Pears with Blue Cheese

It's not rocket science.  It's just a simple, fast, delicious fall treat if you like blue cheese.  An un-peeled pear half with a dollop of blue cheese where the seeds have been scooped out.  Warm for 20-30 seconds in the microwave.  Eat with your hands.  Elevate with a drizzle of honey and/or a few broken pecan pieces.  

Fresh Peach Pie

I spent a little time earlier in August worrying about whether I would be able to get peaches this year, so when I had a chance to get some (without waking at an ungodly hour, driving 30 minutes to get in line at the orchard and wait half the day--with two little kids, yeah right!) I bought a LOT!  We ended up canning and freezing about 52 quarts of peaches after we'd eaten some fresh and made a cobbler and a few pies.

Aren't they pretty . . . ?

My sister-in-law introduced me to this pie recipe the week before I got my peaches, and I loved it!  It uses fresh peach slices held together with a gelatin/cornstarch/water mixture and chilled rather than cooked.  I used a mix-in-the-pan pie crust (like this one) to keep things simple.  The crust is a bit crumblier than rolled pastry, but it is rich and delicious and goes nice with the fresh fruit.

The recipe I used for the filling (and the crust too) was from my trusty Esther Shank "Mennonite Country-Style Recipes" cookbook (simply referred to as "Esther Shank" by myself and others) and was quite similar to the one you'll find here.  I used only a 1/2 cup of sugar and omitted the corn syrup since I don't tend to keep that on hand.  I loved this pie and only wish I still had fresh peaches on hand to make some more.  My post-partum waistline can probably do without, though.  =) 

Pie Again

I posted what has become my favorite rhubarb pie recipe last summer when I first made it with rhubarb and blueberries.  This year I tried it with frozen--thawed--sliced strawberries, and it turned out fantastic again!  And pretty.

If you've got rhubarb, you really should try this simply delicious recipe!  And don't be afraid to use frozen rhubarb either--I dumped mine straight out of the freezer bag into the pie crust before it went in the oven and the texture was perfect.

Apple Pie: Two Ways

About a month ago I got all these apples at an Amish farm about 1/2 hour from where we live. Some of them were delicious and we made applesauce with them. Then others were just plain . . . plain (this is not an Amish joke).  They were bland. And I've been thinking of ways to use them (I think there are actually about a dozen still left). One of my ideas was to use them for jazzed-up pies. 

The first pie (pictured on the right) was traditional, the way my husband makes them: sliced apples piled high, then dumped out and tossed with lemon juice, sugar, and cinnamon and dumped back in. Or something like that. He usually finishes his apple pies off with a crumb topping, but I had plenty of pastry dough so I double-crusted mine.  Spoiler: this turned out to be the better of the two pies.  If it ain't broke, right?

The second way was an experiment for peanut-butter apple pie. My idea was to simply make crumbs as for a peanut butter pudding pie (peanut butter mixed with powdered sugar) and layer that with the apple slices. Sounds good, right? It turned out okay. Which is to say the crumbs kinda just got wet, and the apples didn't seem to cook through as well as they did in the traditional pie. Was it too many vents (cute hearts though they be?) that let the steam out instead of trapping it to cook the apples? Who knows. But I think if I tried this another time, I would make some sort of creamy peanut butter sauce and just put it under the apples because--as my apple-pie-expert husband points out--when you eat apples with peanut butter it's normally just a smear of peanut butter on one side of the apple. At least that's how we do it around here. 

 Any other suggestions?

Pop!

Well, I'm not entirely sure it was worth the time and effort, but I wanted to try out a collage sometime, and here it is!  (Don't look too close at the edges--Atticus is about to wake up, and I don't feel like going back into the project and changing it again!)

I made some peach yogurt pops last week to freeze in my cheap-o mini pop molds.  As you can see, I like to eat mine by scraping my teeth down the sides.  The yogurt melts slowly, allowing you plenty of time to enjoy the creamy fruity goodness as you take a break from washing dishes or sneak outside to satisfy a mid-afternoon food craving.  Who, me?

Once I'd worked my way down to about a 1/3 of pop's original size, I stashed it back in the freezer for someone else's afternoon craving.  It was well-enjoyed both times.

Really, these pops are just yogurt, peaches, a teensy bit of sugar, and vanilla.  So there's no harm in eating one for breakfast and no need to feel sneaky about eating one any other time of day!  Plus, mine are small.

