the yearly pie post

I may have complained about staying in too-hot Cincinnati rather than heading to the beach this weekend, but at least being here meant hitting the start of strawberry season. Which first and foremost means: pie.

Made Thursday evening after stopping at the farmer's market, finished after my run on Saturday morning (last slice doesn't require a plate):

Since I post about this annually (just like daffodils - these heralds of the spring and summer seasons never fail to bring me the same happy feeling), I noticed that last year's first pie was June 2. I hope my May 24 pie happiness isn't a bad sign of global warming or something...

The strawberry pie recipe is below - and here along with some jam info, which I'm moving on to after my next trip to the farmer's market. Strawberry season came just in the nick of time as we're on the last jar from the batches I made last summer.


Strawberry pie

Ingredients:
Pie crust
Approx. 1.5 quarts strawberries
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 cup water
salt
3 tablespoons corn starch
2 tablespoons strawberry jello mix

Wash and hull the strawberries; prepare the pie crust (from freezer section at the grocery store; bake it according to the package directions).

Put the sugar, corn syrup, water, salt, and corn starch in a sauce pan. Heat on medium/high, stirring constantly, until the consistency thickens and the mixture turns clear (you'll know when it happens; it's a pretty drastic change). Take off the heat and stir in the jello mix.

Arrange the berries in the pie crust and pour cooled mixture over top. Let it set up in the fridge for a while, and then you're ready to eat - once you've put a nice helping of whipped cream on top, of course.