bits and bobs and barbecue sauce

I made my first strawberry pie this morning. So simple, it doesn't even really need a recipe - and good thing, because it seems impossible to find a baked strawberry pie recipe. So I made one up. I used my regular crust recipe, and mixed a bit of sugar and cornstarch with the berries, some of which I kind of sliced with my pastry blender. Not quite enough cornstarch this time; it was kind of soupy. That's my kind of soup.
How cute are these little squash curlicues? I'm so excited for some squash soup this fall. And speaking of cute, Phillip came to the door to show me something very special yesterday.
"I'm tickling his eyes, Mama. He likes that." (I assured him that the snail most likely did not like having his eyes tickled.)
And tonight, at P's request, we had a picnic. I made Everyday Food's Barbecued Chicken, and it looked exactly like their picture! (Maybe because I followed the recipe.) Better yet, it tasted incredible.
P, like every other kid on the planet, likes to dip. Here's the sauce recipe:

Everyday Food's Barbecue Sauce

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup light-brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses

Simmer all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat until reduced to about 1 1 /4 cups, about 5-7 minutes.

Seriously, this is the perfect sauce - not too sweet, not too vinegar-y - it's perfect. (And if you're worried about the hot sauce, you don't even taste the heat in the final sauce. But I wouldn't leave it out, unless I didn't have any on hand.) I piled it on as the chicken was cooking, and it's so delicious to dip pieces of chicken in. It would be fantastic with homemade chicken fingers, too.

Enjoy a picnic!