25.9.10

Pie in the Sky


Oh Pie, how I love thee. Yes I do think Pie deserves a capital P. It's that important. I didn't always like Pie but Jess showed me the way. He makes a mean apple Pie. Now that we have a very prolific rhubarb plant in the garden, he makes a very nasty rhubarb Pie as well. The problem with Jess and I is our lack of control when it comes to eating too much Pie. Why oh why does Pie have to make me fat? Can't it be mean and kind to my figure all at the same time?

When Jess and I starting dating we became happy fat. We both enjoyed eating good food and it started to show. We really needed our friends to do an intervention, but it should of been clear to us as well. One obvious sign occurred during a Saturday afternoon. We had been out late the night before and planned to hunker down in our apartment and watch a few movies. We decided to make some hoagie sandwiches for a snack. When we got to the deli and bought our bread, we had a revelation. Instead of making two sandwiches, we could get our loaf of light rye sliced horizontally and make a giant loaf sized hoagie that we could graze on for hours. It was brilliant, and delicious. I think we grew two sizes just from that afternoon.

We've slimmed down slightly since then but Pie keeps calling us back. Even though Jess makes a mean Pie, I'm going to give you my Aunty Sara's pie recipe.

Aunty Sara's Rhubarb Pie

Crust
2 cups of self rising flour
1/2 cup of vegetable shortening
1/2 cup of margarine
2 tsp sugar
1/3 cup water

Filling
4 cups diced rhubarb
2 cups sugar
2 tsp cornstarch

For the crust, combine all ingredients except water in a bowl. Crumble it with your fingers until all the crumbs stick together. My aunt's trick is that you crumble and lift at the same time, so the crumbs fall into the bowl. You want to get the air into the crust so it doesn't taste too heavy when you bake it. Slowly pour in water until your dough starts to form. You may not need as much water as I've listed but it'll be close to it. Form into a ball, and roll out on a floured surface. Try and roll out the dough only once, and handle it as little as possible. Cover a greased pie plate and shave off the extra dough. If you are making a covered pie, roll out another circle from left over dough and set aside.
For the filling, combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Fill pie plate with filling and cover with leftover dough. Pinch sides of plate to keep filling in.
Bake at 400 C for 50 minutes.

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