Rhubarb Pie

Until a couple years ago I had never had rhubarb, and until last night I have never tried to do anything with rhubarb. I wasn't quite sure I ever wanted to experiment with the celery like, poisonous leaf, sour plant either.  However last night I decided to be brave. I knew of only one thing to do with Rhubarb..... and that thing was:

Pie.

Rhubarb Pie.

"I can do this" I thought to myself, though I have made many pies before I have never made a pie crust (Pillsbury by the way, makes awesome pie crusts- and are conveniently stored in the refrigerator section of the grocery store).

Since this was a night for adventure I decided I would make the pie crust too.  Amazingly enough the whole thing turned out quite well and since I'm trying to blog more lately I decided I would take photographs to document the experience, and if your feeling bold, here's how to make a delicious rhubarb pie.

How to make Pie Crust:

Ingredients: (for a single pie crust)

                                                             1 1/2 cup flour

                                                             1/2 cup shortening

                                                             1teaspon salt

                                                             1/2 cup ice cold water



 Mix the flour, salt and shortening together until it is nice and crumbly, you want it to sorta look like you have small flour covered peas in your mix, then add the ice water gradually until moist enough so that it sticks together (pour in slowly as you may not need the entire 1/2 cup).

Next comes the pie!

How to make Rhubarb pie

Ingredients:

                                                            4 cups chopped Rhubarb

                                                            1 1/3 cup of sugar

                                                            6 tablespoons flour

                                                            Some butter to dot the top

                                                            Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Mix the flour and sugar together and pour 1/4 of the mixture in the bottom of the pie (as shown below).  This is important because the rhubarb itself has a lot of water in it so the sugar as it cooks on the bottom caramelizes and helps the crust become crispy and not soggy (who wants a soggy pie crust?)

Pour the chopped rhubarb on top of the sugar then dump the rest of the sugar mix on top- like so...

Doing it this way actually causes the sugar to soak into the rhubarb creating a consistent sweet and sour flavor throughout the whole pie.

Dot it with butter then cover

Cover it, seal your crust and slice some vents on the top.

Cook for 15 minutes at 450, then turn the oven down to 350 and continue cooking 40-45 minutes .

And then Tada! A beautiful golden brown pie, let cool (so it's not all runny inside), and enjoy!!

Love,

Carrie

 

Been a long long time...

It's been awhile.... too long actually. To any one that even occasionally looks at my blog, I apologize for the many months of absence. Honestly I'm not sure why I haven't blogged in many months, have I been busy? Yes, but not uncommonly so, and not enough to excuse my lack of writing a few simple paragraphs and adding pictures to update people on what I'm doing in my life. So here I am... and for sake of time, I am not going to post a picture and paragraph on every month missed between my last blog post and this one, but instead show you some pictures of a lovely lady who I recently got to photograph.

Meet Brenna.

I first met Brenna back in October when Joel and I started helping (or more like hanging out at) a local youth group called Teens for Christ (TFC). When I first met Brenna I thought she was quiet and very sweet, and while she is still very sweet I'm discovering the not so quiet side of this gorgeous lady. She is super outgoing, willing to try new things, loves her family and friends deeply and is a devoted daughter of the King. I love watching the way she soaks up the bible and the way she truly walks with Christ. She is a wonderful young lady, and I am so blessed to know her. Brenna graduated from high school last year, but we got together a few weeks ago to shoot some "belated" senior portraits. We had a great time, and actually managed to choose a photo date that was sunny (rare in spring of Washington I'm discovering). So, without further adieu, here she is! Enjoy!

Lake Curlew

We recently celebrated Memorial Day weekend, and with that we took a family trip to Lake Curlew in Republic WA. Getting there was a journey in itself....

 Joel's Aunt and Uncle opened up their lake house for a big family gathering (about 18 people and 5 golden retrievers).  We had a a great time, the weather forecast was bleak, but thankfully God gave us gorgeous weather (a sunny 70 degrees).



The Larson Clan decided to have a fishing derby, er, darby (since you have to have a license from the state to actually have a fishing derby.... we improvised).  Two days to catch the biggest fish. There was a list in the living room where we could include our "big catch".  Thing is, I have never gone fishing, didn't really have that much of an opportunity while I was little, and as much as I wanted to believe it would, dangling a string in the water with no hook was not going to catch me a fish.  Johannes was kind enough to show me how to cast a line and bait a hook and with that I was off! Well, sort of, many failed attempts at casting lines later, I was off.





Maybe it's because I was more determined to catch fish then the others, or maybe it was all just beginners luck, either way I managed to catch 7 fish that weekend, my longest one a grand total of 16 5/8"  giving me second place (next to Zac's 17 1/2" whopper).  There is a picture of me holding one of my fish out there somewhere.... I'll track it down eventually...

And to be completely honest, I can't wait to go fishing again! (Though I'll continue to leave the cleaning of the fish up to Joel.....)

Love,
Carrie

Just because...

Just because it's been awhile since I posted a picture of "Us" here is one of me and my hubby on our patio.

Love, Me