Montana Birthday

Last week I was in Bozeman.  I love it there.  Seriously wonder why I left.  I mean I know why, but seriously would love to go back.  Anyway, I was crashing my friends boys trip, skiing and snowmobiling.  When the guys next door said they wanted to go skiing in Montana, I was all in, without an invitation:)  The lack of true winter here has possibly made this winter more depressing than any real winter ever has been.  Getting to go play in the snow was so wonderful.  To top it off, my wonderful friend Greg who was letting us stay with him, was also celebrating his golden birthday.  This of course meant that I got to make a cake! 

I was flipping through my blog reader when I came across this post on Eat, Live, Run and showed the picture of the strawberries piled on top of the cake to Greg.  He approved and I started looking up recipes for yellow cake.  In the end, since I was not in my own kitchen and short on time, I completely cheated on this cake.  I didn't make anything from scratch. 

 A box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Yellow Cake, Betty Crocker Whipped Butter Cream Frosting. a tub of Cool Whip and some strawberries makes a great cake.  I made the cake in two 9" round pans by the box directions.  While they cooled on a rack, I sliced the strawberries up, just like the picture.  I spread the cool whip on top of one of the cakes and layered strawberries on top with one more layer of cool whip on top of that.  Then I placed the other cake on top and frosted the top and sides with the butter cream frosting.  On top of that I layered the strawberries.  I like to think that it looked good enough to convince people I did bake it from scratch.  

After showing off the cake to Greg and to the boys, we packed everything up to head down to West Yellowstone and tragedy struck.  I wasn't sure if I was mad at Kurt, mad at myself for not doing it myself, or if I wanted to cry.   Kurt carried the cake out to the car with a bowl over the top and some foil to seal it and the plate.  Unfortunately, in away I have yet to figure out, it fell. On the floor of the car.  Some how the plate slide out from the bowl... I'm not really sure, I honestly counldn't figure out how it happened.  1/3 of the cake was on the floor, the rest still had the plate under it, and most of the strawberries on the top were gone.  In my panic to decide what to do, I picked it up and put it back on the plate.  Cleaned off anything that looked suspicious and took it back inside.  Wrapped what was left in plastic wrap so that only a catastrophic fall would cause a second disaster and took it back to the truck.  

Yep.   That's right.  We ate it anyway.  There wasn't any time to do it over again.  Greg was like, 'I already sent a picture to my mom,' so we took it with and ate it.  I got a small rock but otherwise it was fine, I mostly cut only pieces from the side that did not touch the car floor, so maybe the few other pieces that were left had a few other surprises.   In any case, no one has died yet, and Greg said that our day of snowmobiling and finishing the day at the local bar was one of his best in a while.  YEAH! 

The aftermath

Enjoy! (without the rocks!)   

Rhubarb Catastrophe

Yesterday afternoon I had a major catastrophe. Let's start at at the beginning.  In the morning I went to the farmers market for the first time this spring.   I was very excited to see the fresh rhubarb and strawberries in various stands.  Rhubarb may be my favorite thing in spring.  It was a sure sign of summers approach when I was growing up.  Rhubarb crumble, torte and margaritas.  What could be better?  I especially love, love, love rhubarb pie.  It's so quick and easy to bake up.

I was so excited to bake to make my first pie of the season.  Then catastrophe struck.  I could not find my recipe.  I went through every single section of my card box.  It was nowhere. The crust was such a great crust that I have used for other pies and the filling was so perfect.  How could I loose this recipe?  In a panic I called my mom, but as the phone was ringing I remembered that she didn't give me the recipe.  A family friend gave it to me several years ago when I was staying with them during an internship.

In the end I used my mom's pat in the pan pie crust (which is excellent too) and a slightly modified pie filling from Betty Crocker.  I used less strawberries than I had planned, but it was still delicious.  I am hoping to find my old recipe because it was so good. 

I took this to a party too soon after baking so I know the pictures not the best, but it was still delicious.

Rhubarb Strawberry Pie
Crust:

• 3 cups flour
• 4 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 tbsp milk

Filling:

• 4 1/4 cups rhubarb cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 1/2 cups strawberries, sliced
• 2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup flour
• 2 tbsp butter

1. For the crust, combine the flour, sugar and salt together.  Mix in Oil and water.  Press 2/3 of the mixture into a 9" round pan and set the rest aside. 
2. Mix together the rhubarb and strawberries with the sugar and flour.  Once combined, spoon into pie pan.  
3. Cut butter into small squares and sprinkle over filling.
4. Roll out remaining crust dough between wax paper until large enough to cover top of pie.  Place over top of filling and pinch the edges.  Using a fork poke holes into the top crust. 
5. Sprinkle crust with sugar and bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

Enjoy!