Uh oh. Rhubarb again. But there's still rhubarb to be had out there, and who doesn't like the strawberry rhubarb connection? Not I.

Strawberry rhubarb pie. Yum. I ran into Kate Schwehm last week, and she said she had made the rhubarb custard pie I wrote about a few weeks ago. She mentioned a strawberry rhubarb pie she makes, and I asked for the recipe. She very nicely hinted that you don't really need a recipe for strawberry rhubarb pie. Strawberries, rhubarb, sugar and cornstarch. Duh.

So I went over to Jeff and Adele's last weekend, and pilfered some more rhubarb. They have a large patch, and don't even like the stuff, so I save them the task of cutting it back after it's gone by. And believe me, they WOULD cut it back as soon as it became unsightly. Have you seen their yard and gardens? Yikes!

The following Monday, my co-worker, Mike Marr, brought me some rhubarb from HIS patch. Bob Devine, of McDonald’s fame, who I wrote a story about a few weeks ago, has offered to let me pilfer some of his rhubarb from his yard on Back River Road, but I just haven’t made it out there. Inundated with free rhubarb. It’s hard to believe I actually bought some for the first rhubarb story, rhubarb custard pie. It wasn’t cheap, either.

But man, that pie was good, and a lot of people have made it, from what I’ve heard. Thanks Alex Tallen! And speaking of Alex, I went to a petit fours class she taught a couple weeks ago. Don’t think you won’t be hearing about THAT!

Anyway. Where were we? Oh! All that rhubarb! So, I was cutting some up to freeze last night, and looking at the strawberries I had bought the day before, a little bummed because I hadn't had time to do anything with them, other than throw some in a bowl with a cut-up peach and some watermelon, with a generous dollop of noosa strawberry rhubarb yogurt. I knew that by the next day they’d be growing unsightly, unpalatable fur.

The strawberries brought another favorite (take note Sue Witt) pie to mind: Strawberry cream. I wrote a whole column about that delectable delight a while back. Talk about toothsome :-)

Then I imagined a strawberry rhubarb cream pie. Hello. How bad could that be? 

I threw a few stalks of cut-up rhubarb into a saucepan, added, like, ½ cup of sugar (you can use more or less, depending on how sweet/sour you like it), a tablespoon of cornstarch and a pinch of salt, stirred it and let it bubble for a few minutes until the rhubarb was soft and nestled in its own thickened sauce.

Then I cut up some strawberries and threw them in. They cooked just slightly in the hot rhubarb sauce.

Then I licked the spoon. OMG. Yup, that combination of strawberries and rhubarb is positively toothsome :-) (Sorry. That word’s already getting old isn’t it. If you can think of some words other than that, and delicious, and scrumptious, and delectable, and yummy, to describe toothsome food, by all means email me. I need a new word.)

Anyway. Next, I made my favorite shortbread pie crust. It’s simple, quick, mouth-wateringly delectable, and only requires a pie plate, a fork, a couple measuring cups and spoons, and a manhattan. I got quite a few requests for that recipe, so here it is:

Throw 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp. salt and 3 tsp. sugar into your favorite pie plate. Stir around with a fork. Mix together, with that SAME FORK, 1/2 cup oil and 2 tblsp. milk. Dump that into the flour mixture in the pie plate and blend. Press out and make a pretty fluting edge.  I can’t believe there are actually web pages dedicated to “How to flute a pie.” Seriously.

Whatever. Okay now bake that baby at 400 for around 10 minutes. I’m telling you, it takes, like 4 minutes, and it’s ridiculous.

Let it cool, throw that strawberry rhubarb filling in, whip up some heavy cream, with a couple teaspoons sugar (duh) and pile that on top.

Oh. My. God. If you thought you’d had your fill of rhubarb this spring of 2017, you haven’t. Just do it.

See ya next week.

Email suzithayer@boothbayregister.com with new words for yummy, or anything you just want to get off your chest. I can take it.