Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie

So, for my birthday last fall, Patrick's aunt got me this:

Oohhh I was excited. I've never been a big pie maker, but I'm beginning to discover just how wonderful this world can be. You can see I've already experimented with the Peanut Butter Pie. That recipe was from this book. I've also recently tried the German Chocolate Pie--I seriously had never imagined just how good that pure German Chocolate/coconutty/caramelly/creamy taste would be in pie form. There are lots more I want to try!

Well, I wanted to pay homage to my most recent inspiration for pies, but my last pie adventure actually came from somewhere else--Patrick's grandma. It went something like this:

[Opening the freezer.] "Oh, Stephanie, I just wanted to let you know, there's this bag of rhubarb--it's been in there for a while. It needs to be used up." [A little more digging around.] "Strawberries, too."

Say no more! Wheels start turning, plans start growing, and I head to the recipes.

Unfortunately, though the Lion House cookbook had a rhubarb pie, it did not have a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. I ended up finding my recipe from allrecipes.com, another favorite recipe source. Luckily, there were some frozen pie crusts in the the freezer as well, so I didn't have to subject myself to any unnecessary crust-making torture.

And so it began.

I used frozen fruit instead of fresh, like the recipe calls for, so I thawed it before hand. After letting it sit in the flour and sugar for half an hour, I was able to assemble the pie and bake it.

Confession: I completely forgot the butter in the recipe. Either it doesn't make that much of a difference and I saved some extra calories, or I'm missing out on something spectacular. Eh. To be honest, I liked it well enough without, that I'll really have to consider whether I include it next time.

Tips I learned:

• Store-brand pie crusts don't work very well for lattice crusts. It kept breaking in the middle, so the lattice isn't very clean or pretty.
• The best way to seal crust together (like around the edge of the pie) is with plain ol' water. I was surprised how well it worked!
• To get that pretty brownness, I brushed the top pastry with beaten egg yolk then sprinkled it with sugar. The Lion House book actually suggests using whole milk or something similar instead of the egg yolk--haven't tried it that way yet. Anyone have success with that?
• Let the pie cool all the way, and it will set up very nicely.

And my final tip: definitely, definitely, eat with ice cream. Yum!! The balance of tart rhubarb and sweet strawberry was perfect. It was a big hit and has been requested again; I'm making it for Patrick's grandma's luncheon next week. Even Patrick's grandpa said he liked it!

So, to sum, if you haven't done a lot of pies, fruit pies are actually really simple (if you don't do a pretty-but-annoying lattice crust). And they make it feel like summer. Give 'em a try, and if you are already a fruit pie fanatic, feel free to share your recipes!