Yesterday I spent part of the last day of my favorite month doing one of my favorite things: baking. Nothing fancy... just your basic chocolate chip cookie.
Doing so made me think of my grandmother, who always baked chocolate chip cookies in anticipation of anyone coming to visit her. If we timed it just right, the chocolate chips would still be soft upon our arrival at her house.
Aside from cookies, the other thing that always reminds me of my grandmother is rhubarb sauce. I've enjoyed it countless times, but have never attempted to make it. So when I visited for her 92nd birthday a couple weeks ago, I asked her to teach me to make rhubarb sauce. I tromped through her backyard in the rain to cut the rhubarb stalks that are still growing in her garden, cleaned them off, chopped them up and proceeded like this:
Me: So what's next?
Grandma: Boil the rhubarb.
Me: How?
Grandma: With water.
Me: How much?
Grandma: Enough.
Me: How much is enough?
Grandma: You know.
Me: For how long?
Grandma: Long enough.
Me: Then what?
Grandma: Mix in sugar.
Me: How much sugar?
Grandma: Enough.
Her recipe for rhubarb sauce is all just trial and error -- or years of experience -- but watching her make it, I can try to sum up the recipe.
Grandma's Rhubarb Sauce
Rhubarb, cleaned and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
Granulated sugar
Water
Place rhubarb in a pot with enough water to just cover, (adjust for thicker or thinner sauce). Boil for approximately 20 minutes, or until rhubarb breaks down easily. Immediately mix with sugar until it is the desired sweetness.
To give you an idea, this is the amount of rhubarb I used and my grandmother added about 1/2 cup of sugar. I like my rhubarb sauce on its own, but I'm sure it would taste fantastic over vanilla ice cream.
Sounds great...yummm, so hungry...can I come over for some rhubarb sauce and a cookie?
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