Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

The one sweet dessert food I've discovered I can eat!  Strawberry rhubarb pie!  Mmmm....I finally FINALLY found rhubarb for sale in Los Angeles.  The Albertsons on Sepulveda & Palms has it for $2.99/pound (I did get some last summer at Whole Foods, organic, for $8.99/pound so that in the end, the pie would have been much cheaper to buy and have shipped!)  You will need to buy about 2 pounds of rhubarb for this recipe, depending on how much of the stems you have to cut off.  And of course, strawberries are in season right now at farmers' markets.  Just buy a ton and you'll be sure to have 3 cups with leftovers! :)

My grandma's pie crust recipe:

4 cups flour
1 3/4 cups Crisco
1 tsp. salt

Chop all up with large serving fork.

Add:
1 egg
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup cold water

Mix together, blend and chill for 15 minutes.
Don't handle pie dough too much, and it will be nice & flakey.

Pie filling:

3cups chopped red rhubarb, fresh
3 cups de-stemmed, washed and cut RIPE strawberries (in larger pieces)
1 cup sugar (if the strawberries are not ripe you can do 1/4- 1/2 cup more to taste)
4 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix filling ingredients in large bowl and pour out into chilled crust. Brush edges of pie crust with some of mixture of 1 egg white mixed with 1 tsp water. Roll out the other piece of dough and place over filling. Crimp to seal edges. Brush with rest of egg white wash and sprinkle some sugar on top. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Decrease temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for an additional 45 to 50 minutes, or until the filling starts bubbling.  Don't forget to put a pan under the pie dish to catch the drippings! (I did and the whole house filled with smoke!)

The pie dough recipe is enough for two pies so you can double the filling and make two, or you can do what my grandma always did for me and what I did for Lauren and give the rest of the dough to a little kid to make tarts with.  Make little filled tarts with strawberry/sugar inside and bake in the 375 oven with the pie for the last 20 minutes or so, until they're browned.  Could also put jam in the tarts or whatever you feel like!