Giant Strawberries Strawberry Pie

Since being pregnant, I have been eating a lot more fruits.  Every time I go to Costco, I decide on 2 fruits to buy and finish them all in about a week.  Costco had 4 pound of strawberries for $6.99 the past few times I've been there.  The first time I got them, I finished all 4 lbs on my own in less than a week.  They are giant strawberries and very sweet.  The second time I got them, I decided to make a strawberry pie.

I bought store bought crust because I find it a pain to make it on my own.  After baking the crust in the oven according to directions, I coated the bottom and 1/2 of the sides of the crust with a thin layer of chocolate.  I often find strawberry pie to be soggy because of the glaze.  The chocolate will prevent mushy crust.

For the glaze, put about 8 oz of strawberries and 3/4 cup of sugar into the food processor.  After processing, add the mixture to a pot and bring it to boil.  In a separate bowl, mix 3/4 cup of water with 3 tbsp of cornstarch.  After the strawberry mixture boils, add the cornstarch/water to the pot.  Stir until it thickens. 

Arrange the 24 oz of strawberries in the baked crust, pour strawberry glaze over berries.  Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours so the glaze will set.  Top with whipped cream and serve.

We devoured the pie!  The entire pie was gone in less than a day!  One of our guest tasters said it was so good he couldn't believe how fast he gobbled it up.  That's what I like to hear...

It's not fall without apple pie!

Part of the Fall season means taking a trip to Julian for apple pie. Now add to the list of apple pies places I've tried: Apple Alley Bakery. Apple Alley is located in a small alley sandwiched between the Julian Drug Store and the Julian Cafe. It is a small shop serving lunch and pies. They also have a selection of other pastries, turnovers, tarts, and cookies. We got the lunch special which included your choice of 1/2 sandwich, soup or salad, chips, and a slice of pie for $8.95. The sandwich was just meh (I got the vegetarian) but it was just enough food so that I was still hungry for pie. They have several different types but these were the two we chose:

Apple Boysenberry


Caramel Pecan Apple


They were good, but I can't compare them to the others since they weren't traditional apple pies and it's been so long since I've had actual pie from Julian Pie Company or Mom's. This may call for a blind taste test in the future... you know, for "research purposes."