Table of Contents: From Breakfast With Anita Diamant to Dessert With James Patterson - a Generous Helping of Recipes, Writings and Insights From Today's Bestselling Authors Read Online Free PDF Page A

one. As I've grown older as a writer, I've become more interested in content than style. I've come to believe, in fact, that a writer must choose between psychological realism and poetic prose. In my opinion, the two simply cannot fully coexist, for either writer or reader.
A NNA S IFTER'S S TRAWBERRY R HUBARB P IE
    Makes 1 (9-inch) pie; 8 servings
    An original 1960s recipe from Kathy's Pies of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a family bakery. The strawberry rhubarb pie remains a bestseller.
    The scene that got me started on my most recent novel, America, America , is the one that features a strawberry rhubarb pie. Though it did not end up being the first scene in the book, it was the first one I wrote, long before there was a presidential candidate, a love affair, or even a fully formed family story in my mind. Though one is unconscious of this kind of thing when writing, I realize now that the humble, old-fashioned gesture of baking a pie seemed to emphasize the differences between, on the one hand, working-class Corey Sifter and his diligent mother Anna (who actually baked the pie) and, on the other, the wealthy girl who invites Corey sailing. I also must have thought that the combination of something beautiful and luscious — the strawberry — and something lowly, sour, and common — the rhubarb — would work well in a novel that in many other ways juxtaposes opposites.
    I myself am a berry lover, blueberries and strawberries especially, so much so that my wife believes I must have been a brown bear in another life. The recipe here is from a long-held family business in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is about a half hour from where I live, in Iowa City. To my delight, people in Iowa still give home-baked pies as gifts, so this recipe is also a suitable representative of my adopted home state.
    F OR THE FILLING
    1 pound rhubarb (fresh or frozen), cut into ½-inch pieces
    1 cup sugar
    3 cups hulled and sliced strawberries
    Dash of salt
    5 tablespoons cornstarch
    F OR THE CRUST
    2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for sprinkling the board
    2 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus additional for sprinkling on the crust
    ½ teaspoon salt
    ¾ cup (1½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
    ½ cup cold vegetable shortening
    6–8 tablespoons ice water
    Milk, for brushing on dough
    1 To make the filling: Place rhubarb in a medium bowl, add sugar, and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap. If using fresh rhubarb, refrigerate for 2–3 hours. If using frozen rhubarb, refrigerate overnight.
    2 To make the crust: In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt, butter, and shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water all at once, and pulse again until dough just begins to come together, but doesn't form a ball.
    3 Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, and knead gently until it comes together. Press the dough into a ball. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, one slightly smaller than the other. Flatten into disks and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.
    4 Strain rhubarb in a colander and reserve juice (you should have approximately 1 cup of juice).
    5 Place ½ cup rhubarb juice into a large stockpot. Add strawberries and salt, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Mix cornstarch into remaining juice and add to boiling mixture. As soon as the juice has thickened and becomes clear, turn off the heat and add the rhubarb. Remove from heat and cool cooked fruit completely.
    6 Preheat oven to 350°F. Allow each dough disk to sit at room temperature for approximately 10 minutes.
    7 Place bigger ball of dough on a lightly floured surface (you will need a surface at least 15 inches square). With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll from the center outward into a circle roughly 14 inches in diameter. Carefully fold in half, then again to form a triangle. Place in an ungreased 9″ pie plate, positioning it so the point of the triangle is in the center of the pie plate. Gently