Strawberry/Rhubarb Pie

Wow this pie goes back to my single days when I dated a guy I wanted to impress, I asked him what he would like for his birthday, "strawberry/rhubarb pie"  so I found this in the Betty Crocker cookbook and went to work.  To make a long story short, he was thrilled with it and gave me his best compliments, "this is better than Marie Calendar's".  I love it too for it's "sweet/tart" flavor and it's one of our favorites in our home, especially served warm with vanilla ice cream, it can't be beat!

               Pat Brough's Pie Crust Recipe
(this is my mother-in-laws's recipe, for the crust, it is a good one)

2c. flour
1c. shorterning                            
1 tsp. salt
Take out 1/3c. flour and put in bowl, add 1/4c. cold water to make a paste.  Then crumble the rest of the flour, shortening, ad salt, using a pastry blender until there are small crumbles.   Now add flour paste and mix.  Roll into ball and put in refrigerator for about 1 hour.  Roll out using a little bit of flour if needed.  The trick is to roll out without working the dough too much.  Put in pie pan.

                                                Strawberry/Rhurbarb Pie
                                                   (from Betty Crocker)
1 1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. flour
2c. cut up rhubarb(i cut them small so you don't get a huge bite of bitter! about 1/4 inch pieces)
2c. sliced strawberries
2 Tbsp. butter

Heat oven to 425 degrees.   Mix sugar, and flour.  Turn half of the rhubarb and strawberries into pastry-lined pie plate; sprinkle with 1/2 of sugar mixture.  Repeat with remaining strawberry/rhubarb, and sugar mixture.  Dot with butter.  Cover with a top crust, I usually use strips from the leftover crust, and sprinkle the top crust with sugar.   Cover crust with foil to prevent burning, and remove the last 15 min. of baking.   Put pie on cookie sheet and place in 
oven.  Bake until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust.  About 40 to 50 min.  **I use frozen rhubarb slightly thawed so not to watery.  I have two rhubarb plants which produces more than I need.  And I will wash and cut them up into 2 c. and freeze so I can just thaw and add.  Dont let it thaw all the way.  

My New Favorite Barbequed Pork Chops

Soo this past Saturday, we spent the day cleaning out my mother in law's home, she passed away February 5th and we have been getting it cleaned out and ready to sell.  It has been a mountain of a job!  Makes me want to gut through my things, but that's for another day.  In the morning I had decided that I would marinate mushrooms in Wishbone Mediterranean Italian dressing, by the way, if you haven't tried marinating them in some type of Italian dressing and then grilling them the next day, you are missing out on a special treat!  My husband's idea and they are the most coveted food item on our table :)  Anyway, when I came home, I was so exhausted and decided to search the internet for a good recipe for marinated pork chops.  My husband was skeptical, I this recipe seemed like a winner, and besides all the comments were good.  I use thinner pork chops and you could use bone in.

                        Marinated Barbeque Pork Chops

12oz. Coke
1/4c. Soy Sauce ( I used 1/2 Yoshida's gourmet sauce)
3/4 tsp. dry mustard
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
6 pork chops
---I used 12 for our family and doubled the recipe putting each set in a gallon ziplock bag, then adding the pork chops.  Let marninate overnight in refrigerator.   Barbeque on the grill until done.
                        Barbequed Mushrooms

1 package of mushrooms, washed
put in ziplock bag and add Italian dressing and let marinate in refrigerator overnight and grill on barbeque until done.  
The recipe for the pork chops came from Taste of Homes.






                       

Wow it's been a while

Well life is happening and I'm hoping to get back to posting more recipes.  This one that will be in the next post is a keeper!