I rarely choose favorites, but I’m like 95% certain pie is my favorite dessert. Or maybe not because I also love ice cream. And crumbles. And cobbler. And I would never pass up a good cupcake. Stop it, Allison. Clear your mind. Anyway….

My sister Lauren and I trekked to the fruit market to grab some rhubarb (that stuff is huge and heavy) so I could make a couple of strawberry rhubarb pies. To be quite honest, I mostly wanted to take pictures of my pretty pies. I’ve always been equally interested in pretty food as I am in tasty food. I remember being six or seven and reading an article in a magazine about food artists and truly believing it was my calling.

Making food beautiful isn’t always as easy as this looks, and the perfectly latticed and braided pies I’ve been dreaming of all summer didn’t turn out quite like I wanted them to, but fortunately half of my food score is based on taste and I got that one on lock. Here’s the recipe I used. Pro tip: don’t get impatient waiting on your dough to chill. In fact, make the dough the night before. I made two pies and the second crust was much easier to work with because I let it refrigerate longer.