Yes! The whole appeal of rhubard is a bit of tartness. Drown it in sugar and what’s the point?
I love strawberries, and I love rhubarb, but I almost never make strawberry rhubarb pie. I’ll certainly enjoy a piece if someone sets it down in front of me, but I feel like the flavors kind of muddle each other, so I tend to keep them separate.
My rhubarb is nearly ready for harvest, so there will soon be a rhubarb pie or three to share with friends. I like to make mine with some orange or clementine zest added. To me, that’s the flavor that best enhances rhubarb!
I added some orange zest, too. A couple of recipes suggested that, and i had oranges around. I’ve never used it before in this pie, so I’ll find out after dinner if i like it.
My family likes strawberry rhubarb. I don’t think I’ve ever tried just rhubarb. I planted one rhubarb a few years ago, and this year it looks big enough that i could probably harvest a stalk or two. Maybe next year I’ll be able to make homegrown pie.
If you like strawberry rhubarb pie, try it in a coffee cake. The cake soaks up some of the excess liquid so it’s not so goopy. I make it every time over pie now.
Like many cooking heresies, it depends. There’s an awful lot of gate-keeping going on. I, for example, have made great coffee in a percolator, it’s just not as easy as in a load-and-forget auto-drip. You have to keep an eye on it and stop the process before it’s over-extracted.
But if you’re careful and keep the pulses to a minimum, it works just fine.
QED
I don’t use a food processor because as mentioned above, for two people any time saved in using the processor is more than spent taking the thing apart and cleaning it properly.
My wife and I have an agreement. I cook, she cleans. Win-win for me!
It’s just me here, so all cooking and cleaning are done by the same kitchen servant.
I guess I don’t find cleaning the food processor terribly onerous. I’m a big believer in soaking used cooking utensils in hot soapy water as I’m done using them, and by the time I pop the pie into the oven to bake, they’re ready for washing. The soaking usually takes care of most of the residue, so minimal effort is required for proper cleaning.
All my regularly used kitchen toys (food processor, stand mixer, etc.) live on the countertops, so they’re within easy reach when I want to use them. I do think if I had to dig them out of some storage area, I’d use them a lot less.
With DesertWife and me it was I cook (and clean) and she does the laundry. Still a win-win because cooking was more creative while she could just throw clothes in the machine, wander off for a half-hour to do something more interesting, then throw them in the dryer to let it do its thing.
Yes, i think that’s the big disincentive. It’s easy to pull the pastry cutter out of a drawer, but it’s hard to drag out the food processor. It and the blender live in cupboards. The microwave, toaster oven, stand mixer, instant pot, and even the bread maker live on the kitchen counter and get a lot more use.
Same here. These apartments have really small kitchens, as a lot of senior residents don’t do much cooking. After my HUGE kitchen in Portland, this was a bit of a shock. However, one whole wall was open. One could either put a small table there to eat at, or, as I did, buy and install two sets of shelves, one for appliances and one for pans and utensils. In between them is a wooden roll-away work surface/trash bin area that I installed a power strip on. So all of my small appliances are within reach, along with mixing bowls, and I can pull out something like a processor, put it on the rollaway and plug it in. Preparing meals in there is still like working on some sort of complicated puzzle, where you have to move something in order to use something else, but it’s a dance I can do. When it comes to making bread or some other complicated thing, I can use the dining table for rolling, stuffing, dough rising, etc.
The orange was really good. I see @Aspenglow 's point that the strawberry doesn’t add a lot. The filling is delicious, though.
Sadly, my pie crust is tough. Maybe because it was to warm. Maybe i didn’t cook it properly. Dunno.
Pie crust is an art, and the art is different wherever you are. I can whack out perfect pie crusts half asleep at home – but when I tried to make pies for my family in Arizona, I couldn’t make a decent pie crust to save my life! I spent a week making batch after batch of dough and never really succeeded, although I think I did finally suss out the problem. It’s so dry there compared to my Oregon weather, I kept underestimating how much water I needed to add. The crust would crumble even as I tried to roll it out. Never experienced anything like it!
Your practice of weighing your ingredients should help a lot with that.
As for a tender crust, my best secret is lard. But I understand why that wouldn’t work for you. 
What I would try, besides weighing ingredients: Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes after mixing to allow the flour to thoroughly hydrate. Then let it warm up enough to roll it easily. Handle it as little as possible.
I’m glad you liked the orange, anyway! 
I eat lard, but I’ve made lard crusts and butter crusts, and while lard is more tender, butter tastes better and is flakier. I’ve switched to butter. (And i use palm oil instead of lard these days when i make a vegan crust for friends. A soapmaker lent me a book that listed the chemical content of most common fats and oils. I learned that lard and palm oil have an almost identical mix of fatty acids. They obviously taste a little different, but i actually like the “cleaner” taste of palm oil in a fruit pie.)
Yeah, i weighed my flour, chilled the dough… But it felt a little different as i made it. 
It’s an art.
It’s funny, because I made perfectly acceptable butter crusts for years. But they weren’t what I was looking for, because I wanted grandma’s crust. I stumbled on the lard thing and realized, oh, that was her secret! So that’s what I prefer.
There’s a lot to be said for the beloved family recipe, for sure.
For several of the last years I worked as a baker in a library cafe I made straight rhubarb pie when it was in season. My cousin from Nebraska gave me ar least fifty pounds when it came into season. You are right, it’s so easy to make, even the plain type. It became so popular that people were ordering whole pies, baked or frozen.
My mom always made her pie dough with Krisco. I don’t even know what kind of fat is in it…it was always just Krisco! Her dough was flaky, but I also prefer the taste of butter. I’m addicted to butter…don’t tell my cardiologist.
Due to the sheer randomness that sometimes looks preordained in our universe, I was watching Alton Brown’s Good Eats episode on Pie Making last night (the wife and I often watch 20-30 minute lightweight options during dinner time). For his efforts at a flaky and delicious crust he 1) used the food processor in short pulses 2) let it rest and rehydrate in the fridge after formation 3) used both butter AND lard to get the flavor, browning, and flaky layers he wanted.
So you’re all in good (cooking) company.
Crisco is vegetable shortening.
Other brands vary and have animal fats.
Good, straight clean lard makes the best crust. If it has a bad taste its not so clean.
The best damned pies I’ve ever had were the strawberry and rhubarb pies from my neighbor and her garden. I’m not much for rhubarb pie; not much for strawberry pie. But combine the two? Greater than the sum of the parts.