Rhubarb Crisp

I'm a big fan of rhubarb. Just the thought of it makes my mouth water. I decided to kick off rhubarb season with this sweet rhubarb crisp.

You make it just like any other crisp. Start out with some oats, brown sugar, butter, flour, and cinnamon.



Melt the butter and mix with the other ingredients until crumbly.



Now I'm ready to start chopping my rhubarb. On the farm where I grew up there is an abundance of rhubarb. That's probably why I start thinking of all of the recipe possibilities when I see so much as a stick of rhubarb. I've tasted it in a variety of ways. Why, just off the top of my head, there's rhubarb bread, rhubarb muffins, sauces, jams, and my two favorites: Rhubarb Cream Pie and Rhubarb Crisp. I'm like Bubba in the movie Forrest Gump. They's shrimp creole, shrimp kabobs, shrimp .... you remember the scene.

I'm pretty sure that Rhubarb Cream Pie will make an appearance on this blog someday. That's my mom's specialty. But for now I need to get back to the task at hand. Chop 4 cups of rhubarb. I only ended up with 3 cups of this, my store-bought rhubarb. Next trip home I'll stock up on the free stuff. I may even freeze some for later. I only bought a pound at the store and I ended up short for my recipe. Oops.

Doesn't my chef knife look ominous in this shot?



Chop, chop, chop!


Press half of the oat mixture into an 8X8 baking pan.


Top with the rhubarb.


Now mix water, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla in a small saucepan and cook and stir until clear.


Pour over the rhubarb mixture.


Top with the remaining crumb mixture.


Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes. It was fabulous! All sweet and crispy and just the right amount of tart. A friend showed up just as I pulled this out of the oven, so I was able to share. Two thumbs up from her too. Nothing could be better than baked rhubarb crisp fresh from the oven. Okay, one thing could've made this better. A nice scoop of vanilla bean ice cream melting on the side. Unfortunately, I was fresh out of ice cream. Go ahead and make this. Pick up some ice cream. You won't be sorry!



Rhubarb Crisp

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cups sliced rhubarb
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:
In mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, oats, butter and cinnamon; mix together until crumbly. Press half of the brown sugar and oats mixture into a buttered 8-inch square baking dish. Top with the sliced rhubarb.
In a saucepan combine 1 cup granulated sugar, cornstarch, and the 1 cup of water and vanilla. Cook together until clear, then pour over rhubarb.
Top rhubarb with remaining crumb mixture and bake at 350° for 45 to 55 minutes.

Okay, tomorrow: Oven Fried Chicken. I promise. We had it for dinner tonight. So good! I'd be posting it right now, but Spring cleaning whipped my butt today and I have a date with the 2 hour Grey's Anatomy season finale!

Pork Loin Marinated in Famous Dave's Pork Marinade

I'm on a marinating kick lately! First Beef On A Stick on Sunday, now this pork loin, and I'm already marinating chicken breast halves for Mary's oven fried chicken for tomorrow's dinner. It's a sign of the season. As the weather gets warmer, I stock up on marinades when they go on sale. It makes for a flavorful, quick and easy dinner on the grill through the warmer months.



If you're following the meal plan, you may notice that I flip-flopped the oven fried chicken for this marinated pork loin. I am having one of those days. I didn't fall asleep until after 2 a.m. this morning. At approximately 2:30 I had a coughing 4 year-old standing at my bedside. She proceeded to cough and hack and toss and turn until 5:30, when my husband got up to shower for work. Finally at 6:30, with the husband out the door and my tiny bed hog settled, I drifted off to sleep. Until...a little after 8 when the baby was up and at em'. By 9:00 a.m., a repair man was in my kitchen and I was pouring a big, very black, cup of joe. "You're going to need that," he observed. "You look really tired." Gee thanks. Ya think?! With the forecast boasting temps near 70 degrees and exhaustion upon me, a simple dinner prepared on the grill was just what the doctor ordered tonight.

This post is more of a product review than a recipe. I found this Famous Dave's Pork Marinade on sale at the grocery a couple of weeks ago. I thawed some pork loin leftover from St. Patty's Day, sliced it up, and covered it with the marinade before tossing it back into the fridge.


The day dragged by. I chased the kids. Played with Play-doh. Organized the pantry. Did two exercise videos. Sorted 537 pair of socks from the bottom of my laundry basket. Drank a pot of coffee. Finally, dinner time rolled around. Here is the view of our grill. It's raining, it's pouring, my husband is snoring (he came home and took a nap). He was tired. Poor baby. Grrr. Can you tell that I am overwhelmed with sympathy? Lack of sleep decreases my capacity for sympathy exponentially. Anyway, the point is, there was a torrential downpour and it was too yucky to grill out.



I opted to broil the loin chops in the oven.


Good stuff. A word of warning, this marinade packs some heat. Little ones will likely deem this too spicy. After some careful investigation, I found that it doesn't say "hot" or "spicy" anywhere on the bottle. Granted, the label is red and there are flames in the graphic...but I assumed that just represented flames from the grill. You know what happens when we assume, right? It does say, "Let this blend of herbs and spices give a flavorful kick to your next barbeque. Great with all cuts of pork." I guess kick = spicy. I personally love spicy, but this one is a little much for kiddos. Just a heads up.



