Pie for Breakfast!

I still have a bunch of rhubarb in my freezer from last year's harvest, and when I saw some strawberries at the commissary the other day, I decided it was time to make a strawberry-rhubarb pie. Usually I buy strawberries with a lot skepticism and hesitation because the mold likes to hide inside the strawberries where you can't see them.  Before I put them in my shopping cart, I roll the plastic box around and around and around, looking for any sign of white fuzz, but sometimes don't see it until after I get it home because it's lurking in the MIDDLE of the strawberries.  Anyhoo, I lucked out this time.  Some of the strawberries had some wet mushy spots, which I cut off, but over all, this box wasn't that bad.  I'm just glad I used them before they became worthy of only the trash.

One reason that I like to make pies is because they are the perfect breakfast food.  Well, maybe not, but I love to eat pie for breakfast.  It's really nothing but a fruit pastry if you think about it, but so much better than the fruit pastries that you buy in a store, because the ones you buy in a store are less healthier for you - not that homemade pies are "healthy",  but at least you can control what goes into them.

It's true that rhubarb takes a good amount of that "evil" sugar to make it more palatable, but at least it's not HFCS, like what you would get from a processed pie.  I read on several websites that the ideal sugar consumption for the average female should be no more than 25 grams, or 6 tsp per day.  Or was that Tbsp?  I don't remember now.  Anyhoo, this pie has one cup of sugar in the whole thing (not counting the natural sugar in the strawberries).  I like to cut my pies into 12 pieces instead of the traditional 8, so 1 cup (16 Tbsp) divided by 12 is 1.333333333333333333333333333infinity Tbsp, which really isn't TOO bad.  Of course the other evil in this pie is the refined white flour used for the crust.  Maybe someday I'll find a healthier alternative for that, but for now, I just want my crust to taste good and have a good texture, even though I fully realize that consuming evil flour is probably a crime against my body.  (at my age I tend to increasingly and more frequently worry about getting cancer - have you noticed the growing number of cancer cases?).  Back in the 80s/90s I saw a commercial about AIDS that said that everyone knows someone who has AIDS.  Well, to this day, I still have never personally met anyone who has AIDS (that I know of), but I know LOTS of people who have cancer; it seems so inevitable these days that I often wonder when it's gonna be my turn.  But apparently I''m not worried enough to stay away from sugar and refined flour - yet.

Anyhoo (I strayed off the subject again, didn't I?), pie for breakfast wouldn't be complete if not accompanied by a good cup of joe.  For awhile I quit drinking coffee because of tummy issues, but lately picked it up again.  I find that decaf coffee doesn't bother me, but I stay away from the loaded stuff (caffeine doesn't seem to agree with me anymore).  But since I still want to take it easy on the coffee, I generally don't have more than one cup a day, and even then I only end up drinking half of it because it gets cold before I can drink it all, and cold coffee is just...............nasty.  So whatever I don't drink, I save for a pumpkin latte later in the day.

I have read in magazines that there is a new trend out there where people are actually pudding a pad of butter in their coffee.  Not only because it tastes good, but also because butter is turning into a new "health fad" - now that the general consensus is turning around that butter is actually good for you instead of evil as we were so brainwashed to believe, (that I was smart enough to not fall for).  I was raised on margarine, but after I left home, I started buying butter and never looked back, and that was 30 years ago.  Where does the time go?

I do NOT put butter in my coffee because somehow that doesn't appeal to me.  Instead, I put a little dab of coconut oil in my coffee.

Coconut oil is good for you in a lot of ways, and it adds a nice smooth subtle flavor to the coffee.  Yes, it adds calories, but at least they are healthy calories.  And then I add this stuff because I hate HATE hate black coffee:

Dairy is another food genre that I have to watch, especially milk, heavy cream, and sour cream (not that I would put sour cream in my coffee....)  

It's nice that I can once again enjoy coffee, as long as I don't put the wrong stuff in it.

And coffee always tastes better with a slice of pie.  Not IN the coffee, of course, but on the side....

Don't put your pie IN your coffee.

Different subject:  I finally got that anniversary card done.  This is the finalized cover:

And this is how I ended up putting the pages together:

I used a paint pen to edge the pages with gold.  I wanted to put "water marks" on the pages as well, but my VersaMark pad has pink ink in it, which made the images look pink, so I left the pages Plain Jane.  I scored the left edges of the pages so they will open up easily, and then used brads to hold them all together.  I already gave it to the church secretary so I won't be tempted to change anything else.  I just wanted to be done with it and get it out of my hands before I do something to ruin it.  BTW, if this card looks familiar at all, it's because I copied it from another card that I saw on Pinterest.  I cannot take full credit for this card.

and that's enough of my rambling for one day.