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!)