Yogurt Fruit Pops

Equal amounts:

fresh or frozen fruit

yogurt

sugar to taste

dash of vanilla or other complimentary flavoring

Do it!  Whiz all together in a blender and pour into molds.  If you don't have popsicle molds, just use a cup or small yogurt container, cover with foil, and put a popsicle stick in it.  Freeze and enjoy!

Peaches & [S]cream

The morning started innocently enough.  Baby slept through the night [insert lots of "!" here], something I've been complaining about the last week.  So I awoke at 7:00, blissfully went back to sleep, and woke again at 8:00.  Diaper change, nurse.  

I knew David had been up awhile already so I told him I'd make pancakes and bring some to him in his office when they were ready.  Little A was happily entertaining himself with toys, the Bumbo seat tray, etc.  I began mixing up the pancakes from a recipe out of the "Luarel's Kitchen" cookbook.  As I was getting ready to add some sweet cream buttermilk powder to my other dry ingredients (I know this, because later I found the cup measure with buttermilk powder still in it sitting on top of the other ingredients in the mixing bowl) I heard a loud thud and scream.  

This is not the sound a mother wants to hear when she's had her back to her child for the last 10 minutes.  

I whipped around as I heard David also bounding down the steps.  In a moment I saw what had happened.  My son was sitting on the floor by the cookbook shelf with the object below lying next to his foot:

OUCH!  OUCH!  and OUCH!    Oh, my poor boy!  He was scrEAMing!  And rightfully so; I weighed the iron later at 6.5 pounds.  It fell on his left big toe, scraping a good bit of skin off and doing who knows what to his toe bone. Well, needless to say, pancakes were hastily abandoned as we phoned Dr. Grandpa and scrambled to gather gauze, children's acetaminophen, and ice for the ride over.  One of us had to hold Little A the whole time to keep him from grabbing/kicking his hurt toe.

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's still screaming and uncertain about what the rest of our day might look like.  Well, triage nurse Grandma and Dr. Grandpa quickly assessed the toe, bandaged it, and supplied animal crackers while I nursed to keep him as still as possible.  All in all, he seemed to recover well, especially when Grandpa got some of that acetaminophen down his throat.  

About an hour after the "thud" we were home with instructions to leave the bandage in place as long as possible and administer acetaminophen as needed for pain.  Little A got another diaper change and some more milk and went down for a nap.  David returned to his office upstairs.

And me?  

Well, it was back to the pancakes.  We all needed a little treat to help recover.  I finished mixing up the batter, adding a little extra flour to make it less runny.  While the first few pancakes sizzled in the skillet I thawed some peaches and threw some sugar/cornstarch/water mix on the stove to heat. Once thawed, the peaches were dumped in along with a little drizzle of almond flavoring.  And a few hours after they were promised, I had a stack of pancakes ready to take to David . . . 

And of course, one BIG one (the stack was just too messy to do twice) for me.  Little A, who loves pancakes and fruit got some for an early lunch when he woke up.  And now you know why this blog post title is "Peaches and [S]cream".  Here's to a hopefully uneventful rest of the day.

Fruit Sauce for Pancakes:

1 cup fresh or frozen peach slices (or any other fruit)
1 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP cornstarch
1/3 cup cold water
drizzle of almond or vanilla flavoring

Thaw peaches if frozen.  Dissolve sugar and cornstarch in water and set on stove over med-high heat.  When peaches are thawed add to mix along with flavoring.  Stir occasionally, and let bubble until the juices are clear.  Remove from heat.

Ginger Peach Slushie

Well, they didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped. How's that for an opening line? [pause while I watch a youtube video about how to replace my left shift key] So, it didn't turn out specatularly, but the slushie was a pretty color and refreshing.  And when temps top 90+ that counts for something.  I started by making a ginger brew on the stove, which I sweetened a little, cooled with ice, then dumped into the blender (ginger chunks and all!) with a good dose of frozen peach slices, more ice, and water to make it blend.  Which is what made it bland. 

I think another time I would use a mild fruit juice (apple, for example) to loosen it up as it blends instead of water.  Not a bad first attempt, but has room to improve for sure!

