Why not make a Rhubarb Cake this weekend?

From my culinarily gifted Mother:

Crackle-Topped Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Cake
 
2 c flour
1 c sugar
4 t baking powder
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 large egg
1 c buttermilk ( I used 1 c milk plus a slurp of lemon juice - who has buttermilk anyway ?)
1/4 c oil
2 t vanilla extract
2 1/2 c rhubarb, chopped into 1/2 " pieces, no need to peel if they are fresh and tender

Topping

1/4 c sugar
1/2 t cinnamon

To Make Cake :

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 8 inch square baking pan or a round spring=form pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk together egg, milk, oil and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture and stir with a cooking spoon just to blend. Stir in rhubarb. Turn batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.

To Make Topping and Bake Cake :

In a small bowl, mix cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle evenly over top of cake.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until top is evenly brown and crackled and a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Let cake cool on wire rack for 15 minutes.

Very good served warm - cold isn't too bad either.

Superfluous information :

In German, the word for rhubarb is " Rhabarber " and it is a well-known fact that if you say " Rhabarber, Rhabarber, Rhabarber " in a fairly low and quiet voice, it will sound just like a lot of people talking. This is a useful thing to know when you are putting on a play or a puppet show and you have a limited number of performers, such as a cast of one. With this useful trick, the only child will feel like Cecil B. DeMIlle, who had a cast of thousands to play a crowd scene. 

Cold, WET, rainy Monday

Brrrrrrrr!!!!!!  I can't believe it was up to 80 degrees this weekend at one point and today I think it maxed out around 47!!!!  And it is absolutely POURING rain too.  Luckily this is not the depressing, grey, relentless rain of November, but the cheerful, puddle-jumping, flower nourishing rain of April.  I keep looking out the window and the plants just look so happy!  Is this what it's like to live in Ireland?  Always somewhat damp and chilled but surrounded by happy vegetation?  

To warm us up a bit, and to fill our rumbling tummies, I decided to make my children's favorite soup:  Tomato!  (In the slow cooker, of course).  Accompanied by grilled cheese of course.  I received accolades from the wee ones for cutting their sandwiches into heart shapes (hurrah! I did something right!) and then I had the following inspiration:  Why not make a sexier version of that old stand-by Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup??!  So here it is ...

Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons

(not rocket science, I know - but cool nonetheless)

For the Soup:

1/4 C tomato paste

2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped into coarse pieces

2 vine ripened tomatoes, chopped coarsely

1 small onion (chopped the shape you like them, I did mine half-moons, chopped in half)

1 container pre-made tomato and basil soup, Whole Foods Brand (ok, ok - you purists out there can make your own from scratch, but we parents will keep it real and use short-cuts when we need to).

Pour olive oil into the slow cooker and turn cooker on to HIGH.  Add onions and garlic and get distracted by youngest child.  Come back frantic after 1o minutes because you forgot what you were doing and add tomato paste.  Smear it all around and together with everything, add salt and pepper and cook on high until it all starts to sweat.  Add tomatoes and tomato soup.  Put on lid and pick up oldest child from school.  

Grilled Cheese

Bread - whatever you've got around.  I've used all kinds and sourdough is my favorite, with a sharp cheddar, but today we had multi-grain sandwich bread and,

Farmer's Yogurt Cheese (not the soft kind, it was the texture of provolone)

Butter

Make grilled cheese in a skillet.  Email me if you need directions on how to do this, I'll happily run you through it.  Be sure to make them nice and crispy and brown, they can't be soggy at all or they won't make good croutons.

If you've got a large heart shaped cookie cutter, then thrill your children with heart shaped sandwiches (see above) otherwise, proceed as follows:

Cut the grilled cheeses into pleasant crouton-y shapes.  Float in hot tomato soup and garnish with more cheese if you're feeling it.  Enjoy!  Slurping encouraged.

Something Sweet

Just like Winnie the Pooh, I occasionally will have the urge for something a little sweet, a respite from the obsessive kimchi eating and my usual salty indulgences (I accidentally bought a TWENTY DOLLAR cheese this weekend!!! And NO, it didn't look like this, although for Twenty Big Ones it sure as shootin' should have.  It was more along the lines of something like this, yikes!  At least it is reassuringly stinky, so I sort of feel like I got my money's worth. And it did come in a cute little box - Caveat Emptor, People!)  I digress.

So after buying deliberately geriatric bananas the other day and letting them age a few days more, I ambitiously called a friend to come on over for a Banana Bread tea party Sunday and please bring her children.  When I say ambitious, it's only because I've never made the Banana Bread recipe I was thinking of, didn't have all the ingredients and ended up changing my whole plan because I was a bit behind schedule due to the garage door opener fiasco (see last post) but luckily, with a little dark chocolate everything turned out just swell.  Because we didn't have 55 minutes to wait for the BBread to bake, my clever friend suggested we make dear little muffins - a stroke of genius!  Because if a little nugget of steaming chocolate-chip-banana-bread doesn't do it for you, then I don't know what will.  

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

(banana bread recipe adapted from 'Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts')

1 C all-purpose whole wheat flour (Yes!  Don't gag, they were good!  Whole Wheat!! They always say sift it, but I just fluff it with a fork a little and it seems to be just fine)

1/2 C all-purpose white flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt (I forgot this, and they still tasted great - so if you've got to limit the salt, no biggie)

About 3 ripe bananas (I only had two and had to substitute a jar of baby food bananas for the 3rd banana)

1/4 C buttermilk or (I used) same amount plain yogurt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 C light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 egg (I always use free range, organic eggs and it makes a HUGE difference)

Semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used about 3/4 bag Ghirardelli semi-sweet chips)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Lightly grease a muffin tin with butter and sprinkle wheat germ in the bottom to prevent sticking and using paper muffin cups that will just be thrown away. Take two bowls out and use one to combine flours, salt, and baking powder, mix well with a fork. 

In the second bowl, mash bananas with a fork.  Somewhat inconsistent and lumpy is ok, you don't want something that resembles a puree.  Stir in the buttermilk or yogurt and set aside.  Maida Heatter said to cream the butter with the sugar in a separate bowl (the mixer) and then add to the bananas, but I was chatting with my friend and forgot and just threw the butter in chunks in with the bananas and then whisked away with my fork as best I could.  There was no noticeable negative consequence as far as I could tell).  Then I added the sugar and the vanilla and egg.  Once that was mixed well, I slowly mixed the flour mixture in with the banana mixture and added chocolate chips, a bit at a time. 

Spoon the chocolate chip banana bread batter into the prepared muffin tin until the batter almost reaches the top of the tin, but not quite.  Bake in 350 F oven for 30 minutes?  35?  I can't quite remember.  I was chatting with my friend, making tea, running outside to periodically  respond to kiddie questions and requests to "Look at THIS!!!" etc.  This is parent-of-young-child baking, so don't go expecting any hard science here.  If you wonder when they're really done, just check for a lovely golden brown color on the top, a divine aroma tenderly making its way out of the oven and if you poke a skewer in, it should come out clean with no batter clinging to it.

Enjoy!!!  Best with tea and/or warmed milk in tea cups for the children - good friends (Oma came to join us too!) and fresh air on a screened-in porch if it's not too cold/hot. Oh, and a nice little bouquet of flowers (thank you, Brooke!)