I adore rhubarb.  But, I think my youngest son might love it even more than I do.  Each spring he starts begging me to make rhubarb crisp… almost every single day!

Most rhubarb recipes that I’ve run across over the years call for far, far too much sugar for my taste. I’ve tweaked my rhubarb conserve recipe until I ended up with a proportion of 1 part sugar to 3 parts rhubarb. It’s enough sugar to balance the high acidity of the rhubarb, but not so much that it prevents the flavor of the rhubarb from shining through. My family loves this sweet treat rolled up in Icelandic Crepes served with freshly whipped cream. I’ve even been know to place a big dollop of this rhubarb yummy-ness in bowl, throw in a small handful of hazelnuts and a splash of cream, and eat the whole mess with a spoon. It’s also divine as an ice cream topping.

Gingered Rhubarb Conserve
6 cups chopped rhubarb
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 vanilla bean

Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive, heavy bottomed pan.

I use my 5 quart Update International stainless sauté pan, which is perfect for small batches of cooked jams and conserves. It’s a heavy duty commercial quality pan that I picked up at a restaurant supply store for $59.  It has a 3/4″ thick aluminum bottom, and is 12 ” in diameter and about 3″ deep. This pan makes my top 10 kitchen tools list, and is every bit as good as an equivalent sized All Clad pan that retails for around $250.

Back to our regularly scheduled rhubarb recipe.  Bring ingredients up to a simmer and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the rhubarb reaches a thick jam like consistency.  Remove the vanilla bean and cool, or can.

Yes, I know I’m a delinquent blogger.  However, in defense of my delinquency, I’ve been all work and no play for the last several weeks. Also, the projects I’ve been working on can’t be posted here unless I want to announce all Christmas gifts to my family.  For the first time in weeks, I find myself with a little free time to play around with.  I was able to spend all day yesterday at my son’s wrestling invitational, where I watched him whup his opponent.  I shot team photos throughout the day, but I’ll only make you endure one shot (although you know I want to make you look at page after page of my baby).

Today snow is flying outside my window, and up to 8 inches of lake effect snow is expected over the next couple of days. I found myself in the mood to experiment with some herbal tea blending. When this type of cold snowy weather hits, I find myself wanting to guzzle hot tea but not the caffeine or sugar that usually accompanies hot beverages.  As the holidays loom on the horizon, it’s no surprise that I ended up with this cranberry apple herbal blend. Not only is it pretty and festive, but the sweetness and warmth of apple and cinnamon and the organic cranberries (slightly sweetened with organic cane juice) eliminated the need for further sweetening.

Cranberry Apple Herbal Tea
2 parts dried apple
2 parts dried cranberry
1 part cinnamon chips
1 part hibiscus flowers
1 part rose hips
1 part lemon grass
1 part orange peel
2 parts calendula petals

I use organic ingredients whenever possible, and my fruits are chopped into small uniform pieces. The blend brewed up a warm festive cranberry color that suited the flavor perfectly.

My second blend isn’t quite as pretty as the first, but it’s very warming and tasty with ginger and lemon flavored herbs.  This blend is very good sweetened with a little bit of honey.  I can’t take credit for this blend, as it was inspired by an herbie friend of mine.

Lemon GingerMint Tea
1 part dried ginger pieces
1 part peppermint
1 part lemon grass
1 part lemon verbena

I guess I will announce one Christmas gift.  I think I’ll make up some tea bags using empty heat seal tea bags, package a few in a tin tie bag with a label or hang tag, and give them as stocking stuffers.