Strawberries, strawberries,

When my neighbour called and asked whether I would like some strawberries never did imagine that I would have 4 huge baskets of strawberries ! The strawberries are more than likely the last of the season but a huge amount of them where still firm and Oh my so sweet.

So without much hesitation I went about cleaning and hulling the stems, while my brain was already thinking up recipes for pies, and tarts and jams, and just plain old freezing these lovely berries for smoothies that I will enjoy long when the hot days of summer are over.

But for today, I knew that Ron would enjoy his favourite pie Rhubarb and Strawberry.

A quick trip to the freezer, a frozen bag of rhubarb and some  of today's strawberries, and voila dessert for supper! Done.

Enjoy.

Rhubarb Sour Cream Pie

I've been absent from blogging for a while, I apologize to my readers who have been missing my entries, but I've always maintained that when blogging becomes a chore I will give it up. Thankfully, that is not the case, it's just a matter of being extremely busy with work, the house, and family obligations.


One of the things that I love about May's bounty is the asparagus and the rhubarb. I especially love the white asparagus, but that will be highlighted in another blog.


Something sweet and tart and good with a cup of coffee was the way my tummy was feeling.


This Rhubarb Sour Cream Pie, is a recipe from The Canadian Living Magazine, I forget which issue but can be easily accessed from their web site or right here.


The recipe also calls for a topping which I chose to omit and instead substituted with a dollop of whipped cream.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 c. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 c. cold butter cubed

1/4 c. cold shortening cubed

1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar

1/3 c. ice water

FILLING:

4 c. chopped Rhubarb

1 egg

1-1/2 c. sugar

1 c. sour cream

1/3 c. flour

TOPPING:

1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. melted butter

Preparation:

In a food processor combine flour, salt, butter, shortening. Pulse until crumbs are formed. In liquid measure beat egg yolk and lemon juice, mix in enough iced water to make a 1/3 cup. Add to crumb mixture and pulse until ball forms. Form dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 Min's.

On a lightly floured surface roll out dough and fit into a 9" pie plate, trim edges and flute.

Filling:

Arrange rhubarb evenly in pie shell. In a bowl whisk egg, sugar, sour cream and flour until smooth. Pour over fruit evenly.

Topping:

In a small bowl mix flour with sugar, drizzle with butter and mix until crumbly. Spread over filling.

On bottom third of a 450F bake for 15 Min's. Reduce heat to 350F. and bake until edges puff, filling is slightly jiggly and topping is golden about 40 Min's. Let cool before serving.

KEY LIME TART

I can't remember the first time I had a key lime pie (that's how long it's been,) but what I can tell you is that once you've had one you're hooked for life. It's also one of my ,"Go to recipes", when I know that a light dessert is a must. Actually Ron makes the ULTIMATE key lime pie, but I'll let him blog his recipe at another time. Ron is coming home tonight (late) his plane only lands at 10:38, I know he isn't going to want a big meal so I made some chicken soup and should that be too much, I'm hoping that he will make some room for Key lime pie. The truth is that I had bought a bag of key lime last week and it was time to do something with them. I also wanted to make a lighter recipe and so decide to make a tart as opposed to a pie.


As you can see, Key limes are much smaller than Persian limes. Their skin is much more softer and they are more tart in flavour. I've included 2 Persian limes in the picture to show you the difference in size. The truth is the recipe called for 2/3 cups of lime juice and as we had used some of the key limes to flavour some coke and beer during the weekend, in truth it turned out that I needed to add the juice of the other 2 limes to get my required amount.



Instead of a pastry dough I decided to use up some graham cracker crumbs and some coconut. 1 cup of each. To that I added some melted 1/4 cup of butter. Mix together and press into a tart pan. Bake for 5 min. at 350.






Beat 3 egg yolks for 5 min. until creamy with around 2 teaspoons of grated lime. To this slowly add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.Continue beating on medium speed until mixture is creamy and incorporated. Slowly to this mixture add the 2/3 cups of lime juice, continue to beat for a dew minutes, mixture will still be thick and creamy. Pour into partially baked tart, return to oven and continue baking at 350 for another 12-15 minutes. When done . remove from oven, cool on rack and then refrigerate, Serve with whipped cream.

Ready to go into the fridge. Won't make the whipped cream till Ron gets home.

8:05 the phone rings.

When Ron left Denver this morning the weather wasn't that great but he managed to get his flight and it left on time, but during the flight he got delayed and rerouted and it seems with only limited fuel left the flight landed late in Winnipeg, and by the time he got through customs he unfortunately missed his connecting flight to Ottawa. However, I think there is a conspiracy afloat...Ron was originally to have a 2 hour stopover in Winnipeg, his cousin Larry was going to meet him at the airport for coffee, catch up on news and help him pass the time. I heard that Larry brought the whole family entourage of cousins with him to the airport. Sounds more like my man has been kidnapped for the evening and he'll be returning to me tomorrow. That's OK Babe enjoy yourself.

One lonely slice for me. Wow that's tart...just the way I like it.

and plenty of pie left for tomorrow, just in time for a cup of coffee to share with my hubby.

Now doesn't that look great.