Bl[h]u[e]barb Pie

When we were in Virginia a few weeks ago I hastily harvested all the rhubarb I could get off our plants there.  I brought it back to Pennsylvania and stashed it in the fridge where it waited.  Waited.  Waited . . .   (It seems like this is a pretty common story on this blog--I somehow procure a special ingredient, then have to mull over how to use it for a week or so until the fear of it finally rotting away in the fridge catapults me into action).  

So, where were we?  Ah--waiting rhubarb.  So patient.  I finally started going through my favorite sources to find a good rhubarb recipe that would do justice to my (our) hopes that were about three years in the making--dreaming about, talking about, finding, planting, re-planting, waiting out the first season, and finally harvesting rhubarb!  When it comes to pies or cakes or cookies, I always check out my Mennonite cookbooks first.  I wasn't too inspired by the cooked fillings and the cliche strawberry-rhubarb combination.  Next stop--Allrecipes.com where I came across this.  I LOVE simple recipes that allow the main ingredients to "sing" as the author of the recipe says.  

After reading the reviews I decided to make a few changes.  And of course, I had to be short on one ingredient:  rhubarb.  The recipe calls for four cups, chopped, and I only came up with three.  Which is how it came to be Bl[h]u[e]barb pie.  Read on.

Bl[h]u[e]barb Pie (or Berry Berry Rhubarb)

Crust for 9-in. pie top and bottom (if you use a little lard---wowza!)
3 cups rhubarb, diced
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup sugar
6 TBSP all-purpose flour

Instructions:  Make your crust, roll out the bottom, place in pan, and let sit in the refrigerator while you chop the rhubarb.  Place an oven rack to the bottom-most position in the oven and preheat the oven to 450F, then go ahead and chop that rhubarb!  I actually diced it so the pieces were about the same size as a large blueberry.  Next, mix together the sugar and flour and scatter about a 1/4 cup onto the bottom pie crust.  Fill with your diced rhubarb and berries, spreading the berries evenly throughout.  Sprinkle the remaining sugar/flour mix over the fruit and top with another crust, cutting a vent (I made a curly "C" for our last name in case you were wondering what that design was on the opening picture).  Bake at 450F for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350F and bake an additional 45 - 50 minutes or until crust is browned to your liking.

Cook's word(s):  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  YUM.  First, the smidgen of lard I put in the crust must have done something miraculous because it was tender, flaky, etc., etc. every word that describes a delectable crust.  Next, the flavor was excellent--the blueberries added a sweet little twist, but there was also no mistaking the rhubarb.  And, finally the texture.  One of my complaints about fruit pies is how they ooze and puddle when you slice them.  Not so with this pie.  The flour must cook in to the juices so that when it cools to holds up under pressure, so that each slice is a nice, distinct even piece of the pie.  That's my girl.  A simple recipe, a seconds-worthy result.  What are you waiting for?  Don't think you have to use blueberries either because I bet this would be equally tasty with a cup of almost any berry: sliced strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, or a combination (which is why I had the alternative name Berry Berry Rhubarb).  Go get cookin'!

Strawberry Cake

Remember back when I was sorting those five cases of 1/2-molded strawberries? Probably not. I sure remember it though. And I've got loads of crushed berries in the freezer waiting to be used.

I got out a bag the week before Easter to make this cake as an early birthday surprise for my mother-in-law. The recipe is one of the few I found that actually uses real strawberries instead of strawberry-flavored gelatin (and a cake mix!). It is moist and just lovely with a zesty lemon icing. Best eaten the day it's made or the following day. The one I pictured above is a 1/2 recipe baked in a 9-inch round pan. I would recommend waiting to put any sliced berries on top until just before you serve the cake. I did mine ahead and they bled a bit by the time we ate it. Still delicious, but not as pristine looking. =)

Pavlova

I spent my last Saturday before moving out-of-state sorting five cases of 1/2-molded strawberries. And I spent a good deal of time the next few days looking up, modifying, and executing some killer strawberry recipes. One of them was this:

Ah, Pavlova! (I'm just going to keep capitalizing it since it's named after a person) I think my sister-in-law thought I was fibbing when I told her it's a New Zealand/Australian dessert named after a Russian ballerina. But it's true. The lovely mounded meringue base does sort-of resemble a tutu after all--a light, marshmallow-y, melt-in-your-mouth, caramel-y tutu. Mmmmm . . .

