jillithian | adventures with rhubarb

Yesterday was Angie's 25th birthday. Amanda and I decided to throw her a little party. I had recently gotten some fresh rhubarb from my father-in-law's garden and decided I'd try to make some kind of cake out of it for Ang.

Tuesday night I dug around in my recipe book cupboard and found two recipe books I could use: one from the Catholic church in Rogers my mom gave me when I moved out, and one from Tim's relatives' hometown that we got as a wedding gift. I found five different rhubarb dessert recipes in these two cookbooks. I did not have all of the ingredients for any one as a whole.

Tim said I should go to the store, then, and buy the ingredients. I said no. That would involve leaving the house and I was done with leaving the house for the day. Instead, I tried to make do with what I had in the house.

Phone conversation snippets with Tim:
J: "What is sour milk?"
T: "I think it's just milk and some lemon juice."
J: "That sounds weird. I don't think that's right."
T: "Why don't you go on the internet and look it up?"
J: "Because that would involve leaving the kitchen. I don't feel like leaving the kitchen."

I get very lazy and curmudgeon-y at the end of the day, as you can see.

J: "This baking powder says it has corn starch in it. Can I just use it instead of corn starch?"
T: "No."
J: "Can I use it instead of baking soda?"
T: "No. You know, if there isn't any cake left after the party, that's OK. You really don't have to save any for me."
J: *digs in cupboard some more* "Wait! I do have baking soda!"
T: *sigh*

We hung up for a while as I worked. Later:

T: "I looked it up on my phone. Sour milk is milk with lemon juice. I was right."
J: "Ok. We don't have milk anyway."
T: "I think you could also use buttermilk."
J: "You know we don't have any of that, either."
T: "I know. I just wanted you to know that I was right. Like usual."
J: "Well, I suppose it has to happen once in a lifetime."

The end result is more of a coffee cake with a little bit of rhubarb flavor in it rather than the traditional rhubarb pie or bars that are a lot more gooey, but it's tasty. It's just a touch dry, so I've tried putting honey on it, but I don't think that flavor really works with it. I think I'll try a piece at lunch time with some butter instead. All three of my guests last night said they thought it was "really good" so I'll take that down as a success.