Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Sandi's Fresh Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie

AD-Free Blog

It's our favorite time of year---RHUBARB TIME. This is a post from five years ago of our  Family's favorite pie/tart recipe. 
One of the first fresh fruits to ripen in the upper Midwest is Rhubarb. Tart and tangy it is one of our favorites.  This recipe includes some quick tips and variations.


We have two Rhubarb plants and they were huge, below is a photo from May12th I think, and they are 4 times as large now.


I always pick the biggest and reddest stalks for pie. The leaves immediately go to the compost pile.  A wonderful compliment to the rhubarb are strawberries, which are plentiful and reasonable right now. 


So, I just had to make some Strawberry/Rhubarb pie. At this point this recipe is mine or one learned long ago and from memory. 

Sandi’s Strawberry Rhubarb Pie or tart.   

Fills 2-8” pre-made pie crusts or one very large tart pan. (I allow thawing time for the pre-made pie crusts) A cookie crust adds some extra flavor in a tart. (I'll use a lemon/vanilla cookie recipe for tarts.)

Mix:
8 cups of diced rhubarb 
2 cups sugar or sweetner
½ tsp of salt

Stir in large microwaveable bowl. Cook on high for 4 min, and stir and then another 4 min on high. ( Pre-cooking the rhubarb gives a warm solution for the corn starch to dissolve and helps to shorten baking time).

Add:
4 cups of sliced cleaned strawberries
2 tsp of vanilla or more
Stir together into rhubarb

Make a mixture of
2 TBSP of cornstarch or thickener of your choice
½ tsp nutmeg
1 TBSP of cinnamon (we love cinnamon)
Stir into warm fruit until well mixed-
Split into pie shells or tart pan.

Mix 2 cups of rolled oats in bowl or chopper
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of flour
5 TBSP of cold oleo/butter
1 tsp cinnamon
(you could add chopped almonds to this also) 

Pulse in chopper or mix with a pastry cutter in bowl, until well mixed and crumbly.
Spread over fruit

Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 15 min at 350 degrees.

Serve with icecream/whip cream/ or cool whip.

Delicious warm or cold! 

As a girl when I stayed a summer in Denmark, we had rhubarb and strawberry treats all through the summer. Also, rhubarb pudding with fresh scraped vanilla bean was my favorite and of course drowned in rich cold cream. I will have to make that next!













Posted by at 14 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Sunday, May 31, 2020

Midwest Gardening: What's Blooming-End of May 2020

Ad-Free Bog

Pond is cleaned and the fishing is good...! 
We dumped four bags of sand and a bag of rocks into it, since I am no longer able to kneel and clean out the bottom of the pond. So we raised the bottom, which is now reachable for me, well mostly. 

Pond maintenance is an issue, I'm hoping the frogs will move back in even though it is shallow.

To the right the Viburnum is bursting! Best kind of snowballs for Chicagoland. I have Nasturtiums from seed in the planter in front

This tree is about 25 years old. Last year I cleaned out all the dead wood and opened up the center area---and more blooms than ever.


Around the pond, are Iris, two Lime Barberry. 

they are gorgeous this year...


I can't stop taking photos of them...

Sunshine in ruffles....


Planted pots...I forget the name of the purple plant, something new for us with Zinnias and a red geranium.


I still have two Peppermint to plant---a bee deterrent for our 'people spots, designated for the front  porch.



Our focal pot at the base of the stairs, lots of plants in here, Wave Petunia, Hibiscus, 2 kinds of Sweet Potato Vine and some seeded flowers.


Lots of green right now under our Maple tree, the copper colored plant lower left is a Carmel Coral Bells. The green in front is a Creeping Sedum transplanted the last two years from other areas in the yard. Hostas were grown from starts 10 for $5.99 last year, except for the super large one.


I'm amazed at how large these variegated Hosta got in one year.



My mosaic bowling ball---from post here:Garden Mosaics Class


Here the Iris are more purple than blue.


and yellow! 

The super large Hosta on the right we purchased several years ago, and it gets humungous. 


A planter with Liatris from bulbs, a Wave Petunia, Burgundy Cordyline and a Rust Coleus. all these plants will be very large and will be moved into the center of this bed, when we get the old bush branches out!

Backyard
Not much is blooming yet in the backyard. I do choose a lot of variegated plants for interest in shady spots with a few Impatiens and more Lime Coral Bells.

Along the fence the Hollyhocks are going crazy and our Giant Hostas. I have some squash and Sunflowers in here also, and other seeded flowers.

The front walk is just getting started, with yellow, red, purple flowers and  lime green  and purple Sweet Potato Vines. I haven't found any reasonable viney plants for the trellises yet.

The new shelf on the front of the garage which replaced an old bench, is still not finished. I need some other interesting things. This spot gets lots of sun and heat.

And the mail box is planted: Wave Petunias, Vinca transplants, Salvia, and yellow Marigolds. 

What's Blooming in your Neck of the Woods?
Please Share in comments.

Thank you for any and all comments.
Finally I am able to reply to comments by using Chrome. So all you Mac users who have upgraded to Catalina---this might help the glitches on Safari  and Blogger!



Posted by at 4 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)