Mouthwatering Rhubarb Pie ~ Recipe

Rhubarb season is in full swing and there is no shortage of it around here! We've been eating it in muffins, cakes and now pie :) The tartness of the rhubarb mixed with a good dose of sugar makes for a mouth watering combination. If you're not crazy about a sweet pie then a warm slice of rhubarb pie might change your mind. The tart bite of the rhubarb counteracts the sweet and melds together perfectly.

Pull out your food processor and start feeding in fresh stalks from your rhubarb plant. The amount of sliced rhubarb you need will depend on the size of your pie plate so pull out an empty pie plate and start filling it with your sliced rhubarb until you have a really heaping dish full. It will shrink as it cooks so more is better than not enough!

I have quite a deep pie plate so I used about 10 cups of sliced rhubarb while my mom can only squeeze about 8 cups into hers so using your pie plate will give you the perfect amount :)

Once you have all of your rhubarb sliced and measured out put it into a large bowl and add:

1 1/2 cups sugar
6 heaping Tbsp. minute tapioca
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 egg lightly beaten

and mix all of it thoroughly together. If you are worried that it's to much sugar, don't. You could cut it back a bit but I wouldn't take away to much. You need that sweet to keep you from puckering up to much when you take that first bite *grin*.

I know that lots of people use flour as a thickener in their pies to help all of those juices set but I really like to use tapioca because you don't have to worry about getting any lumps. It's just that easy!

Now that you have your rhubarb all mixed up, pour it into your pie plate that is lined with an unbaked pastry shell for the bottom of your pie.

Tuck a few dabs of unsalted butter on top of your rhubarb filling and cover with another sheet of your pastry. Pinch, roll, or tuck the ends of your pastry tightly together to help seal in all of that rhubarb goodness and to finish it off you can sprinkle a little bit of sugar over the top of your pastry. I also like to take a sharp knife and cut in a few slits across the center of my pastry to let steam escape as it cooks.

Place in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees fahrenheit for the first 15 minutes and then turn your oven down to 350 degrees fahrenheit after that and continue cooking for another hour.

Mmm, mmm!

You will know your pie is good and ready to come out of the oven when your pastry has browned up, you can hear it bubbling and some of the juices are starting to escape :)

It's always a good idea to put a sheet of foil or parchment paper underneath your pie as it cooks because more often than not there will be a little bit of delicious sweetness that escapes and drips out of your pie. This makes clean up a cinch!

If you can keep yourself from cutting into your rhubarb pie while it's hot it will set up beautifully and the pieces will come out nice and solid. Of course we couldn't help but dip into our pie while it was still hot so we made a bit of a mess of ours but it was so worth it *grin*.

Enjoy!
Rosina

PS. Looking for more yummy recipes?? Check out this week's Hearth and Soul blog hop

Picnic By The Pond

Today was a perfect day for a picnic down by the pond. The breeze was blowing and the fields of hay were rustling around us as we enjoyed lunch :)

A couple of days ago we got rained out just before we were ready to head outside but today despite the cloud cover the rain held off and we had a great afternoon. With the tables and chairs on the back of the pick up truck and the picnic baskets loaded we headed down to set up.

Preparations started early as we peeled peaches and pears to slice along with strawberries for a deliciously fruity pie tucked inside my whole wheat oat pastry and topped with a streusel crumble :) We mashed eggs for egg sandwiches, tossed salads and packed our picnic basket!

Have I told you how much I love my picnic basket *grin*. My mom and I found them a couple of years ago and they came with real plates, glassware and silverware. You've got to love that it's not packed with plastic and the bottom of it has a zippered cooler pouch for keeping everything from overheating :)

My daughter is crazy about using all the fancy dishes when we have little parties so we brought out the best treasures from the china cabinet to dress the table with :) No sense keeping them hidden away most of the year, we really should enjoy them more!

Boys!! Our tea party etiquette mustn't have rubbed off on my oldest. We're definitely going to have to work on this *grin*.

The kids' favorite salad. A combination of napa cabbage, carrot & noodle tossed in rice vinegar, mirin and sesame oil. I think it's just the sweetness of the dressing that they really like the most but if they're eating all that cabbage and carrot along with it I'm all for it :)

While the kids played badminton, watched water skeeters and tried to catch some of the fish in the pond the rest of us read the weekend paper, sipped on our coffee and savored the fresh pie :) Now if only we could do this every day!

How is your weekend shaping up? I'd love to hear about what is keeping you busy or ultra relaxed :)

~ Rosina

Whole Wheat Pie Crust ~ Recipe

A couple of days ago I had mentioned that I had a new recipe that I wanted to try for a whole wheat and oatmeal pie crust and I don't know why I hadn't tried it sooner!! It's fantastic.

I was worried how we would like it being so used to the traditional flaky pie crusts that we're all so accustomed to eating but this has a deliciously crunchy crust and sort of reminds me of the crumb topping on an apple crumble. YUM!

You will need:

• 2 cups of soft wheat berries ground as fine as possible or 1 3/4 cups of store bought whole wheat flour
  
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons sucanat or brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup of water

Set your grain mill to the finest setting and grind your soft wheat berries. You are going to want to use 1 3/4 cups of the freshly milled flour or if you don't have a mill you can use 1 3/4 cups of regular whole wheat flour :)

Mix your flour, oats, and sugar together and add in your oil mixing well. Next you just want to add enough water to make the dough stick together so that you can form a nice ball with it. I used approximately 1/4 cup of water but you may need a little more. To be on the safe side just add your water in very small increments so you don't make it to wet.

With your hands knead your dough two or three times to stick it all together and then divide it into two equal pieces for the top and bottom crust on your pie. Using your whole wheat flour give your counter a liberal dusting and pat one ball into a circular disk and then roll out with a floured rolling pin checking as you go to make sure it isn't sticking to your counter. If it starts to stick add a little more flour underneath or on top if needed. The first disk will be your pie bottom and then repeat with the other half of your dough to make your pie top :)

Because of the oats in the dough it tends to want to crumble a bit when you lift it into your pie plate so a good trick to help move it in one piece is to roll it up on your rolling pin so that it is wrapped around your pin and then lift it over your pie plate and unroll it again over your pie plate so that it falls into place :)

Let me know how you like it if you try it out! I'm a total convert now and I don't think that I will ever make a white flour pastry dough again *grin*.

Enjoy!
~ Rosina

Rosy Red Rhubarb

Mmmm, I just love rhubarb! It's so good in jam, compote, pies, cobblers and more! My husband actually loves to eat it raw dipped in a bit of sugar. A little bit to tart for me that way but a great treat :)

Our rhubarb plants are exploding with rosy red stalks waiting to be eaten so I've collected quite an arm load that is sitting in the sink waiting for me. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with it tomorrow. Perhaps a pie or even some syrup that makes a very refreshing drink.

I've got a whole wheat and oat pastry recipe kicking around that I'm just dying to try out so I'm thinking that there just might be a pie in my future *grin*.

~ Rosina