Happy Birthday Levi - The Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Saga

***OK Apparently I am kinda lame because I never finished this post and posted it.. it's been sittin in my drafts***

Levi's birthday was last night (3/27)... a Thursday, which means it coincided with LOST night where we often are joined by a couple friends for dinner and commercial free LOSTness. The festivities...

I asked Levi to choose whatever he wanted to have for dinner. He requested the pecan-crusted fish and lemon beurre blanc and requested I use tilapia this time. No problema. I think I have finally mastered this lemon beurre blanc and don't have to measure anymore! Might I add that this time I used a chenin blanc from Trader Joe's called "Fish head" because it cracked me up and it was fish and well, it's Levi's birthday, so it was a no-brainer.

He also requested sweet potatoes. I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes so I looked for a twist. Got a great tip from a co-worker to make sweet potato fries... you can buy pre-cut sweet potatoes (I have since done some of my own cutting and experimented with different cuts - fries vs circles, wedges, etc). Also had a recipe for sweet potato salad, which I still need to try.

Ro brought a yummy salad, and so all that was left was a desert. I know Levi's favorite is Strawberry-Rhubarb that his mom makes. I have never had it, but he raves about it and I'm sure with as much expertise she has I could never measure up to that one, but I thought I'd at least try to make one of similar delight. Headed for a non-lattice topped one ;-) and found one Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Almond Crumb Topping by Emeril Lagasse (BAM!) on FoodNetwork. It was the one that would cook the fastest, easy pie top (I was a little intimidated by the edge crimping business at this point, and it used rum and flaming... a slam dunk.

OK finding 2lbs of Rhubarb is no easy task. I went to 3 or 4 different produce specialty stores (Trader Joes, Henry's, Whole Foods, a hippie store in my neighborhood) and made several phone calls (each of the 3 previous in several locations plus Ralphs x2). I couldn't even find frozen rhubarb! I was about to give in and just do a strawberry pie or go buy one when I finally, at the last possible minute, found some rhubarb rumpled up in a bin at Vons... the bottom of the barrell... barely 2lbs once they cut of the parts that had deteriorated. Sonnet and I set to work on peeling and cutting the rhubarb and hulling and slicing the strawberries. The ingredients for the filling filled the pan on the stove to the brim, so it made quite the mess as it bubbled. I had hoped the torching would be a little more dramatic, but it was not. Apparently rum is tougher to light and flame than it looks. I am sure it was a snap for Emeril! The filling made 2 pies... an hour later when they finally seemed ready enough to pull from the oven we waited as long as we could for them to cool. Not long enough apparently because it was Strawberry Rhubarb soup between the crust! And let me tell you that at this point it was like 11pm or so! The second one, however, was great and I think we ended up enjoying that at game night at my parents' house or something. YUM! All in all, it was fun to make!

It's been a while...

It appears that once I took up running, Culinary Journey went on the back burner, so to speak. I haven't really done too much in the area of new yummies, but let me see what I will need to catch up on in the near future... Ummm...

I think the most notable would be the honey pineapple chicken... once in the crock pot and once in the oven. Ooh that reminds me... cranberry gravy pot roast will need to have it's piece. Did I ever talk about the bourbon pecan pie? I don't think I did... so we'll have to add that one in. Made some sugar cookies for V-Day with the little one, which was fun too.

Well I have a lot of catching up to do, but I think I'll just go ahead and roll with Levi's birthday dinner for now... stay tuned for others...