Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (no, I'm not 80)

It's always been the misfit pie, the joke pie in my family. As we prize pies with chocolate and drive out of our way to pick up coconut cream pie, we have always made faces about people who chose to eat rhubarb pie when there were other options.

But I was feeling a little antsy and a little fired up yesterday, so when I encountered rhubarb at the farmer's market I felt up for the challenge. As usual I only sort of measured (i.e. The lady in front of me in line said she was making a rhubarb pie so I just told the cashier to give me the same amount that lady got, which was $4 worth, which my dad did the math to figure out was about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lbs.). I have a new love (a natural true love with a big green leaf...ok I watch too many Truvia commercials).

Prepare the rhubarb: Ok, let me just suggest you google this because I am no expert! My rhubarb was all red on bottom and transitioned to all green on top. I trimmed off the bottom red ends and cut off the top at the point where it was more green than red. I learned that you are supposed to use a peeler and shave off some of the outsides of the red bottom if they are stringy. I also learned that the leaves are (supposedly- according to the interwebs and my grandma) poisonous- don't eat those. Wash the trimmed rhubarb, then chop into small pieces about the size of the tip of your pinkie finger.

What I made: 4 small (6 inch) pies with lattice top crust (I actually made 5 and two had no top and they weren't totally full, so you should make 4 with this recipe). You could probably make one full 9 inch pie with a lattice top or full crust top, but lattice is prettier!

You'll need:

• 4 6 inch pie pans (or 1 9 inch)
• 1 (2 piece) store bought pie crust (or make your own, but I don't if I don't have to)
• as much rhubarb as the lady in front of you (ask a lady who looks older than your mom, she'll be impressed you even know what rhubarb is and be happy to give you guidance!), or about 1 1/2 lbs.
• 1 cup white sugar (or more, my grandpa said it could use more, I liked it tart)
• 1 1/2 c. (approx.) strawberries (washed, trimmed, cut into smallish pieces)
• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• nutmeg (I gave it 2 shakes from the spice bottle)
• cinnamon (I gave it a bunch of shakes, let's guess 1/2 to 1 tsp.)
• vanilla (I gave it 2 splashes, let's guess 1/2 Tbsp? aren't I helpful?)
• the online recipes all call for some kind of citrus (a little orange or lemon zest or lemon juice), but I forgot it and didn't miss it at all

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put chopped rhubarb and sliced strawberries together in a large mixing bowl. Pour in remaining ingredients over the strawberry and rhubarb. Use a large spoon to gently stir until all of the ingredients are well mixed and the rhubarb and strawberries are all covered in the sugary, powdery mix. Set this aside while you prepare the crust; doing this step first allows some juice to gather on the bottom of this mixture.

Lay bottom crust in the pie pan(s) making sure to gently push the bottom all the way around the edges (so it won't tear when you fill it). If using 4 little pans you will need one whole crust piece and about 1/4 of the 2nd one; you'll have to squash it together, divide it into 4 balls, and roll it to fit your pans- just thin enough to cover the bottom and sides of the pan.

Stir the rhubarb strawberry mix again to pull the juice from the bottom over all the fruit (vegetable? what is rhubarb? weird!). Pour this into the pie crust(s). If dividing it among pies, be sure that the juicy goodness in the bottom gets split over all the pies (or put it all in one awesome pie and keep that one for yourself!).

Prepare the lattice crust for the top. You have two options- fancy and not-so-fancy. We did not so fancy because we were in a hurry. For this just cut the top into strips (be sure you have enough if you made multiple pies) and lay all the ones going one direction, leaving space between them for the pretty red mix to show through. then rotate the pie one-quarter turn and lay the same number of strips going the other direction. For fancier you would actually weave these. It's not that hard and involves folding back the "top" pieces while covering the "bottoms" then switching what is a top and what is a bottom. Watch a google video, it will make way more sense!

Place the pie pan(s) on top of a baking sheet (they may overflow) and bake uncovered until the crust is a light golden brown (I used a convection oven so this took nearly 20 minutes), then cover with foil. Poke some holes in the foil to vent and continue baking until your total baking time reaches about 45 minutes (for smaller pies in a convection oven, probably need longer for a big pie and a regular oven, possibly up to 60 minutes). If you can snag a little piece of rhubarb through a hole- all you are going for is really tender rhubarb and semi-thick pie filling.

Enjoy with vanilla ice cream. Really, give it a try. Rhubarb is weird, but delicious!