You start this amazing dessert with 4 egg whites. Beat and beat them until softly-peaked (I started having nightmares about angel food cake). Then add 1 cup of sugar one tablespoon at a time (I used half turbinado, half brown). Fold in one teaspoon each of vanilla and lemon juice along with two teaspoons of cornstarch.

Next comes the fun part. On a crinkled and cornstarch be-sprinkled parchment, spread out the glossy meringue into a circle, mounded a little at the edges. I marked my parchment with a 9-inch circle so the Pavlova would fit into a certain cake cover. The meringue ended up spreading waaaay past that line, so make it smaller than you want it.

Bake this shell at 300F for an hour, then turn off the heat, crack the oven door, and let it cool to room temperature (even overnight if you like!).

Next comes another fun part! Whipping cream! I whipped about 2/3 pint of cream with a little confectioners sugar and vanilla. Mound this up inside the meringue and top with sliced fruit. I read that strawberries and kiwis are the most popular to use. Strawberries I have. Had.

EAT!

Crockpot Apple Butter

This really makes the house smell glorious, and it tastes pretty good too. I started my apple butter project at Thanksgiving by buying some apples intended for this purpose. At two months, there was one completely rotten apple and a few that were on their way out. Fast!

Yesterday I peeled and cored what was still good of the apples and sliced them up into my crockpot. The apples filled the crockpot (pictured below) right up to the lid. I added two cinnamon sticks (about 3 inches long each), about 10 whole cloves, and a little water to prevent the apples from burning on the bottom. I cooked them on high for about an hour just to get things going, and then turned it down to low. These babies cooked a full 24 hours, through our slumbering and into the following afternoon. I stirred them as I thought about them.

This afternoon I fished out the cinnamon sticks, ladled the brown, juicy mass into a blender with a cup of sugar, a dash of vanilla, a pinch of salt, and a bit of grated fresh nutmeg and whizzed for a few minutes until smooth. It looked like what you see in the picture.

After eating a full slice of toast slathered with butter and hot apple butter, I had to eat another half. Just to make sure I really liked the flavor. =)

Yep. It's a winner!

Cran-Cayenne Jam

After an early snow and frost, I had to salvage what hot peppers I could quickly. Their texture was no longer good for canning as rings in sauce, so I came up with this sweet, tart, spicy jam instead. YUM! And the color is absolutely stunning. Now it sits in the fridge, just waiting to be processed in cute little jars (for Christmas presents?) . . .


Cran-Cayenne Jam

2 pkg. fresh, whole cranberries (24 oz.)--sorted and washed
1/2 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. vinegar
3 c. (1/2 lb.) fresh, whole cayenne peppers
3 c. sugar
1 pkg. (1.75 oz.) powdered pectin
water (as desired to achieve the consistency you like)

In a food processor, chop (or grind as fine as you like--I personally like a little texture to my jam) the cranberries and peppers. Combine in a large stock pot with the remaining ingredients and cook until the mixture thickens to the consistency you like (it will cook another 15 minutes later if you process it by boiling water method). Taste and correct sugar/lemon juice/water according to your taste. That's it! Not sure of the yield as I've used a good bit already and haven't canned the remainder yet.


Cook's Word: This is spicy!!! by itself, but less so on bread. In the picture above I served it with bread and cream cheese, placed under a broiler until slightly toasted before adding the jam. I briefly thought about adding some apples to the jam too for more sweetness without using more sugar, but I liked how peppery it was, so I let it be in the end.

Fish and Mango Burritos

I can never resist a just-ripe mango at a good price. Unfortunately, I often think they're too special to eat right away and end up waiting until a few over-ripe spots appear before taking the plunge. On this occasion, it was with fish. The mango was diced into a fresh salsa of onion, red pepper, lime juice and basil, spooned over cooked tilapia filets, topped with cheese . . .

. . . and rolled into a flour tortilla, drizzled with olive oil, and placed in the toaster oven at 350F for about 30 minutes.

I had some leftover mango salsa, so I stir fried it quick and we ate it over our rice at dinner.

Fig Birds

I came across this idea on the Martha Stewart website when I was hunting inspiration for the rest of my fresh figs. Of course, I could have just eaten all of them fresh and loved every bit of it. But hey, figs with soft cheese . . . sounded too good not to try. While Martha used blue cheese and pecans in her figs, I went for goat cheese because I love goat cheese and would rather have that left over than blue. What can I say?

