Jodi, one of my very best friends in the whole world texted me yesterday morning and wanted to know if she could come over and fish off my pier. Jodi and I grew up a block apart where our families both had homes on the lake. Both sets of parents eventually aged and the lake homes were sold. As Jodi grew up, got married, and had a family of her own, she settled down in a beautiful country setting about half-hour outside Madison. She’d always loved horses and there she could follow her passion of raising and training horses at the same time as raising and training their three beautiful children. However… the fact remains, that if you’ve grown up your entire life on the water… it never leaves you. Ever. You are a lake person for life. My circumstances were a little different than Jodi’s, as when I left home and got married, I moved around the country quite a bit with my husband’s career but after twenty-five years of raising our own family, we ended up back in my hometown… in the same neighborhood… on the lake. We actually settled just a block down from where my family home was. It truly was and is a dream come true. So… when Jodi calls and wants to come and fish off my pier… or go boating… or swimming… or anything of the sort… she is welcome absolutely any time at all. Upon arrival yesterday, she came as she usually does… never empty-handed. In addition to the 3 fishing poles, a couple of buckets, a drink and some sunscreen she was lugging, she also brought me some freshly picked, highly sought after morel mushrooms, as well as a bunch of equally fresh rhubarb from her farm.
Before we older-middle-aged women got settled in at our failed fishing mission (not even a strike!), Jodi came into the house and cut the morels in half and put them in a bowl of water to soak, proclaiming that we would have them for lunch. She threw the rhubarb down on the counter, weeds and all and I could do with it as I pleased. Okay so far!
To make a great morning even better, we called over a couple of our other very best childhood lake friends, Mari and Marsha, who also grew up with us in the neighborhood and happen to live… you guessed it… back in the neighborhood. Mari lives in her childhood home and came by boat. Marsha lives just one street over from where she grew up. After hanging out on the pier on a beautiful, sunny, calm morning, we all ended up in the kitchen, with Jodi cooking us up the morels she had breaded and fried. They were absolutely crazy-delicious. Though Jodi was too camera shy to let me include her in the picture, here is what her morels looked like…
Some people prefer not to bread morels before frying, as then you get more of the morel flavor and no coating flavor interferes… but I have to say, these tasted just fine to me!
I decided for the rhubarb, I would use a crumb tart recipe that I’ve made a zillion times from Anna Pump’s Country Weekend Entertaining cookbook with great success. I usually make it my favorite way with cranberries in the winter, but in the summer, I also make it using tart cherries. After much consideration, I really thought this would be the best treatment of choice for my newly acquired gift. There are many uses and wonderful baked goods to be made using rhubarb, but I’m glad I decided to go with this one. After making some adjustments to the sugar, the end result was phenomenal and I’ve posted the adjusted recipe below. I hope you can make this at least once!
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Rhubarb Crumb Tart The Tart: 2 cups flour 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt The Filling: 4 1/2 cups fresh rhubarb, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces Grated rind of 1/2 orange The Topping: 3/4 cup flour To make the crust, place the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and butter in the bowl of a food processor and pulse 5 times. Add the egg yolks and water. Process until the dough forms a ball. Remove the dough, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. For the filling, in a bowl, combine the rhubarb, sugars, and orange rind. Transfer to the uncooked crust, making sure the sugar is evenly distributed among the berries. (It might seem like you have too much filling for the pan, but just spread it evenly and it will cook down a little.) For the topping, place all the ingredients in a bowl and rub the mixture with your fingertips until it starts to cling together. Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over the rhubarb filling. Place on a baking sheet before placing in oven to catch any drips – and there will be drips, so make sure to do this or don’t say you weren’t warned. 🙂 Bake for 45 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling and the crumbs turn golden brown. Cool for 2 hours before serving. (I serve with vanilla bean ice cream, but it’s great on its own, too!) |
Rhubarb is heavenly no matter how you cook it!
Yes, agreed! Seems I can never get enough of it when it’s in season. 🙂
Fabulous food made even better by having wonderful friends around. And with a lake in the background!
Hoping to making a version of rhubarb crumble this weekend following guidelines from a 13th century English pie, along the lines of a modern day clafoutis. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
How did I miss your comment, too? Did you get a chance to make your rhubarb pie/clafoutis? Sounds really intriguing! Thanks for stopping by and for your comments even though I was a little lame in response time! 🙂
Yummy!!! Rhubarb is the best!! Looks absolutely fabulos! I also love the story about how you got back together with your friends from growing up! Friendships like that are so valuable 🙂
Woops! Sorry I missed this comment before. Yes, I love my childhood friends like family. Very special unconditional love! 🙂
Maggie, I’m so glad to hear it was a hit at your house as well! Thanks so much…I appreciate the feedback! Have a great week and I’ll be posting again when I’m back from vacation (June 3). 🙂
Nothing like a good dessert that uses rhubarb. I’ll take two! 🙂
Sending right over! Haha…thanks! 🙂
This looks so delicious, with ice cream while still warm, love it. Thanks for sharing. I have bookmarked. Have a pleasant day!
Thanks, Liz…I hope you enjoy it! I’ll warn you… it’s sort of nibble-some-more inducing! :p
So cool to have a best long time friend like that. 🙂 I love anything Rhubarb so I will be trying this. I usually make a Rhubarb crumb dessert so this will be a nice change from that. You’re getting tough on my waistline just so you know. 🙂 Great recipes, thanks for sharing.
Yes, it sure is and great, I hope you try it! It’s kind of a hard one NOT to love. 🙂 Thanks so much!
I made this over the weekend. It was a big hit. Thank you. 🙂
I can’t tell you how good that rhubarb crumb tart looks. Your story of long-time friendships and a wonderful afternoon of catching up and good food are heartwarming. There’s nothing like getting together with the people who have known us since childhood. Lovely!
Thanks so much! Yes, it’s that unconditional love kind of thing with them. I always tell people that they’re actually more like family! 🙂
Great story and how nice that you and your friends are able to get together, what a fun day. The rhubarb crumble sounds delicious and I have serious lake envy!!
Aww..thanks!! 🙂
Sounds like the best of morning with great friends! My Mum “invented” rhubarb with sliced banana mixed through in the 60s. It’s become a family staple. The sweet banana is a great foil to tart rhubarb
Aaahh…yes… that sounds brilliant! I never would have thought about that combo but it sure makes sense and I bet delicious! I’m going to have to try that sometime soon. 🙂 Thanks!!
I just came across your blog and am drooling up a storm! The rhubarb crumb tart looks amazing…I can not wait to make it. Thanks for the yummy recipes:)
Aww…thank you so much! Like I said, we love this all year-round and just switch out the berries or fruit depending on the season. It does seem to work best with a more sour or tart kind of fruit and I had never tried it with rhubarb. I do have to say, it did turn out amazing! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think after you make it. Thanks again!
Oh yumyumyummy! I am going to make your Rhubarb this weekend and the morel pics made me drool on the keyboard! Happy Spring!
lol… oh good…thanks so much! I hope you love it as much as we do. Happy Spring right back atcha! 🙂