When I was little, my parents had a garden with rhubarb growing in it. I would take a small bowl of sugar out into the yard, pick a fresh stalk of rhubarb, dip it in the sugar, and eat it raw. I loved it, but I think most people who have tried raw rhubarb think that eating it raw is a bad idea; rhubarb is very tart and can be tough and stringy (like celery.) To make it taste good, you have to add a ton of sugar and really cook it down.
My second favorite pie is cherry pie. It's more of a crowd-pleaser than rhubarb, but it can be hard to find the right cherries for it. My recipe requires tart, canned cherries. You at least need to make sure they're tart.
I have recipes for both of these pies:
4 cups rhubarb, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 2/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
Dash of salt
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and let stand for 15 minutes. At this point I preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Line a 9 inch pie pan with pastry and fill with the rhubarb mixture.
Add the top crust and seal, flute, and vent it.
Bake at 400 degrees for 55 minutes. Let cool to room temperature before slicing and serving.
That's it!
Cherry Pie (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book)
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
4 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 cup juice from cherries
3 cups canned pitted tart red cherries
1 tbsp butter
Combine 3/4 cups of sugar with cornstarch in a medium saucepan and mix thoroughly. Stir in cherry juice. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens and bubbles, stirring occasionally. It will change from opaque to translucent at this time and start to look like jam. Cook one minute longer.
Stir in remaining sugar, cherries, and butter and take the mixture off the heat. Let it stand while you make the pastry.
Line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry and fill with the cherry mixture. Add the top crust and seal, flute, and vent it.
Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour. Let the pie cool to room temperature before you slice it.
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