Once the figs are washed and the hard bit of stem removed from the top, cut them open as seen in the picture above and stuff a little nugget of cheese inside--I have to admit, the pungency of blue cheese probably would have tasted fabulous with my mildly sweet figs, but no regrets!

After the cheese is in, wrap with a slice of prosciutto and secure with a toothpick. I drizzled mine with a teeny, teeny bit of both balsamic vinegar and olive oil, then dashed them with some fresh-ground black pepper.

I did this twice in the same week. The first time I baked the figs in my toaster oven, but I thought the prosciutto got a little tough that way, so the second time I broiled them just until they sizzled a bit and I could see some juices dripping.

Don't they look like darling, hungry little birds?!? I loved the sweetness/juiciness of the fig along with creamy goat cheese and subtly wine-flavored meat. Mmmmm . . . I'm a hungry little bird!

Fig and Sausage Borek

"Borek" is a Turkish word meaning a stuffed phyllo pastry, usually in a triangle shape. But this is not a Turkish recipe. It is one of my own creation, born of the delight of finding fresh figs at one of my favorite quirky grocery stores.

The first time I tasted a fresh fig, I was nothing less than transported. I remember the grocery store I found them in, my curiosity and hesitancy. The first bite through the soft skin and into the succulent center burst onto my tongue and into my brain like stepping out of a dark house into a sweetly warm summer afternoon. The fresh fig does not blow you away with an intensity of flavor so much as it softly, surely seduces you. That first bite is forever branded into my physical memory, such that no other fig experience can some close to it.

The figs I bought this week were, predictably, shipped in from California. Bruised and battered from the long trip, they bore some resemblance to my "primal fig" but tasted watered down (though they did photograph beautifully, no?).

I decided it wouldn't be a travesty to cook them into something. Something worthy of that half-bottle of white wine waiting to be finished off. Quick check of available ingredients:
phyllo dough: check
figs: duh
sausage that also needs to be used very soon!: check
onions: check
olive oil: check
goat cheese: sorry (oh, so very sorry!)
old labaneh: check
egg: check
sage: check
salt and pepper: check, check
other cheese: check (mozzarella)

So! Sausage and Fresh Fig Borek with Sage and Mozzarella. Sounds like a title fit for any gourmet cookbook.

I got some onions sizzling in olive oil on the stove to which I added the sausage. Meanwhile, into about a cupful of old labaneh (a thick strained-yogurt cheese, if you're new to the blog) I whisked an egg along with some salt and pepper. I read the instructions on the phyllo dough box. Time sensitive stuff apparently, so I assembled (as suggested) all my ingredients in small bowls. Quartered fresh figs. Shredded mozzarella. My labaneh stuff and the sausage/onion mix, to which was added some fresh snipped sage.

Working as quickly as I could with my unskilled phyllo fingers, I dabbed a bit of this and some of that onto a sheet of phyllo dough folded in half and brushed with olive oil. It looked like this:

I then proceeded to clumsily fold them into triangles, along the length of the dough with the final little endpiece tucked under to (hopefully) hold it all together. They went onto a baking stone. When all were assembled, it was into the oven at 350F for about 30 minutes.

They came out looking like this:




Not bad for a novice, huh?

I loved the flavor, which improved as they cooled and you could actually taste the individual ingredients rather than just burning your tongue. I loved the sweetness and juiciness of the figs alongside the pungent sausage/onion/sage flavors. I might add more cheese another time and a bit more pepper, but for a first time these little pastries were delectable. They re-crisp rather nicely in the toaster oven the next day, too!

Stovetop Cobbler

Have I mentioned apricot cobbler? I still have a handful or two of fruit wrinkling and waiting in the fridge for me to make into one last cobbler. I tried various methods and really liked the stovetop one--nice not to have to turn on the oven, although cooking on the stove can make you pretty hot too!

I used my cast iron skillet for this creation, and a recipe found here as inspiration. Of course I tweaked it . . .

Stovetop Cobbler
(yield 4 - 6 servings)

4 cups apricots, washed and halved with pits removed
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (depending on your sweet tooth--I liked it a bit tart)
1/4 cup water
1 cup flour, sifted
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP sugar
2 TBSP butter
1/2 cup yogurt

Instructions: Combine first three ingredients in your skillet and cook over medium heat about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. In the meantime stir together flour, baking powder, and the 2 TBSP sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly then stir in yogurt. Drop by spoonfuls onto the fruit filling and cook over low heat another 10 minutes, uncovered. Cover and cook another 10 minutes. Brown under oven broiler prior to serving.

