I love strawberry season

I made these lovely strawberry tarts for dessert tonight. I was going to make a strawberry pie, but it didn't look like I had enough strawberries. So I made half a batch of sugar pie dough, cut out big circles and put them in muffin tins. Then I baked them, let them cool, filled them with diced fresh strawberries and topped them with a fruit glaze. Yes, they were as good as they look.

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Today was a big day - Brennan started nursery!! We've looked forward to this day for about 6 months, when he decided he was not content to sit still in class anymore. Dave stayed with him for a few minutes then snuck out. Every time I checked on him he was totally fine. He looked like such a big boy sitting there at the table with everyone else. His nursery leaders were concerned when they looked at the ingredients of the play doh and discovered it contains wheat. So they watched him closely to make sure he didn't eat any. They also had to keep the animal crackers away from him. But they said he was happy the whole time. Yay!!

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Sugar Pie Dough

1/2 lb butter

4 oz sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 lb flour

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Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Work in flour until it forms a ball. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Roll out, put in a pie pan and scallop the edges. Using a fork, poke lots of hole throughout. Bake at 325-350 about 15-20 minutes, or until edges turn golden brown. Cool. Fill with lots and lots of cleaned and dried whole strawberries, stems removed. First put in the largest berries, pointy side up. Once the bottom is covered, work your way up, using smaller and smaller strawberries to fill in all the spaces. Don't skimp. Use lots of strawberries! Top with glaze:

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Strawberry Pie Glaze

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup water

2 Tbsp corn starch

red food coloring

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Mix together in saucepan and stir while bringing to a boil. Boil until clear and thickened. Let sit a few minutes. Optional if in a hurry: put in ice bath to cool. Spoon over pie. Chill and serve.