

So I made this:

(pure, unadulterated, strawberry pancake topping)

and this:

(strawberry-mango lemonade...with some Tullamore Dew...just for fun)

and here's some more pictures...just for fun

contemplating strawberries...so many possibilities...so little time

I had to cut so many tops...off so many strawberries...

mmm can't wait for this to freeze into sorbet!

 I could drink this syrup straight out of the jar...but I'll save it for my chocolate-chip pancakes!

Salad w/ Fresh Greens

The 7/8 grade class at my school grew salad greens in their raised bed, and today we had a big salad buffet at lunch.  Then I got to take some leftover greens home...so I had another salad for dinner!  But my dinner salad was way fancier than my lunch salad...   The greens are/were fantastic!

This salad has: mezclun mix, arugula, zucchini, radish, carrot, avocado, strawberry, shrimp, and my homemade dressing.

One Tasty Salad

I'm not a huge salad fan...but every now and then I manage to make one that tastes pretty darn yummy.

Lettuce blend: Spring Mix/Spinach

Zucchini

Carrot

Strawberry

Avocado

Ranch

Bananas, Strawberries, and Dark Chocolate, OH MY!

C and I were watching a show the othe night all about chocolate where Alton Brown demonstrated some ridiculously complicated way to make chocolate dipped stuff.  He went on and on about how this was the only way to make chocolate stick to strawberries.  It took forever, it involved all sorts of fancy things (like laser thermometers), and it was totally UNNECESSARY! 

This evening, we made chocolate covered strawberries and bananas using nothing but a glass measuring cup, a microwave, and a refrigerator.  So quick, so easy. 

Dark chocolate chips go in glass measuring cup.  Microwave for 45 sec - 1 min at a time, stirring in between, until chocolate has turned into melted deliciousness.  Clean and dry the strawberries, slice the bananas into chunks.  Cover a baking pan with a piece of waxed paper.  Dip the fruit in the chocolate, lay it on the wax paper.  The strawberries were still cold from the fridge, so the chocolate actually hardened on them while they were sitting there.  The bananas were warmer, so I stuck the pan in the fridge to harden up all of the chocolate.  15 minutes later, they were ready to eat.  So simple.  So scrumptious. 

Can't let the leftover chocolate go to waste...let's make art!

I can't believe I actually managed to clear out the entire top shelf of my fridge in order to

 make room for this...normally my fridge is full and overflowing.