After browning, there's not much to do but scoop it out in to bowls, top with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream and DIG IN! As other seasonal fruit becomes available adapt the recipe to suit (mostly the water and sugar depending on the fruit's sweetness and water content).

Apricot Sausage Pizza

Well, I'd better get crackin' on these apricot recipes if I'm going to post them in July! First up: Apricot Pizza!

Not really a recipe here. Just pizza dough, browned sausage, apricot quarters (with skins), caramelized onions, and goat cheese. Bake at 350F for about 12 minutes then remove and add mozzarella cheese, chopped sage, and lavender and bake another 5 minutes. YUM!

served up with fresh steamed green beans with salt

My taste-tester was skeptical about apricots on pizza but ate half the pie at one sitting! Cook's word: great combination of flavors, but a little dry. I might brush the crust with olive oil first another time.

Ginger-Granny Sauce

I'm taking you back about a month ago, to a Thursday afternoon and making applesauce in my sister-in-law's kitchen. I won't bore you with the whole saga of getting the "wrong" apples (Granny Smith) and then getting the "right" ones (Ginger Gold). Though we had anticipated making our batch of applesauce from just the Ginger Golds, we decided to experiment with what we had on hand. And I'm rather glad we did!

We ended up using all the apples, carefully controlling the ratio of Granny's to Gold's we put in for consistency; it amounted to three parts Ginger Gold to every one part Granny Smith. I thought the Granny's would be terrible for making applesauce because of their tart nature, but they added a much-needed apple-y depth of flavor to the milder/sweeter Golds. We did add some sugar to taste (a scant 1/2-cup for about eight quarts), and I became the proud owner of 19 (now 16) quarts of green-gold applesauce. Many thanks to my mom for the canning jars!

apples in waiting

cookin'

final product

Anniversary Fare

The Uncensored Chef is back from a 1st Anniversary getaway! It was nice to take a little break from the computer. =)

Since we didn't leave for our trip until a few days after our actual anniversary, I made my husband a nice dinner at home. My mom said that we should go out since it was a celebration for both of us, but I love to cook and had such a fun afternoon cooking up this meal (see the menu below)!

Appetizer
Bagel with Cream Cheese, Basil, and Golden Nugget Tomatoes


Salads
Green Salad with Cranberry Stilton Cheese
Basil and Bacon Potato Salad


Entree
Teriyaki Venison Oven Kebab over Brown Rice


Dessert
Rustic Shoofly Tart
Chocolate-dipped Strawberries

I really did spend the whole afternoon cooking! We were both hungry before dinner was ready, so I made the quick little bagel appetizers between chopping and baking . . . toasted bagel spread with cream cheese, topped with fresh, torn basil leaves and sliced golden nugget tomatoes. I added a dash of salt and pepper to complete it.

The venison "oven kebabs" (we don't have a grill) were great fun to do. I found a teriyaki marinade over at allrecipes.com that was meant for beef kebabs. I marinated the venison chunks in the fridge overnight. Prior to baking I added halved mushrooms, thick onion slices, and halved golden nugget tomatoes (our one plant is very productive right now!). I baked it all at 425F for about 20 minutes. Delicious served over brown rice!

For dessert, I wanted to make pie, because we had homemade pies at our wedding instead of cake. One of our favorites: shoofly. I also wanted to do chocolate-dipped strawberries since I'd just found some nice-looking strawberries for a good price. My dilemma: too much dessert. To solve the problem, I made a shoofly tart, using just half a recipe for the filling (we joked that it was a half-calorie pie!). I rolled the crust into a rough circle, big enough to fill a 9-inch pie plate to the rim. I put some of the crumbs onto the crust, ladled in the "wet" filling, dumped the rest of the crumbs on top, and gently folded the pie crust over the edge. I was nervous that the filling would bubble up over the crust, but it baked beautifully at 350F for about 20 minutes. It had a nice, moist bottom that night and turned cakier the next day, which made it perfect for an alfresco dessert downtown! The strawberries were yummy too!

Taste-tester spouts off effusively when asked for a comment. I think he's glad he married me.