Farmers Market and Strawberry Pie

Saturday was such a beautiful day. It finally felt like October with a crisp wind. Lovely.

I decided to wake Malcom up in the afternoon even though he was sleeping off the night shift from Friday. The day was so nice that he was happy to get up and spend the day outside with us. We decided to head over to a local farmers market.

Duh--we didn't bring the camera to take pictures, but we'll definitely go back another time. Anyway, Bekah had a great time looking at the small supply of fresh fruits and veggies, the HUGE arrangement of pumpkins, and watching a few animals. We didn't really plan on buying anything, but when we saw the strawberries we couldn't resist. We got three little green crates for $8. Yes, expensive, but they were so tempting.

What do you do with that many strawberries? Malcom asked for strawberry pie, and since we had a plan to have the missionaries over on Sunday, we had the perfect excuse. I love searching for recipes online and found one that looked good.

Well, I made it and it was DIVINE. I'm not really bragging here, because it wasn't my creation, so I just have to tell you that it was wonderful. I'm including the recipe because I really think you should all find the last of the Summer strawberries and make this pie.

INGREDIENTS:
1 9-inch pie crust, baked and cooled
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 cup water

DIRECTIONS:
Mash one third to one half of the strawberries, enough to make one cup of puree. (You can use a food processor, but go slowly to make sure it doesn't get soupy.) Arrange the other half of the berries in the baked pastry shell. (Either put them in whole with the points facing up, or slice the berries and layer them.) Put the mashed berries and sugar in a medium saucepan. Place saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Gradually stir cornstarch mixture into boiling strawberry mixture. Reduce heat and simmer mixture until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour mixture over berries in pastry shell. Chill for several hours before serving. Serve with whipped cream on top.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you want a recipe for pie crust, let me know because I have my mom's recipe which is the best pie crust I've EVER tasted! (No, I'm not biased!)