Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Dear Marg,

I feel like I'm always posting about rhubarb. Actually, come to think of it, as much as I like it I'm surprised there aren't more rhubarb posts. I made rhubarb lunar cake that I thought I'd written about but don't find. Hmm, another opportunity.

Anyway, I wanted to share my Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with you. I make at least one every year, so I was some what concerned when I couldn't remember what recipe I used. I knew I had a good one that I had used over and over, but couldn't find it in all my usual spots (Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts, Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book nor Mrs. Bentley's). Some frantic searching led me into the back-up stash of cookbooks in the living room where I found it in Christopher Kimball's Dessert Bible. Whew. I'm way too young and way too fond of this pie to have that kind of mental lapse be permanent. 

The book is in Seattle and I'm in Idaho so can't tell you much about the recipe. When you google 'dessert bible rhubarb pie' you get some very strange results. Like this one from TheLutheran.org:

A mean rhubarb pie or 'Ethics What you make of life from the leftovers after the main course of salvation has been served.'

It's a basic fruit pie - fruit, sugar, thickener, a squeeze of lemon juice. It's thickened with tapioca. In my experience, tapioca works well as a thickener for fruit with a lot of juice and these Skagit Valley farmers market strawberries certainly qualified. 

I used the pate brisee recipe from Martha's Pies and Tarts. I pretty much always use that one. 

Up with rhubarb!

love, Elise