Nothing says summer like a fresh fruit pie!

I decided to escape town for the Memorial Day holiday last weekend.  I didn't go anywhere exciting, just home for a nice relaxing weekend.  While there I grabbed some fresh rhubarb from my dad's garden.  Rhubarb is an interesting vegetable because usually it is treated more like a fruit than a vegetable.  It's very tart, so it's often paired with fruits especially strawberries.

After church today, we are having a potluck and I thought what better way to make use of the rhubarb than to bake a couple of strawberry rhubarb pies.  The recipe is from a friend of the family and I've tweaked it a little bit.  I will admit that I was feeling lazy and tired, so the bottom crusts are store bought, but the pies still look amazing.

The recipe calls for about 3 cups of chopped rhubarb, some sugar and some strawberry jello.  I've also added some fresh strawberries and a little cornstarch to help thicken it up.  You mix all of the filling goodness together and then put it in a pie shell.  

This recipes calls for a crumb top crust.  The top crust is a stick of butter, a cup of flour, and a cup of sugar.  I think next time I would only use a 1/2 cup of the sugar and flour.  You cut the butter into the flour and sugar and then cover the pie.

I placed the pies on a lined cookie sheet just in case the juices overflowed, which they did.  I baked the pies for about 10 mins at 400 and then lowered the temperature to 350 and let the pies go another 40-50 mins or until the top crust in golden brown.

I super excited to cut into this beautiful pie.  I tasted a bit of the overflowed juices and it's super yummy.  The perfect balance of tartness from the rhubarb along with the sweetness from the strawberries.  Rhubarb is most often used in pies, cobblers, and jams, but I've also used it for a sauce/glaze for meat.  So if you've never really cooked with rhubarb you should try out this spring/early summer vegetable/fruit.  Enjoy the summer and Happy Cooking!!!