Well Darren most of the time I don't really want a pool because of the maintenance overhead but there are a few days a year where it sure would be nice! I'll bet its even nicer there when its not just hot but sticky as well!
About 7:00 the sun dipped low enough that the tree was in the shade of the house so after fortifying myself with a 1/2 gallon of water (plus 2 tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt) and taking another 1/2 gallon of the same with me I went back down to get what I could. Ended up with 6 14"-18" blanks and 2 smaller ones around 8". Not bad. There is a big chunk left, the main trunk is about 3' across and maybe 6-7' long and there are a few nice big crotch pieces left at the top.. so we may be back
In the meantime I made a pie! A pretty simple one.
Easy Pie crust
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2C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1C shortening (or lard)
mix until like "peas" (crumbles what have you - don't over mix though)
pour in 1/2C 7Up (I usually pour in about 3/4 of it, pickup most of the flour and then add the rest)
gently mix until just mixed
gather together and divide in about half
roll out on floured surface
gently transfer to a pie tin
repeat rollout/transfer with the other half
Poke holes in the bottom with a fork (not many, and not aggressively)
shield the edges with tinfoil
if you have them put pie beads in the bottom or beans work, single layer evenly spaced not to tightly does it
bake 350 for ~15 minutes or until bottom starts to get a hint of brown
remove foil, rotate and bake another 5m or until just brown
Allow to cool
You now have two empty pie shells ready for a custard pie (like chocolate cream) or - like in this case - a fresh berry pie!
The berry pie works best with a shallower pie pan unless you have really huge strawberries. The peaks should be to about the top of the pan.
Fresh strawberry pie.
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Clean and core some strawberries
Heat a jar of jelly until runny on the stove (I like currant, but orange marmalade or raspberry jelly or whatever works - best if somewhat tart and seedless)
spoon a (very) thin layer of jelly onto the bottom of the crust
put strawberries in to crust core side down, works best if you do rings starting from the outside.
spoon more jelly over strawberries, ideally evenly coating in a thin glaze
Chill for ~10 minutes covered with plastic wrap in fridge
Serve with whipped cream or ala-mode.
I switched to this pie crust recipe when loml found out that eggs bother her allergies. Otherwise I used to do about the same recipe except add ~1/2tsp baking pwd to the dry and then for the wet put an egg and 1 tsp vinegar into a 1/3C measure and top to full with ice water (the vinegar acts as a dough conditioner making a more tender crust). The rest is the same
Having used it I like the 7Up recipe about as well maybe better but I've used the other one for a long time so I still think of it as "how to make pie crust".