Changes in altitude, plenty of attitude

daphne on March 23, 2009

This weekend brought not only the first day of a spring break full of sassy pre-pre-teen attitude, but also the first day of spring.  Eternal optimist that I’m known to be, I chose to focus on welcoming the new season, and not on the emotional trip that is repetitive eye-rolling.  I’m a glass half full kind of gal that way.  Anyway, first day of spring…picnic time, right?  Well, that’s pretty much what we did. Only we did it slope-side.

Because one of the key benefits of waiting until mid-March to hit the slopes for the first time is the beautiful sunshiny weather.  And really, with skies so blue and trees so green the dark brown stink eye from my eight-year old pretty much just rolled right off my back.

Once we sat out the time-outs and got the group up the mountain, there really were no complaints from the happy campers.  At least during the second and a half that it took to snap this picture.

Even old grouchy eyes set her attitude aside for a little while.  Long enough to flash me this smile on the chairlift.

With smiles all around we thought it best to call it quits on the early side, get out before things got ugly.   Theoretically that is.  We actually called it quits when they sank down into the mashed potato-like late season snow and couldn’t muster the power to get back up.  The whiny sirens of tired children rang out across the mountain-tops, and we packed it in.

Which got us back home with plenty of time to hit the yard and get down to work.  We raked and snipped and watered and cut back the beautiful dried grasses so that now everything looks pretty awful.  Dried out and shriveled up and just waiting.  Brown ugly springtime.  Well, except for the rhubarb.  I know rhubarb and I have our history, but I really have come to love this stuff.  It’s predictable. It’s tasty.  And up it pops, no matter what—

The raspberries are putting out their buds too.  It is interesting that even as I renew my pledge to pay more attention to the healthy vegetables in my life, it is the sweet dessert ingredients that never fail me. They require nothing, and they deliver year after year insisting only that I promise to eat my dessert.

And that’s a promise I’m willing to make.

Super Easy Freezer-style Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

daphne on July 9, 2008

This jam is incredible, and incredibly easy if, like us, you weren’t raised down south steeping jars in vats of bubbling water while okra grew out back. But that doesn’t mean we don’t know good jam when we taste it.

We use the No/Low Sugar Needed Sure Jell Pectin and mostly followed the freezer jam recipe. The regular was too sweet, and you can’t just add less sugar—chemistry or something I guess.

Ingredients:

  • 1 package No/Low Sugar Sure Jell Pectin
  • 3 cups of diced and crushed strawberries
  • 1 cup diced rhubarb
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 1 cup water

Directions:

  1. Measure fruit into bowl.
  2. Measure sugar into large pot.
  3. Stir pectin into sugar until mixed well.
  4. Stir in water and bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Once it boils, stir 1 more minute. Remove from heat.
  5. Add fruit to pectin mixture and stir well.
  6. Pour into containers (I use the old school wide mouth bell jars, because they are super cool)
  7. Let stand, covered for 24 hours at room temp. Freeze until ready and thaw in the fridge.

Rhubarb, when do I pick it and what do I do with it?

daphne on July 7, 2008

Got Rhubarb? Lucky you. Rhubarb is used in Chinese medicine and is thought by some to have cancer-inhibiting qualities. Plus, it’s super tasty in desserts..

Rhubarb stalks are ready to harvest from early spring through mid summer as soon as the leaves are full. The stalks will be anywhere from light green to bright red in color, and should be thick enough so they don’t bend like rubber.

To harvest, grasp the stalk by the bottom and wiggle it, just a little bit.  Wiggle a lot if you want to count it for today’s workout.

Do not eat the leaves, they are toxic. So toxic, in fact, that if I touch them without gloves I get a weird skin  tightening sensation, though it doesn’t bother the kids at all. They are tough as nails.

I rinse, dry then dice the stalks right away and then lay them out on a tray in the freezer. Once frozen, I dump them all into a ziploc where they will be ready to add (frozen is fine!) to any tasty recipe (like this one for my locally famous Rhubarb Crisp).

Rhubarb Crisp

daphne on July 1, 2008

This is a favorite around here. At book club last spring it went faster than the wine!

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups diced rhubarb
  • 3 tablespoons orange juice
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoons cold butter, cut in small pieces
  • 1/4 cup melted butter
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
  • dash salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2/3 cup quick cooking rolled oats

What to do:

Heat oven to 375°. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Arrange diced rhubarb in the prepared baking dish. Toss rhubarb with the orange juice, sprinkle with the 1/2 cup sugar and the cinnamon; dot with the 1 tablespoon of cut up butter.

Combine melted butter with brown sugar.

Stir together flour, salt, and baking soda; mix with oats. Combine the flour oat mixture with the brown sugar and melted butter mixture until well blended. With hands, spread the crumb mixture over rhubarb. Bake for 40 minutes.

Serve warm, with ice cream.

Rhubarb, one tough old gal

daphne on June 7, 2008

Ahhh, reproduction. Who could forget fifth grade with its squirm-worthy talk of budding and asexual reproduction and new boobs and busy bees? Back then, nary a day passed without the girls getting herded off to the gym and the boys skulking down to the art room to hear promises of puberty, and treats and terrors to come.

Mama Rhubarb

But those seasons, they go round and round and now here we stand firmly on the other side. We’ve seen for ourselves from whence babies come, and those babies have themselves come home from school bearing their own dixie cups of sprouted peapods in hand.

It seems that although puberty is (thankfully) a thing of my past, I still don’t know all there is to know about baby-making. Just this spring I happened upon a new term of reproduction: propagate. As in, come on Billy-Bob, let’s get down and dirty and start propagatin’. Which brings me to rhubarb. We inherited one old plant.

Tough gal. Despite considerable overcrowding and our laissez-faire gardening approach, she bore us plenty that first year. We were cruel, ignoring her unless a hankering for rhubarb crumble reared up and demanded we pluck her plentiful stalks. However, when our neighbor poured concrete to reset his fence posts smack dab on top of her, my mothering instincts kicked in. It was time to save Rhubarb.

Mama Rhubarb and her little Rhubarbarinos

I searched online, followed some directions, and wham! bam! I made me some baby rhubarbarinos. You heard it here first–propagating is the wave of the future. And rhubarb? Oh, I have plenty to say about rhubarb. I’m just getting started. You’ll hear more about our old gal for sure.

Grab a cigar by the way, congratulations are due: Look what our tough mama created: Seven little rhubarb-arinos. Come on, aren’t they cute?

(Cute, yes, and mighty tasty too. Here’s a tasty recipe that has my kids chanting for more rhubarb!)