Summer in New England

I was in Boston this past weekend and I scratched a long-burning itch--as I mentioned in my last column--a cone of black raspberry ice cream with chocolate sprinkles.

I enjoyed the cone in question (a sugar, of course) at Christina's in Cambridge. The ice cream shop(pe) routinely wins Best of Boston awards and this version didn't disappoint. What could be more summery than an ice cream cone enjoyed outside. If only I lived closer than a two-hour flight from this awesome ice creamery.

Back home in N.C., I have another order of business--making a Rhubarb Strawberry Pie for my rhubarb-averse neighbork. It's partly to thank her for watching the Spooch, partly because she said she had never cooked with the peculiar Yankee stalks.

Last, but most importantly, when I was in Boston I got to talk to Papa Fork about his much anticipated guest post. He told me it's coming soon and that it'll be on that quintessential New England summer food: Lobsters. Be on the lookout...

Rhubarb Outtakes

The Rhubarb column is history, but I have a couple of extra stalks to share:

After the article ran, my neighbork Adele conferred with her friend about rhubarb. They confirmed that rhubarb is in fact a Yankee food and that they've never seen it in a Southern cook book. This quotation of Adele's was a last minute cut: "You all make strawberry rhubarb pie, but we just grew up on strawberry pie and, if we were lucky, wild strawberry pie."

Also, this was the Spoonstress' take on the Rhubarb Lime Rickey: “If I close my eyes, it tastes like I’m drinking limeade." Opening her eyes, she said, "It tastes like pomegranate." Hmm...

If there is a rhubarb association (this was the closest I found), it should market its product better. I'm thinking if they re-branded it as "Roo-Barb," used a kangaroo logo and got some outback Aussie to pitch it, rhubarb could be the next…Kiwi fruit. Who doesn't like kangaroos?

Finally, I’d like to point out that my local store was sold out of all rhubarb the weekend before the column ran. While I’d like to think that my blog posts on the vegetable sparked a buying frenzy in Chapel Hill, it’s unlikely. Instead, take it as a sign that rhubarb is a commodity on the rise—buy it while you can!

No word yet on if the shelves will be bare after the column runs (I'm not holding my breath.).

Stick a Fork in it...

...this column's done.

Those of you in this rhubarb poor region of Chapel Hill can read it in today's Chapel Hill News. Everyone else will have to rely on this rickety link.

For those arriving here after reading the column, sit anywhere you'd like and make yourself at home. You'll find previous columns on the right and please help yourself to a comment once in a while.

As for me, I'm off for a celebratory Rhubarb Lime Rickey. After all, someone's gotta finish the bowl.

Ants on a Rhubarb Log?

I've submitted the rhubarb column and it will run tomorrow. In the meantime, let's look at some rhubarb photos.

Since I had some celery and rhubarb around, I decided to compare and contrast.

As you can see, they can look eerily similar.

While that's certainly true at the green end, it's not by the crimson part of the stalk.

That's when you realize why this variety is called cherry rhubarb.

Fetching Rhubarb

Recently, I was talking to my neighbor Adele about rhubarb. She said she'd never cooked with it, and didn't even know what it looked like.

The next time I took the Spooch over to play with Adele's dog, Mr. Darcy, I brought a bag of rhubarb to show her. The Spooch and Mr. Darcy have been playing in another neighbor's yard lately. While I was putting the Spooch into that fenced yard, she got loose and I dropped the rhubarb to grab her. That very moment, Mr. Darcy zipped over and snagged the bag full of red stalks. As I grabbed the Spooch, I heard Adele exclaim, “Mr. Darcy’s got the rhubarb!”

I’ll never forget the sight of that young golden retriever pup sprinting off with a plastic bag full of rhubarb in his mouth.

After Mr. Darcy came back, we let the dogs play with a stalk. It certainly made for a good tug-of-war toy (see photo). While they were wrestling over it, Adele said, deadpan, “So that would be what rhubarb looks like.”

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.

Midnight Madness

What does any self-respecting food writer do with a leftover cup of rhubarb? Experiment.

But what to make? At first I thought of baking a mini pie. Then I realized I didn't feel like preparing a mini crust. Soon thereafter, I remembered that Mama Fork had just given me these cool silicone cupcake/muffin cups. After that, the answer was obvious: strawberry rhubarb muffins.

But with my nocturnal habits, these muffin thoughts came at about 10:30 p.m. By the time they were popping fresh, we had midnight muffins.

And pop they did--right out of the silicone baking cups without any greasing beforehand. I'd have to say these beauties make muffining easy. Plus, they're pretty photogenic.

I'll pass along the recipe, but the Spoonstress and I both agreed that the dough tasted too plain. Those of you with more muffin experience will probably be able to adjust accordingly.

For you fellow novices, the Spoonstress had an excellent idea we've yet to put to the test: adding chocolate chips to the next batch. Can't imagine how that could go wrong.

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!)