Ever have one of those days where it just seems that EVERYTHING goes wrong and every minute there's a new obstacle in your way to prevent you from doing something (especially something desirable)? Well, making this French Strawberry Pie for our Fourth of July Work Picnic ended up being one of those nights.
I am a procrastinator. I like to do everything last minute. For some reason the best of me shines when I do things last minute and when I am under stress. Don't know why but that's just how I have always been..with school, cooking, everything! So when Monday came I knew that this week was the week to start thinking about what I was going to make.
Monday came and I made a final decision that I would create a French Strawberry Pie for the HOMEMADE Pie Contest (Inspired by my husbands LOVE for strawberries and my co-workers' addiction to strawberry shortcake)so now it was finding a good recipe. I initially wanted to make it vegan, but after numerous searching I came to find that I could make the whole pie vegan except for the Whipped Cream. I couldn't find vegan whipping cream so I figured that the vegan option was out and that I'd have to make it Omni.
Tuesday came and I was still searching for a good recipe....finally at 8 o'clock at night I found a Fresh Strawberry Pie Recipe in my Cooking Light Cookbook..PERFECT!
Then there was Wednesday. I'd have to make the pie tonight with no ifs ands or buts...tonight was the night. Work ended at 5 and we had an hour drive before we were home. I was beginning to stress a tad because I still had to go shopping. I made my list which consisted of just a few food items and a desperate need for several kitchen appliances since we still have yet to fill our kitchen with necessities. My first stop was the new Shoppers. I figured they'd have everything right.....well after almost 45 minutes of searching I found no aluminum pie pans, only 3 packs of extremely expensive, over riped and bruised strawberries and every other ingredient dissatisfyingly existed. So I finally said screw it! I'd go to Wal-Mart and see what they had. As I walked out the door of Shoppers I see that it is pouring down rain..lovely.
I drive right across the street to Wal-Mart and the place is packed with crazy people shopping...for what reason on a Wednesday night I dunno! It's Pouring Down Rain..the Walmart has only one entrance...no parking space...10 minutes of searching I give up. I Put my foot down and decide I'm going to the old ghetto Giant and if they do not have what I need then I'm done and not making the gosh darn pie.
A few miles down I walk into Giant and begin searching for what I need....2 for $4 on 1 pint of strawberries..sweet got 4 of those; a lemon; an orange; Giant Brand Nilla Wafers (those'll have to do); a cup of organic whipping cream; BOGO on Cooking appliances (THANK GOD!); Pie pans with covers..I'm on a roll. 15 minutes later I check out holding my breath...$29.03..Can I say God is awesome! All under $30; exactly what I promised my husband it would be. Shoppers would've been at least double. I breath a sigh of relief. Head on home. It's already 8:45PM. Great.
The crust needs to be made first so I break up the Nilla Wafers, throw them into my BRAND NEW Kitchen Aid Food Processor, plug it up, and guess what? It doesn't work! Okay so...the Bullet will have to do to at least grind the cookies. I pour the ground wafers into a bowl and begin gradually adding the 1 stick of melted butter while mixing with my hands. I get halfway done with Th butter and realize that the crust is already moist...why when I still have a little more than a quarter cup of melted butter left? I go to my recipe and find it calls for ONLY a 1/4 cup of butter. I accidentally mistaken the box which states 1 stick = 1/2 cup = 1/4 lb of butter. THANK GOD I know how to properly cook always adding things gradually. SO I throw the crust into the oven and start on the filling.
Unfortunately, the strawberries I purchased weren't exactly the freshest cookies on the block, but I had to make do with what I had. The recipe was stating that I needed small strawberries to place at the bottom of my pie. I begin going through each pint of strawberries, washing and hulling and I notice all I have are ginormous ones....so I once again begin panicking. The ones I have are extremely large and all bruised up..perfect for a puree but horrible for a fresh strawberry pie. This is going to be an embarrassment, I thought. I search through my bag to find one more pint of strawberries that I had passed by and low and behold there it is..an absolute miracle..a whole pint of small strawberries, most of them crisp and fresh with minimal bruising. Can I tell you God is awesome?
I finish hulling the strawberries that I need and begin chopping up the very ripe ones for my puree. Again, Beth has no potato masher and therefore decides she is going to mash by hand with a fork. I throw them on the stove to boil then into a cheese cloth and large whole strainer (because Beth has no sieve) to drain the juices. Perfecto! The juice goes into a small saucepan with sugar and cornstarch and is heated until boil on top of a Gas Stove....and as most of know a Gas stove is one to watch. Because one moment the liquid is stagnant the next it's boiling over. You know where this going right? Yes I left it unattended for a minute to whip some cream cheese and it began overheating so I had to go through the whole process again! Thank God I had extra strawberries. The next batch turned out perfect. From there I completed the pie by spreading a thin layer of cream cheese at the bottom of the crust, piled on the whole strawberries named poured over the syrup. It was ready to be chilled! I was so happy on how it turned out! It looked great! All I had left to do was whip the cream..by hand!
The next morning I awoke and ran downstairs to whip the cream. The pie looked wonderful and had set perfectly. I checked the recipe and noticed that it called for 1/4 cup of whipped cream...what!? Last night I had called Tim to ask how much whipping cream I needed and he quoted 1/4 cup so all I got was the smallest carton they had. All I was thinking was are you kidding me!!? So I prayed that it would be enough, poured the 1/2 cup of whipping cream into the bowl and began whisking away....and whisking..and whisking....and 10 minutes later I finally reached the the thick, airy consistency I had long been waiting for. I added some vanilla and sugar and all of a sudden some chemical reaction occurred taking my pour white, smooth and airy whipping cream to a chunky, brown thick sweetened whipped cream. It looked kind of gross but that was homemade whipped cream! I spread all of it over the strawberry pie and thanked God once more that it was just enough to cover the entire top. Yes more would have been better but what could I do! It was done!
It made to work decently and made it to the pie contest, a little melt since it had been sitting outside for so long....I of course, didn't win but my husband, friends and co-worker loved it and it was the only one completely gone so hey all I needed was the approval of those who inspired me to make it and I'll tell ya I felt pretty proud! Especially after all I went through. My last words....Thank You God! and HAHAH Devil..Now what!?
So if you ever have one of these days, just stay strong, stay passionate and have faith and you WILL pull through!
Oh and by the way...can I tell you that that evening I was cooking in the kitchen and had left that stupid KitchenAid processor out because i was going to clean it and return it. I plugged it in once more to see if it worked and it did..perfectly...like its brand new! LOL Some things are just meant to remain unexplainable and mysterious....
