Strawberry Rhubarb love

I can remember very clearly the first time I ever tasted a strawberry rhubarb pie. It was during a visit to Windsor, Canada to visit my mother's cousin and her family. I was about five years old and before that visit the only pies I had tasted were apple (my mom's enormous-great-wall-of-china apple pie, to be specific.) I remember the moment like it was yesterday-the sun shining into the open kitchen where my mother's cousin presented me with a slice of this gorgeous golden-brown pie, the glossy red and pink fruits housed inside just bursting to be freed from their crust-bonds (and into my tummy.) And since that first bite of sweet/tart/strawberry-rhubarbedy goodness I've been hooked on everything strawberry rhubarb. However, oddly enough until this afternoon I had not made a strawberry rhubarb anything in my own kitchen.

I had some leftover empanada dough and decided to use it to make a pie. I think real pie crust is probably better (it's fluffier and flakier) but this dough was a huge hit and a pie was a great way to use the leftovers (as would be a tart or a quiche, I'm sure...) I hadn't decided what kind of pie I was going to make with the dough but during my midday trip to the grocery store the sale on strawberries decided for me. Professor hubs said it was the best pie he'd ever had (biased much?) but I can attest that it is really delicious. If you've never had strawberry rhubarb pie it's a sort of bright, tart and sweet flavor.

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB PIE

3 cups rhubarb stalks cut into 1/2 inch pieces. (pull of outside stringy layer of stalks, like celery strings. It's kinda fun....also discard any leaves which are poisonous!)

1 to 1.5 cup strawberries, stemmed and sliced

1 cup of sugar (you could probably use even less if your strawberries are really sweet.)

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

zest of one lemon

sprinkle of dried ginger

sprinkle of cinnamon

unbaked pastry crust for two-crust pie

Preheat oven to 4oo. In a large bowl combine all ingredients except pastry crust. Mix well. Allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Put buttom layer of crust into prepared pie pan. Pour in fruit mixture. Top with other layer of pastry crust and pinch/crimp together edges. Cut a few slits in the top crust for ventilation. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. then lower heat to 350 for 30 minutes. You may need to cover the edges with foil if they are browning too quickly. Remove from heat and allow to cool before serving. If you like warm fruit pies the juices will be runnier than if you allow them to cool to room temperature. In a word: YUM!