Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I think my love of Strawberry Rhubarb pie began about 15 years ago on a family trip to Maine.  It was a great trip, and can I tell you those ladies in Maine know how to make amazing pies.  As luck would have it many of them sold pies from there kitchen.  So as we drove through the various towns and saw "Homemade Pies For Sale" we stopped.

Interestingly enough just after I posted about the Plant City strawberries, my sister-in-law gave me a new cookbook, and sure enough - it had a recipe for a Strawberry Rhubarb pie.  I could hardly wait to try it out. Now this is different from the Strawberry Rhubarb pie of my memory, but I optimistically gave it a whirl.

I think the pie turned out wonderful.  Better yet, it was very easy to make.

Here's the adapted recipe:

Stir together: 1 1/2 c sugar, 1/4 c flour, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 3 eggs - lightly beaten

Gently fold in 2 cups of sliced strawberries and 2 cups of chopped rhubarb.

Pour mixture into an uncooked pie shell

(You can use whatever pie crust you like.  I like Martha Stewart's Pie crust recipe, but I will admit with this I just used Pillsbury Pie Crust.)

For the top of the pie, mix together 1/2 c flour, 1/4 c sugar

Then cut in 1/3 c butter until crumbly

Sprinkle over top of pie.

Bake in the center of a 400 degree oven for 55 minutes.  Check crust at 30 minutes and cover if necessary.

Let cool at least 30 minutes before cutting to allow the pie to set up.

Strawberries in Florida

Well it would be sad if I totally missed sharing a post with you on strawberries.  Being in Florida at this time of year means strawberries, Plant City strawberries too.  Why would I choose that area?  Well, my mom was born and raised in Plant City and her father actually farmed there as she and her siblings were growing up.  Of course like most of the other farmers there – he grew strawberries (among a variety of things).  My mom remembers having a break in school so that the families could work in the fields picking the berries. 

It is such a big deal for that area that they even have a Strawberry Festival – actually today was the last day of the fair. Even without the fair one can visit Parkesdale Farms for a variety of strawberry items.  I recommend the milkshake myself.

We love strawberries.  A favorite of my sister and her daughter is fresh strawberries with sweetened condensed milk drizzled over them.  My mom - she likes strawberry shortcake, but she prefers making hers with a yellow sheet cake instead of a biscuit.  Me - I like strawberry rhubarb pie. 

So I am in pursuit of a really good recipe for pie.  I'll share some of our favorite strawberry recipes with you throughout the month and I'll keep you posted on my search for the perfect strawberry rhubarb pie.

Photo Credit: ThinkStock

I'm not sure what fields are still open, but here is a website listing U-Pick strawberry fields.

Shutters

I am in pursuit of shutters. Not to buy of course; my husband would never think of such when he is perfectly capable of making them himself. So I have some time to think.

I love French style in all it's forms - French Provincial, Rococo, Empire,... so when we were working on redoing the outside of our house I looked at as many images of French cottages as I could find. The shutters were certainly a big part of that plan; however, here we are five years later and still no shutters. I am in hopes this will be the year.

So I thought I would share a few images with you that I love.

More on the Kitchen

OK, so I have gotten a few questions from my last post regarding the kitchen where I shared some pictures of my kitchen.  For starters, yes that is my kitchen. It photographed really well. I was happy, but in reality it is much smaller than it appears.  Second, that is what my cabinets look like, for the most part.  I do periodically go through and clean my cabinets, reorganize them, and such.  Obviously I took the pictures right after I had tidied up - come on, we all want to look our best for photos.

But really, I do keep my pantries looking like that for the most part.  For me I need order to feel calm, and for a period of time I was a bit under the weather and I had a lot of different people in my house helping.  If I kept my pantry in order, it was much easier for them to figure out where things went. Not to mention much easier for me to find when I needed something.

This week I thought I would share some kitchen's I found online that I love.  They helped give me some inspiration on how to put mine in order.  Hope you enjoy!

From the Martha Stewart Studio Kitchen

Another great blog post from Food for My Family

you should check it out!

More from Martha Stewart

source Martha Stewart

Burgers

I am the sister who lives on the east coast – Florida to be exact.  And about once a month I get to go up to Jacksonville.  Sometimes I have a pretty full schedule, but sometimes I have a little bit of time to explore.  Yesterday was one of those days.  I also had the pleasure of having my husband with me.

I have mentioned that we like to eat and lately I have been in pursuit of really good burgers.  Not sure why, but I just have been craving them.  As we were scanning some of our usual favorites on beachside we noticed a new place – M Shack Burgers, so we thought we’d give it a try.

I am so HAPPY we did!  This was a great little place.   

Only open for a couple of months, it is the newest in restaurants by brothers David and Matthew Medure (they have other restaurants in the area; Matthew's Restaurant in San Marco and Restaurant Medure in Ponte Vedra Beach, plus Take Away Gourmet in San Marco).
 I can’t say I have ever eaten at the others, but I will certainly put them on my list of must tries.

As for the M Shack Burger, it was very crisp and clean, simple menu, and great prices. 

 I tried to take a few pictures, but only had my phone with me. Sorry…

 I had the Bacon Cheeseburger and Sweet Potato Tots

Sorry honey!

If you are ever in Atlantic Beach stop in for a great burger,
yummy sweet potato tots, and a real milkshake – we shared the Banana Foster!