Neighborhood-Kids All Local. All for Kids. All the Time.

Yesterday, Leah and a friend of hers were slouching around the kitchen wondering what to do, so I suggested they make cookies. My ulterior motive: we have none in the house and I need them for school lunches.

They went through half an hour of debating which kind and finally decided they didn’t want to make cookies at all but that pie might be fun. Pie felt kind of big. But I retreated to the back room and let them search out a recipe for ingredients that we had in the house (and no, I wasn’t going to the store to buy pie crust—they would have to make it).

They landed on a rhubarb cream pie, a perfect recipe for the rhubarb plant gone gonzo in the backyard. After they’d cut and chopped the rhubarb, mixed the cream mixture, which isn’t a cream mixture at all but simply eggs, sugar, and nutmeg, they set to work on the pie crust. I gave them a few tips, like don’t handle it too much and dust enough flour on the counter so it doesn’t stick during rolling, and then got out of the way again.

You know what? That pie turned out perfectly. “The crust is so light,” Leah kept saying. She sounded like a chef, and her very first pie crust somehow managed to usurp all of mine put together. And that’s with more years of working as a baker under my belt than I care to remember. That pie passed the younger brother test with flying colors.

If you too have a gonzo rhubarb plant, try this recipe. (I would have included a picture but my digital camera cord has gone AWOL.)

Rhubarb Cream Pie (from Lummi Island Heritage Trust Favorite Island Recipes)
1 ½ c sugar (the girls used white)
3 T flour
½ tsp. nutmeg
1 T melted butter
2 eggs, beaten
3 c cut rhubarb
2 pie crusts

Blend sugar, flour, nutmeg, and butter. Add eggs and beat smooth. Pour over rhubarb in 9-inch pastry lined pie pan. Top with pastry cut in fancy shapes (the girls used cookie cutters). Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake about 30 minutes.

Basic pie dough for 2 crusts (from The Joy of Cooking)
2 c white flour
2/3 c shortening
2 T cold butter
4 T cold water

Cut shortening and butter into flour with pastry cutter or finger tips until the shortening is pea-sized. Add water and mix lightly with a fork. Roll out with rolling pin.

 I guess I need to make cookies myself. On second thought, I think I'll go buy them.