“Gonna make a pie from heaven above,
Gonna be filled with strawberry love.
Baby don't you cry, gonna make a pie,
and hold you forever in the middle of my heart.”
—from The Pie Song, from the movie “Waitress.”
Spring is my favorite season. Oh I love the flowers, the buds, the birds. I just love watching this bursting of colorful life. But I have to admit that one of my favorite things about spring is the strawberries that I grow right outside my sun porch that I call my office. Okay, it’s just a wee bit early for them. But before I know it, I will be overwhelmed with the berries. I love growing my own because strawberries are one of those fruits that are extremely porous and unless you buy organic, it’s very difficult to know if your berries ever get shed of those pesticides—no matter how much you soak and scrub. My girls enjoy these berries from our garden unabashedly. And if there are any left from their snacks and smoothies, I always make a pie (or two). This recipe is from my cookbook, MRS. ROWE’S LITTLE BOOK OF SOUTHERN PIES.
Strawberry Pie
You must use fresh berries for this pie. Frozen ones will not work—they will make it too runny. Any kind of fresh berry can be used for variety, but make sure the berry and the gelatin complement one another.
Makes two 9-inch pies
2 crusts, prebaked
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 ounces strawberry gelatin mix
2 pounds fresh strawberries
whipped topping
Clean, cap, and drain strawberries. Set aside.
In medium saucepan over medium-high heat, cook water, sugar, gelatin, and cornstarch until thickened.
Whisk constantly. It will not be like a cream; it will feel thick, will thinly coat a spoon, and a line drawn on the spoon will stay clear.
Remove from the heat. Cool to lukewarm.
While mixture is cooling, place strawberries, pointed end up, starting in the middle of the pie and working out to the edge of the pie shell.
Pour half of the cooled mixture over the strawberries in each pie shell.
Chill pie until the filling is set like gelatin, several hours or overnight.
Serve with whipped topping.
Showing posts with label Spring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spring. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Easter
Last week I was in Wisconsin wishing hard for just the slightest sign of spring. It was as if God or nature heard me, because next day a thaw set in and by the end of the week, as I was taking a final walk with the dogs, I found three little green spears of iris (of all things!) coming up out at the end of the driveway by the mailbox. I stooped and just took them in for about a minute. How sweet the sight of them was!
But now I’m back in Minnesota and we had some wet snow Monday and Tuesday, and I think it will be two or three weeks before anything green dares poke its head up in front of some south-facing wall. But I could be wrong.
Easter is coming this Sunday, extremely early for this moveable feast. I have heard it will be two hundred years before it comes this early again. We had friends over for corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day, and my sister-in-law is having some family over for a Good Friday meal, so Easter won’t call for a big feast in our home this year. I think I’ll fix a “beer chicken,” and my favorite Aunt Velva’s bean salad.
You all know what a “beer chicken” is, don’t you? When I first heard about it, I kept waiting for the punch line, because I thought it was a joke. Then I didn’t try it because I heard it was to be prepared on a grill, and we don’t own a grill. Then I did try it in an oven and Oh My Goodness! It is so delicious! And so easy, too! Heat the oven to 250 or 275 degrees. Then open a can of beer, and drink about a third of it and put the can down in the center of a cookie sheet, the kind with a rim around it. Take one whole chicken and rinse it off under the tap. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the chicken while holding it upside down (I use seasoned salt), then set the chicken down on the can until it is almost all up inside the chicken. Use his poor little legs to help keep him upright. Twist his wings around his back. Sprinkle more salt and pepper on his shoulders, chest and tummy. Put the sheet in the oven and check it after an hour with a meat thermometer. I find it takes between and hour and ninety minutes. The only hard part of this whole operation is getting the beer can out of the chicken, but I have found that letting it cool for five minutes usually does the trick. Have someone hold the chicken over the sink while you pry at the can with a fork. You will not believe how tender and juicy the meat is. What’s interesting is that you can’t taste the beer; what’s even more interesting is that no other beverage gets as delicious a result.
So long as we’re talking recipes, here’s Aunt Velva’s Bean Salad: Empty two cans of dark red kidney beans into a strainer and rinse thoroughly. Chop half a sweet onion medium fine. Chop four or five little sweet gherkins. Hard boil three eggs, chop two of them. Put the onion, gherkins and chopped egg into a bowl with the beans. Take a quarter cup of cider vinegar, a half a cup of sugar, and a cup of sour cream and mix them well. Pour over the bean mixture. Peel the third egg and slice it thinly and strew over the top of the salad. This is excellent if made on the day and superb after a night in the refrigerator. You can substitute Splenda for the sugar and plain yogurt for the sour cream, and it’s still pretty good. I make it just twice a year, Thanksgiving and Christmas. God bless Aunt Velva, who taught it to my mother before I was born.
And Happy Easter
But now I’m back in Minnesota and we had some wet snow Monday and Tuesday, and I think it will be two or three weeks before anything green dares poke its head up in front of some south-facing wall. But I could be wrong.
Easter is coming this Sunday, extremely early for this moveable feast. I have heard it will be two hundred years before it comes this early again. We had friends over for corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day, and my sister-in-law is having some family over for a Good Friday meal, so Easter won’t call for a big feast in our home this year. I think I’ll fix a “beer chicken,” and my favorite Aunt Velva’s bean salad.
You all know what a “beer chicken” is, don’t you? When I first heard about it, I kept waiting for the punch line, because I thought it was a joke. Then I didn’t try it because I heard it was to be prepared on a grill, and we don’t own a grill. Then I did try it in an oven and Oh My Goodness! It is so delicious! And so easy, too! Heat the oven to 250 or 275 degrees. Then open a can of beer, and drink about a third of it and put the can down in the center of a cookie sheet, the kind with a rim around it. Take one whole chicken and rinse it off under the tap. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the chicken while holding it upside down (I use seasoned salt), then set the chicken down on the can until it is almost all up inside the chicken. Use his poor little legs to help keep him upright. Twist his wings around his back. Sprinkle more salt and pepper on his shoulders, chest and tummy. Put the sheet in the oven and check it after an hour with a meat thermometer. I find it takes between and hour and ninety minutes. The only hard part of this whole operation is getting the beer can out of the chicken, but I have found that letting it cool for five minutes usually does the trick. Have someone hold the chicken over the sink while you pry at the can with a fork. You will not believe how tender and juicy the meat is. What’s interesting is that you can’t taste the beer; what’s even more interesting is that no other beverage gets as delicious a result.
So long as we’re talking recipes, here’s Aunt Velva’s Bean Salad: Empty two cans of dark red kidney beans into a strainer and rinse thoroughly. Chop half a sweet onion medium fine. Chop four or five little sweet gherkins. Hard boil three eggs, chop two of them. Put the onion, gherkins and chopped egg into a bowl with the beans. Take a quarter cup of cider vinegar, a half a cup of sugar, and a cup of sour cream and mix them well. Pour over the bean mixture. Peel the third egg and slice it thinly and strew over the top of the salad. This is excellent if made on the day and superb after a night in the refrigerator. You can substitute Splenda for the sugar and plain yogurt for the sour cream, and it’s still pretty good. I make it just twice a year, Thanksgiving and Christmas. God bless Aunt Velva, who taught it to my mother before I was born.
And Happy Easter
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