There is very little in life as comforting as pie. And when you can have the quintessential springtime pie -- one made with rhubarb -- then really, what more do you need in life? A little bit of vanilla ice cream, and some loved ones to share the bounty with ... that's all.

Rhubarb is one of my very favorite foods to cook with; it's even better if the rhubarb is a gift from a beloved friend who grows it in her backyard. Although I adore it in this recipe, I also use it for shortbread-based dessert bars and even entrees like the Curried Rhubarb Chicken with Jasmine Rice that I wrote about for AnnArbor.com last July. It can be sweet or savory, combined with berries or with orange ... an extremely adaptable ingredient!

But this pie is truly a thing of beauty in every way, from its gorgeous color to the bubbled-up juices that give it that rustic, handmade look. And -- oh, yeah -- its taste is absolutely sublime! There is nothing complicated about this: chop the rhubarb, cut up the strawberries, stir the filling ingredients together, pour into the crust, and you're done. The lattice crust takes a bit of patience, but it isn't even necessary; you can follow the same recipe to make a one-crust pie, or sprinkle a bit of granola over the fruit in place of a top crust and make it a Rhubarb Crumble Pie.

No matter how you slice it, Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie is essential to warm weather happiness.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients

2 crusts for 9" pie tins (or make a single-crust pie with only 1 crust)
3 cups sliced rhubarb
1 16-ounce container strawberries, cut into 3/4" pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 egg, if making a 2-crust pie

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place bottom crust into a 9" pie tin.

2. In a large bowl, combine rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Place into pie crust.

3. If making a lattice crust, take the second pie crust and cut it into 3/4" strips. Place 5 strips over the pieto form vertical stripes. Turn back strips 1, 3, and 5 ; place another strip horizontally over the two strips that are left resting on the pie. Lay strips 1, 3, and 5 back down; turn back strips 2 and 4. Place another strip of crust horizontally over the three strips that are left resting on the pie. Do this until you have 5 strips of crust both vertically and horizontally, woven through each other in a basket-weave. (Trust me -- it's easier than it sounds, and will make sense if you try it.)

4. Brush the lattice crust with the egg, press the rim of the crust with a fork to adhere the crusts to each other (as well as for decoration), and bake for 20 minutes. Lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another hour or so, until the filling is bubbling even in the center of the pie. If the pie seems to be getting a bit dark, feel free to cover it with a sheet of foil for protection.

Mary Bilyeu has won or placed in more than 60 cooking contests and writes about her adventures in the kitchen. The phrase "You Should Only Be Happy" (written in Hebrew on the stone pictured next to the blog's title) comes from Deuteronomy 16:15 and is a wish for all her readers as they cook along with her ... may you always be happy here. Check out her blog -- Food Floozie -- in which she cooks, reviews restaurants, and generally enthuses and effuses over all things food-related. Or send an email to yentamary@gmail.com.