Simple Strawberry Pie!

First off, I am not redirecting my efforts to start a baking blog. But this is too good not to share.

When I was a young fella my great grandfather and grandmother Temple would have the family over for dinner on a pretty regular basis. These little get togethers were not for any particular reason other than the experience of getting to see each other and socialize for a while. It was always fun and made for some wonderful memories.

Meals with the family were a big deal to them. Both of my great grandparents were born in 1900, they raised nine children, lived thru two world wars, the great depression everything in between. They had made it thru some lean times and were thankful for times of plenty.  Both of them were excellent cooks, good southern cooking too, fat back, butter and salt in most everything!

One thing my Granny Temple made that I loved more than anything else though was strawberry pie. The recipe below is the one she used, it is quite simple and takes about 15 minutes to throw together. Makes one pie.

Ingredients:

2 Cups of strawberries, chopped and sweetened to taste*

3 Tablespoons of all purpose flour

pinch of salt

2 frozen pie shells**

Mix strawberries, flour and salt together and pour into pie crust. Remove the second pie shell from the pan and use for the top crust. Crimp the edges with a fork and punch a few holes in the top crust for vents. Last, spread a little butter on the top crust and lightly sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minuets.

* You can buy frozen strawberries a the grocery that are pre-sweetened, about a tablespoon of sugar is all that is needed if using these. For some reason, I think the pie is better using frozen strawberries. Even if I have fresh berries I will chop them and freeze them before use.

**You can of course make your own pie crusts, the frozen ones are just faster!

-Will Myers