fresh strawberry pie: all in the family.

I don't know about y'all but we are trying to take full advantage of strawberry season at our house, Kevin and I love them and both of our boys are crazy about them too. They're too good not to be though, right?

A few weeks ago a took my first stab at making a favorite family recipe for fresh strawberry pie with the strawberries I had leftover from making strawberry jam.  Man, I wish strawberries were in season all year round.

You wouldn't know it, judging just by me, but I come from two families that are incredibly talented in the kitchen.  This particular recipe is found in one of my Dad's families' cookbooks, Tanner Tasties II. When I was a teenager my aunt took on the project of compiling a second edition of favorite family recipes from my Grandma Tanner and mostly my 13 aunts, though a few of my older cousins also contributed.  The Tanner family has a deep love for pies, that I didn't know I shared until I was looking up this recipe and Kevin starting making fun of me for saying EVERY pie recipe I came across looked good.

our beloved cookbook.

This recipe makes two full pies and while the original recipe calls for regular pie crusts, I did one regular and one oatmeal pie crust aka Kevin's favorite pie crust of all time. Since everyone tends to have a family or favorite traditional pie crust recipe (and since I used a frozen one...) I'll just share the recipe for the oatmeal crust here.

Fresh Strawberry Pie:  Athelia Sears Tanner, grandma
(can substitute fresh peaches for strawberries)

Ingredients:
2 baked pie shells (in my case only one)
3/4 c. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
1 1/2 c. water
1 small package strawberry jello or Danish Dessert (would use peach jello for peach pie)
2+ pounds fresh strawberries, whole or sliced (substitute fresh peaches for peach pie)
3 oz cream cheese (I substituted Neufchatel cheese here)
1/2 c. powdered sugar
3/4 t. vanilla
1/2 container Cool Whip or 1/2 c. whipping cream (I used whipping cream)

Mix and cook sugar, cornstarch and water until gently boiling.
Remove from heat and add jello or Danish dessert.
Stir until completely dissolved, LET COOL.
Pour over berries (or peaches).
Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and whipped cream (or Cool Whip) and mix until fluffy.
Place cream mixture in the bottom of the pie shells.
Pile glazed fruit high on the top. (This is where having more than 2 pounds of fruit comes in useful, especially if you slice your strawberries like I did. The strawberry filling barely came to the top of the crusts for me rather than piling up above it like it is technically supposed to.)
Chill and serve with or without whipped cream.


Easy Oatmeal Pie Crust: Susan Winder Tanner, aunt

Ingredients:
1 c. quick oats
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. melted margarine
1/2 c. chopped nuts* (I used pecans)
*Can leave nuts out, add 1/2 c. more oats if you do.

Mix all ingredients together and press into a pie pan or square cake pan. Chill to firm.

These pies were completely delicious, Kevin ate more than I will say in one sitting for breakfast one morning.....so take my advice, go make some pie.