Strawberry Pie

In a moment of weakness I bought four pounds of strawberries at Costco this week. Okay, it wasn't really a moment of weakness...the boy and I love strawberries, and the per pound price worked out to be way cheaper than buying them at the grocery store. In one of my many cookbooks, I had recently seen a recipe for a strawberry pie. And of course I couldn't find it for the life of me once I actually had strawberries to use. :(

(The first part of this may seem like a tangent but really it's not...stick with me here.) The husband is from Louisiana...don't know if I've shared that. Probably I have. Anyway, the first time we went to visit we drove from Phoenix to New Orleans (which we quickly vowed we would never, EVER do again...Texas is just too damn big to drive across). Somewhere in Louisiana, he pointed out that we were in the strawberry capital of the south, or something like that. So as I was wracking my brain to figure out where that freakin' pie recipe had been, I saw my "Best of the Best Louisiana" cookbook and checked it. This wasn't where I had seen the recipe as I hadn't looked at that cookbook in quite some time, but there was a strawberry pie recipe in there, so I jumped all over it.

Strawberry Pie
1 quart fresh strawberries
3/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp corn starch
1 cup whipped cream
1 9-inch pastry shell (baked)

Place all but one cup berries in the bottom of baked pastry shell. Spread out well and set aside. In a saucepan, simmer the other cup of berries in 3/4 cup water for 5 minutes. Add sugar and blend well. Add corn starch. After mixture thickens, add lemon juice. Cook until clear. Pour sauce over berries in shell. Chill in fridge and top with whipped cream.

*****

I think I used more strawberries than called for. I put one quart less one cup into the pie crust (oh, I halved the strawberries by the way) and it didn't look like enough, so I cut up a few more. I also don't think I had the stove hot enough for simmering. After I put in the sugar and corn starch, it wasn't getting thick at all so I turned up the heat a bit, and that did the trick. The strawberries started to fall apart a bit, too, which is what I had expected in the first place. And mine didn't turn clear like the recipe says, it was a nice reddish-pink color.

I of course had to sample a piece last night, and it was really yummy. I didn't have any whipped cream, but I thought it was fine without. This was pretty easy to make, too. Definitely something I'd make again.