Rhuminations

I suppose it's finally time to get to work on June's column. Enough idle blogging.

With that in mind, I've decided to write about rhubarb. I had so much fun making strawberry rhubarb pies with Mama Fork that I figured why not experiment with the stalky vegetable some more. Plus, every time I pass those reddish rows in the produce department, they tempt me so.

I'm not entirely sure what I'll make with rhubarb, but I will definitely write more about my favorite pie. In addition, I'm toying with a liquid rhubarb concoction. We'll see if that flies.

The column should be in Wednesday's paper, so I better stop blogging and start brainstorming and baking. I'll be back soon with an update. In the meantime, I'm off to pick out some stalks and possibly this movie. Well, definitely the former.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb

It must be spring, because I had strawberry rhubarb pie this weekend. Homemade strawberry rhubarb pie.

When I saw native strawberries at the store, I figured it was time for this springtime rite of passage. When I heard that Mama Fork was coming for an impromptu visit, I knew we'd make it together. Even better, she needed something for a potluck dinner, so we'd make two.

I sliced three pounds of strawberry and rhubarb stalks--think red celery--the night before her arrival. All that remained was a little mixing and baking. For the first one, we used the traditional half and half rhubarb-to-strawberry ratio. Mine was more like 2.5 cups rhubarb and 1.5 cups strawberry.

I haven't heard how the first pie was received at the potluck, but the second one was a hit at my friends' house. Served heated in the microwave and topped with vanilla ice cream, the pie was worth the effort.

Based on the pictures, I'm either an obsessive crust crimper or a store-bought crust user. It's the latter. While that ain't old timey, this is: I ran out of butter on the second pie and had to borrow some from our neighbor. (Thanks Adele!)