Sweet dreams tonight, everyone!

Slow Cooker Burgundy Beef

On Tuesday evenings I take my daughter to dance class. I've figured out that if I don't have something super easy or already made up planned for dinner, I am tempted to hit a drive thru on the way home. So, this Tuesday's planned meal involved my crock pot. Slow cooker recipes are also a great way to use up all of the stew beef I have in my freezer. When I found this Beef Burgundy recipe, it caught my interest. Of course, I haven't had the best luck cooking with wine lately, so I was taking a risk here. Lucky for me, this came out just fine. It looks yummy, doesn't it?

Here's what you need: 1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms, 4 onions, burgundy wine, pepper, marjoram, beef broth, thyme, and of course, beef. Two pounds of stew beef, that is. You'll also need beef bouillon granules, salt, and flour. Somehow these didn't make it into the picture. Oops.


Dredge the beef in 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour.



Put the sliced onions and then the beef into the bottom of your slow cooker. Salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with a couple of teaspoons of beef bouillon.



Top with the mushrooms and spices.


Then I took a little time out. After ruining my Bacon and Egg pasta with an awful tasting wine, I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice! After my misstep with the nasty Chardonnay, Mary at My New 30 advised, "Well, "they" say never cook with a wine that you wouldn't drink! If it tastes bad in the glass, it'll taste worse in the recipe." I believe her! I heard Rachael Ray say the same thing on her show a couple of days later. Man, why couldn't I have watched that show before I ruined a whole pasta dish. Oh well, water under the bridge. Today, I was not going to ruin dinner. Today I was going to taste the wine first! So, I poured a little burgundy in my glass. It felt taboo. I mean it was AFTER noon (just), but it felt weird pouring a glass of wine all by myself in the kitchen in the middle of the day. I could just hear the other pre-school moms whispering, "Was that wine on her breath?!" when I showed up to retrieve my daughter from her playdate. I imagined the scene from my Dr. Phil intervention, me sobbing into my handkercheif, the live studio audience looking on and shaking their heads in disbelief as I explain, "It just started with tasting wine for a recipe. The baby was napping, my daughter was on a playdate. The house was so peaceful. It helped me relax..." All for the sake of dinner. (I swear I only had two sips) The burgundy was drinkable. I don't think I've ever had burgundy before, so I can't really do a comparison. The fact is my local grocery only carried two types of burgundy, a big bottle variety and a small one. I went with the small one. It was under $6. I decided to use the burgundy and press ahead with my recipe.




Pour the burgundy and beef broth over the top of the mushrooms, put on the lid and cook on low for 8-10 hours. When the beef was ready, I gave it a taste test and did a little extra seasoning. Then I mixed up 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of cold water and poured it into the crock pot to thicken the mixture a little. It sticks to your noodles better this way. Serve it over hot cooked noodles. I accompanied the beef and noodles with Sweet Peas Parma (see the next post). Yummy!



Slow Cooker Beef Burgundy adapted from Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook

4 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 lbs. stewing meat, cubed
1 1/2 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules (or 2 cubes)
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon marjoram
1/8 teaspoon thyme
pepper
1 cup beef broth
1 1/2 cups burgundy wine

1. Place onions in slow cooker
2. Dredge meat in flour. Place in slow cooker. Salt and pepper. Add in bouillon.
3. Add mushrooms, marjoram, and thyme.
4. Pour in broth and wine.
5. Cover. Cook 8-10 hours on Low.
6. Add 3 tablespoons of water to 3 tablespoons of cornstarch. Stir until smooth. Add to beef burgundy mixture and stir until thickened.
7. Serve over cooked noodles.

Sweet Peas Parma

I made this Sweet Peas Parma as an afterthought to serve alongside the savory Burgundy Beef I made for dinner. In my opinion, this simple recipe stole the show!

I heated a tablespoon of olive oil and melted a tablespoon of butter in a skillet. Then I chopped a few slices of deli ham and minced a clove of garlic and added them to the butter and oil. Cook the ham until it gets a little crispy.



Then add in a medium tomato, seeded and diced. Salt and pepper. Heat through.



Last step, add a bag of cooked peas. I used one of those steam-in-the-bag brands that I cooked in the microwave.



That's it! Super easy and delicious. I grated a little Parmigiano-Reggiano over the top. Mmmm.




Sweet Peas Parma from Taste of Home's Healthy Cooking Magazine

1 package (16 ounces) frozen peas
4 thin slices prosciutto or deli ham, coarsely chopped
1 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Place peas in a steamer basket; place in a large saucepan over 1 in. of water.
Bring to a boil; cover and steam for 4 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large skillet,
cook prosciutto and garlic in oil and butter over medium heat until prosciutto is
crisp. Add the tomato, salt and pepper; heat through. Stir in peas.

Yield: 4 servings.

