Fresh strawberry pie

Enough of this cleaning and organizing. (I cleaned out two more kitchen drawers yesterday. Yawn.) You want to see some food, am I right? It’s time for dessert!

I certainly haven’t been baking up a storm here, even being home for the summer. But after spending $10 on farmer’s market strawberries, I felt the need to respect the investment.

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It’s Cook’s Illustrated’s Fresh Strawberry Pie, a recipe that has you make fresh strawberry jam to glaze the berries. I even (mostly) followed their recipe for the pie crust. Between the two, I spent four or five hours on this pie. It was wonderful, but I confess I found myself thinking I would have been just as happy with my grandma’s version of strawberry shortcake: pie crust baked flat on a cookie sheet, then broken into pieces in your bowl,topped with juicy sugared strawberries, and a generous glug of half and half. No worrying about trying to serve the pie in the short window between “chilled” and “so juicy the crust is getting soggy.” Am I trying to dissuade you from making this pie? I don’t know. It was really, really good. There is no better strawberry pie. Except maybe a deconstructed one.

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People licked their plates clean. Literally.

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Monday Menu

If you celebrated the 4th of July, I hope you had a great weekend. We had a lovely long holiday weekend, complete with parades, fireworks, swimming and pie. We even squeezed in a little yard work (a very little, in the grand scheme of our jungle of a garden) and a whole lot of reading.

In this hot and sticky weather, I don’t feel like heating up the kitchen too much, so we’re sticking to quick meals that don’t require much in the way of cooking. Except for cookies. We’re probably going to need some cookies.

Monday: Lemony Potato Salad and grilled salmon, slaw, watermelon

Tuesday: Zucchini-Ricotta Fritters, rotisserie chicken, farmer’s market carrots and peas with Homemade Ranch Dressing

Wednesday: Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili (from Jen)

Thursday: Pasta with Caramelized Cabbage, Anchovies and Bread Crumbs, green salad (swap with Jen)

Friday: Kofta, Hummus and Pita (all from the freezer)

Midweek Menu

This week I abandoned meal planning (and everything else, really) in favor of repainting Miss Seven (almost Eight)’s room. I grabbed a few things at the grocery on Sunday night, but other than that, I’ve been winging it. We had pesto again (we had it last week), which isn’t really a problem, especially when the basil comes straight from the garden.

But tomorrow is the Fourth of July, which calls for some celebratory eating–we’re going to be hungry after all that parading. We’re sticking to the classics: hamburgers, hotdogs, corn on the cob, potato salad, strawberry pie and watermelon. (This feast should take care of lunches for the rest of the weekend, too.) The Hub has volunteered to do the grocery shopping after work today, and I’m taking him up on it. Shopping brings out the worst in the Little Five lately, so I’m accepting every opportunity to avoid it.

What about the rest of the weekend?

Friday: Shrimp tacos, black beans, quick slaw with lime dressing

Saturday: Thai-Style Ground Pork with Chinese Eggplant, coconut rice

Sunday: Homemade Pizza

I’ll be back next week with the progress on Miss Seven’s room makeover and maybe even a recipe.

What are you cooking to celebrate Independence Day?