The Maiden Voyage

Gary got a new toy the other day.

A table saw?
A socket set?
A new bike?

naw...

I finally got a KitchenAid Artisan mixer. Sweet! I have been coveting one for a long, long time, and KitchenAid sells things directly on eBay, so i bit the bullet and got me a fancy grey one. These things come in any color under the rainbow, including hot pink and Martha Stewart powder blue, but I went for a more industrial look.

I made chocolate chip cookies to christen the mixer. It makes all the dirty work so much easier. Let the baking commence!

The Magical Minnaert Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch

When Gary's parents were around the other weekend we made an old family tradition for dessert, my Grandma Minnaert' Rhubarb Crunch.

We had gotten a pile of strawberries in our CSA and this was a fitting use of them. It turned out great.

The recipe is as follows.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup flour
4 cups diced rhubarb
2 cups sliced strawberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 box strawberry jello powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put mixed rhubarb and strawberries into a 9 x 9 inch greased pan. Cover with rhubarb. Cook sugar, water, cornstarch, vanilla and jello until thick and clear. Pour over rhubarb and strawberries. Mix oatmeal, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and flour until crumbly. Pour over top. Cook for 1 hour.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

We got rhubarb and strawberries, among other things, in our CSA box this week. I had been wanting to make a strawberry-rhubarb crisp for a while, and this was the perfect opportunity. Sarah had claimed to be no fan of rhubarb, but strawberry-rhubarb anything is a whole different thing - the tartness is gone from the rhubarb with the included strawberries.

My mom used to make lots of peach, and blackberry, as well as strawberry-rhubarb cobblers and crisps, especially in the summer. I think I prefer a crisp to a cobbler these days, the crunch is nice. Some time ago I made a fig-raspberry crisp which was great, i made a cranberry-cherry crumble also, which was not so hot.

I used a combination of my grandmother's recipe from the "Minnaert family cookbook" and a recipe from Emeril.