Are You a Cake Person or a Pie Person?

The answer for me is: It all depends! If the choice is Key Lime Pie or Chocolate Cake, I'm a cake girl. However, if the choice is Carrot Cake or Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, I will take the pie--thank you very much!
I am pretty sure that I was in my forties before I ever tasted this delicacy. I am also pretty sure that the first one I ever ate was baked by my dear friend Beth. I'm sure that, never having tasted rhubarb, I was initially a little reluctant. However, one bite and I became an instant convert.
Last summer, Beth and I embarked on a wild rhubarb hunt. The hunt was wild, not the rhubarb.
Greg, Beth's lovely husband, had requested a S-R-P for dessert and the local grocery was out of rhubarb. The farmer's market had none either, but they tried to sell us a rhubarb plant. We spent several minutes debating the pros and cons of buying the plant in order to have the pie for dinner. In the end, we left the plant there and went in search of another store that might have a few stalks left.
The point of my little tale is that S-R-P is worth some extra effort; it is that good!

So...back to the present and true confession time: Although, I love eating Beth's S-R-P, I had never actually attempted to make my own. That all changed a few days ago when, while shopping in my local Houston market, I happened to spy the loveliest  stalks of rhubarb I had ever seen. I am not exaggerating one bit when I say that they were GORGEOUS!!

 I bought three large stalks and 2 16 oz. containers of strawberries and then phoned Beth for the recipe. She didn't have it on hand and I got impatient, so I started googling and found one that sounded similar to the one she uses. Luckily, I had a beautiful piecrust dough in my freezer (from a local bakery) and that saved me the extra step of making the crust. If you are not so lucky, you can easily make an all-butter pie crust for your S-R-P. There are oodles of easy recipes on the web.

So--back to the rhubarb. One question that one must address when cooking with rhubarb is whether or not to peel them. Beth said that there was no need to peel the stalks. However, as I started cutting into the first one, pink  strips started coming off and they felt awfully stringy. I opted to pull them off (no peeler necessary) and they formed a beautiful pile of ribbons that was photo-worthy!

The next question is whether or not to cook the rhubarb mixture before you bake the pie. Beth said: "No Need" My internet search found recipes both ways, but I opted to save a step and cook it all together. So, after cutting the rhubarb into little celery-like pieces, I added them to the sliced strawberries and added the juice of one half a lemon, 1/2 cup of flour and 1 cup of sugar.  Then I left it all to soak for about twenty-thirty minutes.

While the fruit mixture rested, I worked hard at rolling out the pie crust. As you shall see, I was not terribly worried about the LOOK of this pie; I was mostly focused on TASTE! One step I failed to take that I would add for all future S-R-P's is that I would pour off the extra juice after soaking the fruit. My pie was a tad runny, and I think this extra step would help alleviate that problem.

As you can see, my large lattice strips are very rustic looking. I think rustic sounds much nicer than sloppy!
Anyway, I like a lot of crust with my pie so thick strips of dough suit me just fine!
I am happy to report that the final result was amazing and it would be embarrassing to admit how quickly Ben and I polished off the whole thing--so I won't tell you. Suffice it to say, it was yumm-o!

Last night, I found out that S-R-P happens to be a favorite of my dad's. Who knew? So, the next one I make has his name on it!!!

By the way...this POST is #49 of the 52 I initially promised to write. Can you believe that a whole year has almost passed since I started this project? Anyway, I have not yet decided whether or not I will continue this blog in some form or other, but I am eager to hear your suggestions. Also, if you have any question requests for the last three posts, please send me your comments!