First, an apology. I haven’t chatted with you for a while – we’ve had some very sad events happening here with family on our little patch of heaven. My beloved brother, Charlie, passed away suddenly and we are doing our best to get through. So things have been put on the back burner, so to speak.

Today I had a nice conversation with Matt Swaim on the Sonrise Morning Show/Sacred Heart Radio. We talk every week about foods and herbs of Bible days and how we can incorporate them into our everyday meals. The subject was strawberries.

Does the Bible mention strawberries? Not in a specific way, but passages refer to “generic” fruits that could be a strawberry plant. And during Bible days, strawberries were symbols of sweetness, love, perfection and beauty. Think of our Mother Virgin Mary. The strawberry was once a symbol of our Lady. And guess what? Strawberries are related to roses – the blossoms look similar – and Mary is referred to as the perfect rose. I can’t think of a better way to end the month of May, Mary’s month than with this yummy recipe for strawberry pie.

I’ve shared strawberry pie recipes here with you before, but can’t we always use another good one?

But before we share the recipe, a fun fact:

Those little yellow specks on the outside of the strawberry – are they seeds?No, each speck is actually an individual dry fruit and each speck contains a single, true seed INSIDE.

YUMMY STRAWBERRY PIE 

This is a new one to me and was sent by a listener and it’s from the Preppy Kitchen site. Which happens to be one of my favorite sites. Really delicious!

Ingredients

1 pre baked pie crust – deep dish is nice

2 to 2-1/2 pounds ripe, sweet strawberries hulled and cut in half or if real big, cut into fourths

3/4 cup sugar

5 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 

1/2 cup water, divided – room temperature or cool, not hot 

Whipped cream for garnish

Instructions

Reserve half of the strawberries in a large bowl and set aside.

Add remaining strawberries to a pan along with the sugar, 1/4 cup water, and lemon juice. Stir to combine. Mash the strawberries with a fork or potato masher until chunky, then place the pot over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Once the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low. Dissolve cornstarch with remaining 1/4 cup of water and stir it into the pot. Simmer, stirring frequently, until translucent and thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

Pour filling over the strawberries in bowl and stir to coat well. 

Pour into baked crust, jiggling a bit to make filling settle. Smooth top. 

Chill uncovered, 3 hours or until set. 

Slice and serve with whipped cream, if desired.