Strawberry Season and Getting Ready for Baby McGee

Today was the sort of day to make those darned Mormon lifestyle bloggers jealous, and not just because of P's glass of red wine and our breakfast coffees. Two of our oldest and dearest friends came down for the weekend, and then left on noon at Sunday. Such considerate guests to leave us one whole weekend day to get all the things done that need doing! We are now totally set for newborn and 0-3 month clothes for our littlest bun, and our brand-spanking new gigantic IKEA bookshelf holds her clean clothes admirably well until we can find a new dresser for H to move into.

An adorable thrift store find to round out H's week of finding great deals on baby stuff. Owl long sleeved onesie for a quarter!

 E shows off the first days of the third trimester (28 weeks!) and her amaaaazing pie creation.

    P got an awesome little hibachi grill for his birthday, so we decided to grill sweet corn and chicken sausages for dinner tonight. I made a 'lishy' (H's word, isn't it great?) salad from the spoils from our  first farmer's market of the year, and we ate like royalty.

     This afternoon we drove out to the strawberry patch and brought back a lovely crop of strawberries. Our first treat is Strawberry Pie with a coconut streusel crust.
 


 

All recipes from Bittman's How to Cook Everything, Tenth Anniversary Edition

Sweet Tart Crust + Streusel Topping + Fresh Strawberry Pie

Sweet Tart Crust:
11/4 cups flour, plus more for rolling
pinch salt
2 T sugar
1 1/4 sticks frozen or cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 egg yolk
3 T ice water

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar in food processor, and pulse. Add butter all at once, process about 10 seconds, until the mixture is uniform (don't overdo it). Add egg yolk and pulse a few more seconds. Now you'll have small crumbs.
2. Put the mixture in a bowl, add 3 T ice water; mix with your hands until you can form the dough into a ball, adding 1 - 2 T more ice water if needed. Form into a ball, and freeze for 10-15 minutes. (If you cover it in plastic wrap, you can refrigerate for a couple of days, or freeze, well wrapped for a couple of weeks.)
3. Sprinkle counter top with flour, and add pastry ball. I found that kneading the pastry like bread dough to incorporate some of the flour made for a perfect consistency. Roll out into a circle about 2 inches larger than your pie pan.
4. Loosen the dough with a scraper, and drape it gingerly over your rolling pin to transfer into the pie pan or tart shell. Press the dough into all the nooks and crannies in the pan, and cut the edges flush with the pan edge. Refrigerate for 1 hour or freeze for 30 minutes before filling.

Streusel Topping:
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened, or reduce sugar)
1 T lemon juice
pinch of cinnamon
1/2 cup whole wheat, 1/2 all-purpose flour

1. Cream butter and sugar in the food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until  combined and crumbly; but less uniform than a dough.
2. Crumble the mixture over the top of a fruit pie, crisp, quick bread, or muffins.

Strawberry Pie Filling:
5 cups hulled strawberries, whole or halved
1/2 - 1 cup sugar, depending on sweetness of berries
3 T corn starch
pinch salt
1/4 cinnamon
pinch of allspice

1. Heat oven to 450 F. Toss berries with sugar, thickener, salt, and spices. Pile into the chilled pie crust.
2. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and add streusel topping. Bake for another 40-50 minutes at reduced heat of 350 F until pie is golden brown. Cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing.