STARS AND STRIPES PIE

Happy 4th of July!  This week my inbox was flooded with recipes for foods in every shade of red, white, and blue, but one in particular caught my eye.  It was a blueberry and strawberry rhubarb pie that resembled a flag.  The recipe was from Tiny Pies in Austin.  I adapted the recipe only slightly, using all strawberries instead of a mix of strawberries and rhubarb, because I couldn’t find rhubarb anywhere.  It was fun to make, easy as pie really.  🙂

STARS AND STRIPES PIE
Author: 
Recipe type: Cakes and Pies
 
Ingredients
  • I package refrigerated pie crust (2 crusts)
  • Blueberry filling:
  • 1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • Pinch of ground ginger
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • Strawberry filling:
  • 4 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered
  • Juice from ½ of an orange:
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. For blueberry filling: In a medium bowl, toss blueberries with lemon juice. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, spices, and cornstarch. Add sugar mixture to blueberries and mix gently until thoroughly combined.
  3. For strawberry filling: In a medium bowl, combine strawberries and orange juice. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, spices, and cornstarch. Add sugar mixture to strawberries and mix gently until thoroughly combined.
  4. Place one pie crust in a 9" pie pan. Add blueberry filling to left corner of pie, then add strawberry filling to remaining area. Cut stars out of half of the second pie crust using a small star cookie cutter, and cut free-hand wavy stripes out of the remaining pie crust. Place stars on top of blueberry filling, place stripes on top of strawberry filling.
  5. Bake until fruit is juicy and bubbling, and crust is light golden brown, about 45 minutes.
  6. Remove from oven and set aside to cool, allowing fruit juices to thicken.

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Blueberry filling

IMG_4499Strawberry filling

IMG_4500 I used pastry cutters to keep the filling in place, but it really wasn’t necessary

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 Stars and stripes

IMG_4505American Pie!

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 My lovely assistant

I also made some Rice Krispie Treats for the holiday:

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See the red and blue cereal?  That’s Fruity Pebbles.  While I sat waiting for a batch of muffins the other morning, I sorted out blue and red ones for my special treats.  Pretty sure I’m gonna want those 20 minutes back at the end of my life.  Especially since my dog Jasper ate most of them off the counter when no one was looking.  He apparently confused Rice Krispie Treats with Dog Treats.  🙂

 

POPPY SEED DRESSING

Memorial Day is a time to remember and give thanks for the many men and women who died while serving in our country’s armed forces.  Because it’s observed on the last Monday in May, it has also come to mark the start of the summer vacation season, and many families use the three-day weekend to spend time together, often culminating in a backyard barbecue.

As I wrote last year, after WWI, poppies became a symbol of remembrance of soldiers who have died in war.  Wearing a poppy on Memorial Day has been a tradition in the U.S. since 1924.  With that in mind, I made Poppy Seed Dressing to serve with our Memorial Day dinner.  I’ll save the red, white, and blue food for the 4th of July. This recipe for Poppy Seed Dressing comes from the late, great Helen Corbitt’s Cook Book.  Helen had an illustrious career as a chef, cookbook author, cooking school instructor and lecturer, and hostess, but she is perhaps most often remembered for her days as manager of the Houston Country Club and the Zodiac Room at Neiman Marcus in Dallas.  Helen died in 1978, but her memory and recipes linger on.

Although Helen was often credited with creating the dressing, she was quick to deny it, but readily admitted to having popularized it.  According to her, it’s delicious on any fruit salad, and goes especially well with grapefruit.   I think it goes nicely with melon.  One of Helen’s most popular salads on her country club buffet was finely shredded red cabbage, sliced avocado, and halved grapes with poppy seed dressing.  A recurring theme in Helen’s cookbooks is her concern that “the men” like the food that was served at parties and gatherings, and according to her, men like this dressing — I’m sure you were worried about that.  Reportedly, “a few even put it on their potatoes.”  🙂  Why not remember someone with a jar of homemade Poppy Seed Dressing this year?

POPPY SEED DRESSING
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon dry mustard
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ⅓ cup white vinegar
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons onion juice*
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
Instructions
  1. Mix together sugar, mustard, salt, and vinegar in a medium bowl. Add onion juice and stir until combined. Add oil slowly, beating constantly with an electric beater, and continuing to beat until thick. (Helen advises: "When you think the mixture is thick enough, beat 5 minutes longer.) Stir in poppy seeds. Store in refrigerator.
*To make onion juice, place a medium onion in a mini chopper or blender and puree. Strain puree through a fine-mesh colander set over a small bowl to catch the onion juice.

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All decked out for Memorial Day.

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Come and get it, men!