One serving: 3/4 cup Calories: 181 Fat: 8 g Saturated Fat: 3 g Cholesterol: 20 mg Sodium: 569 mg Carbohydrate: 17 g Fiber: 6 g Protein: 10 g Diabetic Exchange: 1 starch, 1 lean meat, 1 fat.

Weight Watcher's Points: 3

Beef on a Stick with Fried Rice

I love, love, love this recipe! Definitely one of my top 5 grilling recipes of all time and straight from my favorites notebook. I'm dedicating this post to my neighbors in Georgia, Nate and Molly. I first tried it out on them last year, and they've been craving it ever since. I know that they've been anxiously awaiting this recipe, so here it is for them and all of you to read.

Before I show you the steps to kabob bliss, I want to share yet another kitchen bumble. As a former teacher, I like to consider this a teaching blog as much as a cooking blog. It is my hope that you learn from this mistake. If you read my last post about Bacon and Egg Pasta, you may remember a quote from my final paragraph, "Honestly, I don't see how we could mess up beef-on-a-stick". The good news is the Beef on a Stick went unharmed. It was as delicious and savory as ever. Unfortunately, my cookware took a hit.



This dish is excellent with a side of fried rice, so I decided to go ahead and cook my rice. I put the rice and water in the pan and then set the lid on the stove top, turned the burner to a high heat setting so bring my rice to a boil and retired to the toy room to play "camping trip" with my daughters in their Disney princess tent. The plan was to return to the kitchen when the rice reached a boil, reduce the burner heat, and top the pan with the lid so that my rice could steam to perfection with enough time to cool it and fry it up for dinner. What do they say? "The path to Hell is paved with good intentions"? Minutes later there was a loud "pop" followed by the sound of something falling (toothpicks?) from the kitchen. I ran in to investigate what had fallen. It took a moment before the investigation of my otherwise unscathed kitchen led me to the stove top. I'd turned on the wrong burner. Super heated my lid. Obliterated it. Oh, man. No use crying over broken glass, I jumped into the clean up effort. A word to the wise, if this happens to you, do NOT grab for the handle of the lid. In my haste to make everything better and erase the episode from existence, I wasn't thinking clearly. It was HOT! Ouch. No problem, I grabbed some tongs and removed the handle and the round metal frame of the lid and then dropped it into my PLASTIC trash bin. Smooth move, slick. You all see where this is going, don't you? Too bad I didn't. I'm not sure of the melting point of plastic, but now I definitely know that it's less than a saucepan lid heated on a burner for say, 8 minutes. What a mess!

Burned hand. Check! Kitchen heavy with the smell of melted plastic. Check! Ruined trash can. Check! Shattered lid of my most frequently used saucepan. Check! Stove taken apart and cleaned of glass shards. Check! 5 more gray hairs. Check!

But I'm an optimist. Not one to dwell on unpleasant incidents of the past. Let's move on to something that makes me happy. Here is how you can make Beef on a Stick at your house.


For the marinade, gather the following ingredients: cider vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, Hoisin sauce, honey,soy sauce, oil, and garlic.


Combine them in a bowl.


Cut 1 pound of sirloin steak into 1" pieces. In my opinion, one pound worth of beef on a stick is not enough. It's just that good. If you had to share a pound of this deliciousness with your family, you'd want more. I doubled the marinade and used about 3 lbs. of sirloin. Combine the steak and marinade in a resealable plastic bag and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Mine marinated for about 30 hours. I recommend letting it marinate for a day. These flavors are amazing!


Before assembling the kabobs, soak your skewers in water...or use metal ones.


Now thread the beef onto the skewers.


Now that all of the beef is "kabobbed", my work is finsished. I handed the sheet of skewers off to my husband for grilling. Grill about 8-10 minutes over medium heat until they reach desired doneness.


Mmmm.


While the beef grilled, I fried up the rice and 3 green onions in a couple of tablespoons of hot oil.


Move the rice to one side and toss in a few beaten eggs for scrambling.





Now, I add the fried rice seasoning packet. The directions for this fried rice are right on the back of the packet. I just follow them. It's always yummy!


Stir in a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce.


Tah-dah! Fried rice, superfast. You can also add in peas and carrots and meat. I kept it quick and simple this time.


Dinner is served! If you're in a grillin' mood, please try this one. You will not be disappointed!


Beef on a Stick
adapted from Taste of Home's Light and Tasty magazine

1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon brown Sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 boneless beef top sirloin steak (1-1/2 pounds), cut into 1-inch cubes

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the first eight ingredients; add beef.
Seal bag and turn to coat; refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Coat grill
rack with cooking spray before starting the grill. Drain and discard marinade.
Thread beef onto six metal or soaked wooden skewers. Grill, covered, over medium
heat for 8-10 minutes or until meat reaches desired doneness, turning
occasionally.

Yield: 6 kabobs.

Nutrition Facts
One serving: 1 kabob Calories: 161 Fat: 6 g Saturated Fat: 2 g Cholesterol: 64 mg Sodium: 174 mg Carbohydrate: 3 g Fiber: 0 g Protein: 22 g

Weight Watcher's Points for 1 kabob: 4 points

For a printable copy of this recipe, click here!