Vegan Strawberry Pistachio Crumble Pie

Strawberry picking is one of our favorite summer activities! Usually we pick about three to four buckets of strawberries, but this time we we had to scale back a bit due to the size of the freezer in our new house. (I'm fairly certain our freezer was designed by someone with only ice cube and frozen pea storage in mind)

Until we can get a new fridge/freezer, I've taken to bribing people with berry desserts in exchange for freezer space. This pie is my newest bribery tool! The strawberry fruit swims in a sweet syrup right on top of a rich layer of cashew cream, all of which is complimented by a salty pistachio crumble on top.

Watermelon Reverie for Heat Advisories

It is H O T. The kind of hot that makes you drip sweat even when you are standing still. The kind of 'hot' that turns the metal part of your seat belt into a weapon with a risk of burn. So hot, that even at 9:30 pm, doing the polka makes you look like you just went swimming. Not that it has ever happened to me or anything . . . Summer is a big bowl of cold watermelon on a hot day. I look forward to watermelon season all year long!! These days I am averaging at least one watermelon a week. Reading and frozen desserts, much like watermelon, are also major requirements of summer. I was lucky enough to find a brand spankin' new copy of The Big Gay Ice Cream book at McKay's Used Bookstore last week. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I AM OBSESSED. Their sorbet recipes inspired me to make watermelon sorbet.

Strawberry Rhubarb Tart with Cracklin' Oat Bran Crust (<--- I KNOW!!!)

All of It - Strawberry Rhubarb Tart with Cracklin' Oat Bran inspired Crust

Our car broke down again, for the second time in the past couple weeks, so Chris takes our working car and I work from home. Unless I have to run an errand, then I literally run them. So there I was, running an errand. It was a drizzling and I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Selected Shorts. Wham. Bam. Alakazam. Cracklin' Oat Bran. I wanted some. And wouldn't that make such a yummy tasting tart crust perfectly matched with fresh hand picked strawberries and rhubarb??

STRAWBERRY SEASON - Hand picked Strawberries from Bradley Kountry Acres

Strawberries aren't supposed to be crunchy. They aren't supposed to taste like iceberg lettuce. They're not all the same perfect size and shape.

Real, locally grown, strawberries, farmed by a handful of human beings, are bright red! They vary in shape and size. Some are perfectly round, some beet shaped, and some do have the perfect cone shape we see in the grocery store. The flavor is exquisite. Every single bite is sweet, juicy, and a little bit tangy,

For the past four years, we've made the 45 minute trip up to Bradley Kountry Acres in Cottontown, Tennessee to pick strawberries.

Brown Butter Nectarine Muffins

For me, making food is kind of a neutralizer. Or maybe, normalizer is a better way to say that. In stressful situations it makes me feel like I am doing the following:

being productive
providing something healthy and nourishing for someone
showing my family and friends I love them