summer lovin: strawberry rhubarb pie

It's been feeling summery around here (read: steamy and suffocating with rain at any moment), so Izzy and I took an extraordinarily cheap flight from Cheaptickets.com home ($140 round-trip!) for a long weekend of relaxing with Mom and Dad in Western PA.

It's been 6 months since I was last home (at Christmas! Can you believe it?!) and I can't let another 6 pass before I'm back. We had burgers on the grill. We had fudge ripple ice cream from down the road. We had lightening bugs and cool evenings. I slept in and took naps. I went to the mall and shopped at Macy's without wanting to tear my hair out or elbowing an old woman for a deal in the shoe section. And we droooove! We rolled down the windows and drove around town and I couldn't have been happier sitting in the passenger seat with the wind blowing in my hair.

I love home!

To kick off the summer months, I picked up fresh strawberries and two stalks of rhubarb (and some shortening - c'mon, it makes the best crusts!) and got to making a summery sweet pie for dessert on Saturday night.

Deb delivered a lovely Lattice-topped Strawberry Rhubarb pie recipe and I went for it. OH MY GAH. It's crazytown delicious!!! The crust alone was to die for, and the pie itself was the perfect mixture of sweet and tart. I LOVED it. And I ate it for dessert on Saturday. And lunch Sunday before I left. Couldn't. Get. Enough.

Rhubarb is a funny thing and you don't see it a lot - so take the opportunity while it's in season and give it a shot if you haven't! This is the perfect entry into the wonderful world of rhubarb, I promise!

Lattice-topped Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Bon Appetit (with SmittenKitchen's adaptations)

For crust:

3 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp. sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

2/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into pieces

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces

10 tbsp. (about) ice water)

For filling:

3 1/2 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices trimmed rhubarb (1 1/2 lbs untrimmed)

1 16-ounce container strawberries, hulled, halved (about 3 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1 large egg yolk, beaten to blend with 1 tsp water (for glaze)

Make crust:

Combine flour, sugar and salt in processor. Using on/off turns, cut in shortening and butter until coarse meal forms. Blend in ice water 2 tablespoons at a time to form moist clumps. Gather dough into a ball; cut in half. Flatten each half into disk. Wrap separately in plastic; refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Make filling:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Toss gently to blend.

Assemble Pie:

Roll out 1 dough disk on floured surface to 13-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim excess dough, leaving 3/4-inch overhang.

Roll out second dough disk on lightly floured surface to 13-inch round. Cut into fourteen 1/2-inch-wide strips. Spoon filling into crust. Arrange 7 dough strips atop filling, spacing evenly. Form lattice by placing remaining dough strips in opposite direction atop filling. Trim ends of dough strips even with overhang of bottom crust. Fold strip ends and overhang under, pressing to seal. Crimp edges decoratively.

Brush glaze over crust. Transfer pie to baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 F. Bake pie until golden and filling thickens, about another 25 minutes. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely.