M-M-M Muffins and More

When we arrived home this week the grass was almost knee high and the rhubarb! ...well let me say we have a bumper crop of rhubarb this year, so I am trying all kinds of rhubarb recipes. Today after cleaning and chopping a VERY large basket of rhubarb;

( how large was it you say? )

Large!

This is only a portion of it, and what you are looking at is about 12 - 14 inches deep in my large stainless steel sink.

One of the recipes I tried today is from a quilt guild cookbook called Put This On Your Dresden Plate.

 Pecan Rhubarb Muffins.

Quick and Easy and best of all very yummy!

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. I put all the wet ingredients in my handy dandy Tupperware gravy shaker. Give them a good shake. Add to the dry; stir in the rhubarb, and Voila! ...you are done.

See that little vintage chopper. Well I have knives, and Kitchen Aid Food Choppers and mini choppers, and a Magic Bullet, all very good chopping tools but this is what I usually reach for when a recipe calls for a 1/2 cup of chopped nuts. By the way, just as a matter of interest. Have you ever wondered exactly what a recipe means when it asks for a 1/2 cup of chopped nuts? Do you measure the nuts first and then chop them or do you chop them and then measure them?

If the recipe says "1/2 cup of nuts; chopped" then you measure and then chop BUT if the recipe says "1/2 cup of chopped nuts" you chop them and then measure. Now I know you smart people probably already knew that, but I just thought I would through in that little tidbit of info for free.

By the way, you wanna see what they looked like fresh out of the oven?

M-M-M- muffins!

While we were away in Ontario last week Mr. O and I took a lovely drive to Markdale to go fabric shopping at one of my favorite quilt shops.  (Actually I fabric shopped and Mr. O went exploring a few country roads.) While in Markdale we stopped into a little Deli/Cafe/Tea Shoppe. The shop owner is also an accomplished rug hooker. Several of her smaller projects were on display in her shop. a very quaint little stop indeed! The food was absolutely wonderful. I had homemade Chicken Pot Pie and Butternut Squash Soup, and for dessert Fresh Homemade Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. Without a doubt the best S. R. pie I have evah tasted! The pastry was wonderful and the filling was just a perfect balance of sweet and tart.

I have a habit of trying to identify the ingredients that are in a new dish. Mr. O says "just eat and enjoy" but the cook in me needs to distinguish tastes so I can replicate them when I make them at home. Well this pie had the usual strawberries and rhubarb and sugar etc. but also had just enough orange rind and juice in it to accent the other flavors beautifully. Oh my it was good. Couldn't have done better myself. Tomorrow I hope to make a couple of SR pies and I have picked out a recipe I think may be just what I want.

Orange Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

3 1/2 cups  chopped rhubarb

2 1/2 cups strawberries

1 TBS  orange rind

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup flour

2 cups sugar

pastry for a 10" pie

Mix ingredients in a large bowl. Place in a 10" pie crust. Cover with a lattice top pastry. Bake at 375 for 1 hr. and 15 min.

I also have a Rhubarb Slush recipe to try out as well as an Impossible Rhubarb Pie. Stay tuned for results.

I leave you with a few pics of some of the hooked projects. Please excuse the quality of the photos, they were taken with our phone.

On our way out of the cafe, the waitress showed me a hooked project that her boss had made that won an Ontario competion last year. It was a scene from Lunenburg. I was so intrigued with the work I forgot to take a photo of that one...oops!