The fruit of my labors

My kitchen looked like a disaster area tonight . . . dishes piled everywhere, bits of fruit and vegetables scattered around, and berry juice on the floor.



It's about half cleaned up now (thanks in large part to DH) and I still have quite a bit to do. But I think it will be worth it.

Since 5:30 this evening I have baked 4 raspberry-rhubarb pies, cut up the potatoes and carrots for a special meat pie for dinner tomorrow, made a batch of ice cream, and cut up more rhubarb to refrigerate or freeze. Thankfully, DH was willing to take over with the kids and pretty much everything else so I could work in the kitchen. And, he even helped clean up my mess afterwards.


Last night I was at my parents' house and my dad cut an entire plastic bag full of rhubarb for me to take home.

There's a story behind this: Probably, oh, about 3 years ago now I gave him a card saying I would make him whatever kind of pie he wanted. When he gave me the card several months later saying that he'd like a raspberry rhubarb pie, neither fruit was in season. It's a simple matter to buy canned or frozen raspberries around here, but not rhubarb.

So, I hate to admit it, but I've owed Dad a pie for several years now. I somehow never managed to get around to it during the short rhubarb season. I've had it on my "to do" list for years.

So this year I had to make pies before the rhubarb was gone. And when Dad cut me some from his rhubarb plant, that clinched it. Today would be the day of the pies.

Raspberries are in season now, too, so the girls and I went to an acquaintance's farm and bought a half-flat of raspberries. They were delicious.

There was a lot of rhubarb. I have no idea whether my family will eat rhubarb or not, but I know Dad's the only one at his house that cares for it. So I started out making a huge batch of pie crust dough--enough for 4 double-crust pies. I decided to try 3 different pie recipes and use the fourth pie crust to make a meat pie for M's birthday dinner tomorrow.

One I had the crusts made and the piles and piles of rhubarb cut up, it was pretty easy. I rolled out all the bottom crusts and put them in pans, and left the rest of the dough divided into balls for the top crusts to roll out as needed.

The first pie was a traditional one, double-crusted with just fruit, sugar, cornstarch and a dash of salt. The second was similar but with the addition of an egg and fewer raspberries in proportion to the rhubarb. The third recipe was a type I'd never seen before, but it looked intriguing. It was essentially a custard or quiche batter with raspberries and rhubarb in it. Since I realized halfway through that it didn't call for a top crust, I made two of them. Somehow I managed to find pie dishes (or close enough substitutes) to make all 5 pies.

I made the first two pies and put them in the oven while DH ran to the store for more eggs and a few other essentials. Meanwhile, I stirred up a batch of custard for ice cream. M's birthday is tomorrow and she wants pink ice cream, a pink cake, and "pink evryfing." So I thought strawberry or raspberry would be a good choice. She liked the idea of having both kinds of berries, and I thought that sounded good too.

I just sort of made up the recipe as I went along (since I'd made ice cream a whole 3 times now, I decided I was ready to experiment with making my own recipe). I made a basic custard base with whole milk, sugar and eggs. Then I let that chill while I went back to the pies.

I had a hard time finding an empty spot to put the pies to cool, but somehow managed. My kitchen was getting pretty cluttered.

Once the second two pies were in the oven, I finished mixing up the ice cream. I blended up a package of frozen strawberries and the last pint of raspberries, leaving them just a bit chunky. Next I added a carton of whole-milk yogurt, the custard, a smidgen more of milk and some whipping cream and stirred it up. It tasted delicious, so I poured it in the ice cream maker. It wasn't up to the fill line, so I dumped in the juice from the package of strawberries and a little more milk and yogurt. Then I started the freezing process.

Dad came to get his pies while the ice cream maker was still going, so holding a conversation over the noise was a bit difficult. We did sample two of the pies, though, and they were good. The first recipe is just the perfect blend of berries and rhubarb, sweet and tart, and it sets up nicely. The third recipe is very unique and the flavors aren't as blended together. The fruit seems a bit tart, but the flavor combination is delicious with the custard. I'm eager to see if the kids like it tomorrow.



Dad took one pie (pie #1) home with him tonight and I'll send half of each of the other two recipes home to him tomorrow, after the quiche has cooled so it can be cut better. I barely had room in my refrigerator for three pies, so I'm glad he took one tonight.

I ended up just cutting up the potatoes and carrots for the meat pie tonight, and I think I'll just cook them slightly tonight (since they'll take longer to cook than the other ingredients) and then bake the pie right before dinner tomorrow so the crust won't get soggy. The meat is already cooked and frozen, so most of the work is done for that. I just have to decide what kind of spices to put in it.



The pink ice cream is done, and it turned out pretty well. I didn't scald the custard this time, and the flavor is delicious. It's definitely pink, which should make M happy. It did taste slightly better (smoother and less tart) before I dumped in the extra things trying to fill up the ice cream maker, though. :) The real flaw is that I think the juice from the strawberries was mostly water, so it made funny little ice crystals in the ice cream. We'll see what it's like after it hardens in the freezer. I put part of the soft ice cream in popsicle molds for the girls. They'll love that.

Since we still have most of two other batches of ice cream in the freezer (one storebought ["Extreme Moose Tracks"--mostly chocolate] and the other homemade [caramel almond roca]) we should have plenty of ice cream for the big gathering this weekend, when we're "officially" celebrating M's 3rd birthday. It's a good thing we had used up most of the food in the freezer with our pantry project.

Cooking and baking from scratch is hard work and I don't always enjoy planning and cooking meals. But I really love being creative in the kitchen and seeing what interesting and (hopefully) delicious things I can turn out.