I know that most key lime pie has that smooth green color, and I could have added a few drops of food colouring to the lime mixture. I choose not to, but it's your choice. Would make a nice St. Patty's Day pie for next week's celebration.

STRAWBERRIES & BAILEYS IRISH CREAM CHEESE TART

Another retirement party! So far three principals, a director of elementary education at the board office, and a dear teacher colleague and friend. I t has been a busy week, another school year over and new adventures for the future. So far the weather is beautiful, although rain was predicted, but in honor of our friend's retirement, the pool party will go on without a hitch.

Strawberries are in their prime,and sooo sweet, so why not try this beautiful tart that combines everyone's favorite ingredients, strawberries, Baileys Irish Creme and of course cream cheese. I originally saw this recipe a few months ago on Nicole's site Baking Bites.com and made a few adjustments ,so that it would fill my ten inch tart pan. So if you have a smaller tart pan do check out her site for the original recipe.

Crust (I did not double this, it was fine for the 10 inch pan, it will be thicker for a 9 inch pan .)

2C all-purpose flour

3T sugar

2/3C butter

1/4C ice-water

In the food processor pulse the first 4 ingredients until mixture is crumbly.

Stir in water, adding an additional tablespoon if necessary, until dough comes together.

Press dough into a disk and refrigerate 30 minutes. Roll out and press into your tart pan. Freeze for at least another 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place aluminum foil on top of pastry. Fill foil with weights ( beans, or rice) and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Remove foil and weights and continue to bake until golden brown. 20-25 minutes

Cool completely.

Filling

I needed to double the filling recipe, so use your judgement.This is the DOUBLED recipe.

2 8- oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature

1 cup powdered icing sugar

4 T Irish Creme (or 2tsp vanilla and 4T milk)

Strawberries cut in half.

Melt 4 ounces of chocolate in a double boiler or microwave.. Pour into crust. Spread evenly to coat the bottom . Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Beat cream cheese , powdered sugar and Bailey;s until smooth. Pour into cooled crust. Top with sliced berries melt remaining chocolate and drizzle over the berries.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Enjoy!

HAPPY RETIREMENT!

BLUEBERRY PIE

Pies were always my MIL's domain. She truly was the apple pie queen, her pies were tender, flaky,deep-dished brimming with fruit, not to mention that lovely heavenly, cinnamon smell that would scent up the entire house and just make your mouth water for a piece of pie.
I never even tried to bother baking pies, mainly because on the few occasions that I attempted a pie crust it turned out a nightmare experience and I ended with a pie that sat on the kitchen counter for a week and could literally kill someone. Even my own children at the time made it perfectly clear, that Baba Polly's pie were BEST and I shouldn't even try to bother making them. Well Baba Polly passed away 18 years ago, and for some crazy reason I got it into my head to give it one more try.. OK maybe this my my third try. I called Auntie Louise and asked her how she made her pie crust.. just follow the Crisco recipe it's idiot proof, well this idiot couldn't get a crust that was light and flaky. Then I tried a very good friend who swore that she followed the Tenderflake recipe, and even convinced me to make the 5 cup of flour version, because as she reminded me, " you can freeze the dough and it will be fabulous ." That dough just wouldn't roll out without me having to patch it all up. Hopeless, and here I had wasted 5 cups of flour, but I was determined!! I would master this dough. The solution came with a Food TV recipe from Anna Olson . OMG! Her pie dough was absolutely wonderful!! I did it in the Cuisinart Easy Peasy, and a charm to roll out and then to fold in half ,lift and place in the pie plate. Yahoo this old bird did it. Even the kids (Young men) said that this was just as good as Baba's. Can you believe it? So hear goes, for all you gals , who like me, are willing to give pies one more try.

Pie Crust (2 / 9 inch pie plate)
21/2 C. flour
1 tsp.salt
1/2c. butter
1/2c. vegetable shortening
1 T. lemon juice
6-10 T. ice-water
Cut butter and shortening into flour . I pulsed it in the Cuisinart, Add lemon juice, pulse and slowly add ice water until dough forms a ball ,while machine is running Split dough in half, cover with wrap and refridge for at least 30 min. Dust rolling pin and station with flour and roll out dough a little larger than pie pan. Fold dough in half and cover pie plate. I like to use a glass one, (it was my MIL's and she swore they are the best) Fill with fruit, brush rim edge with an egg and water mixture and cover with top layer of dough. Make a few slits for steam to release, brush top layer with egg mixture and dust with crystal sugar.

Blueberry Filling
8 C.of rinsed and picked over blueberries
2/3C. sugar
4T. cornstarch
1T.lemon juice
2T. water or rum
1/4tsp. cinnamon
Mix ingredients and fill pie plate, cover with dough, make a few slits in top layer, brush with egg wash and sprinkle layer with sugar. Bake 375 for 1 -1 1/4 hr.

Results: It could have been sweeter (husband's comment) You probably can add some Splenda or up the sugar to 3/4 cup. I would also probably add another tablespoon of cornstarch or maybe omit the water, as it was a tad liquidy,BUT, the dough was tender and light and all in all a very tasty Pie!