Rhubarb Pie

It's..... Rhubarb Season!

You know what that means. Simply head out to your backyard with your gardening expert mom and start harvesting your gorgeous rhubarb plants.  Or at least that is what we are fortunate enough to be able to do.  


But seriously, when this time comes every once a year (aka as often as Christmas) you have to take full advantage of what you have.  Which is exactly what we plan to do.  The first recipe for the day is Rhubarb Pie.

This recipe is really special to us because it was handed down to us from our grandparents.  Our grandpa is quite the rhubarb pie master, so we have high expectations.  We decided to deviate only slightly from the original recipe by adding a small amount of blueberries to the pie.  These were put in as a bottom layer to add some extra special taste and flavor.


First comes the sacred recipe.....

And now out to the garden.   A few snips and.....

Leaves removed (want to remove the leaf plus most of the stem all in one and keep those to the side)

Now this is important : the leaves are poisonous.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Therefore, the next step is to separate the leaf from the stem.  Keep all the good stems (kind of look like celery sticks) and wash them off.  Then you may begin chopping these up into little pieces like so.

Yipee.  Now you prepare the pie filling and add in the nicely chopped rhubarb pieces... and meanwhile you prepare you pie dish with your crust (either homemade or store-bought) and if you're feeling a little frisky, toss in a layer of some nice fruit.  We chose blueberries.

Neat.  Now we add in our pie filling and add the top of the pie.  This is where you get to play baker and make a fun design if your heart desires.  Lattices, cut outs, and all other weird looking or pretty things are encouraged.  This is what we did, not that it's any work of art, but it will do.

Now you eagerly wait outside the oven as the baking gods take over inside that sucker.  And when you are finished, you may add blueberries or fruits around for extra presentation points.

It's pie time!
-J&S