From the rhubarb patch...

As a kid, the arrival of spring always meant lilacs, strawberry pie and one of mom's good rhubarb desserts. Now, though, we don't have a lilac bush, strawberry patch or rhubarb growing wild.

Instead, Ben and I enjoy Goshen's Mill Race Center Farmers Market and our CSA membership. (It has dual benefits: at the beginning of the year we feel all altruistic as we give a big chunk of change to local farmers and support small-scale, mostly organic agriculture. Then throughout the year as we pick up our basket and fill it each week with whatever we want from the different stands, we feel like we are getting everything for free.) Last week, with another opportunity to provide break for my co-workers, and rhubarb in full bloom, I headed over to the market 5 minutes before they closed and was able to get a couple of pounds of beautiful pink and green stalks from the only stand selling it. My mom had three or four rhubarb recipes that we just loved, but my favorite to make now is this easy Nutty Rhubarb Muffins recipe. No, it isn't from MCC:FFR, but it could be (there are no ingredients that one can't pronounce). And with my pounds of the vegetable (according to my internet research), I have now doubled the recipe twice and have eaten four muffins today alone. (This is as close as a Menno comes to confession.) I love it because it is a versatile food too - serving quite well as breakfast, snack or dessert. Ben, our resident quasi-health nut, is concerned about the large amount of sugar needed in rhubarb recipes to counteract its sourness. He claims he only ate two today.

Nutty Rhubarb Muffins

Makes 1 dozen
Bake at 375 degrees

3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. buttermilk
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 c. diced rhubarb
1/2 c. chopped nuts

Topping:
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. chopped nuts
1/2 t. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl mix sugar, egg, vanilla, oil and buttermilk. In a
medium-sized bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Stir sugar mixture into flour mixture and blend until
evenly moisteneed. Stir in rhubarb and nuts. Spoon into well-greased and floured muffin tins. Stir
together topping ingredients and springkle evenly over the top of each muffin. Bake about 20 minutes or until
center springs up when touched.

(Photo credit - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Rhubarb_01.jpg)

mmm... meatloaf

Golden Meat Loaf
1 1/2 lbs. ground beaf
2 t. salt
1 c. rolled oats
1/4 t. pepper
1 c. grated carrots
1 1/2 t. worcestershire sauce
1/2 minced onion
2 eggs, beaten
3 hardcooked eggs
Combine all ingredients except hard-cooked eggs and mix thoroughly. Place half of mix in a loaf pan 4X9 inches. Cut eggs in half lengthwise and arrange in a row through the center of the meat. Place remainder of the meat on top. Bake at 350 for 1 1/4 hours.

Since we moved back to the Midwest we have been eating alot more meat and potatoes. I'm not sure exactly what led us down this precarious path... in Portland we were so fond of grilling salmon and snarfing down sushi from the local grocery store. The five pound bag of potatoes we bought would rot in our garage while we ate rice pilaf. Now we go through a 5-lb bag of potatoes a month.

I'm sure a big part of it is the lack of availability of all the good seafood and other-than-meat-and-potatoes meals we enjoyed. But strangely, I crave those good midwestern foods - like, say, meatloaf - more than I did on the west coast. I wonder how much geography and appetite are interlinked?

The meatloaf I fixed from MCC:FFR was one of the best I've ever made (not that this says too much - as it's probably the third). But even Joe, the foody, was impressed. And I have to come clean and confess that I did consult other recipes and made alterations while making this one. I did not have carrots in my fridge, but these seemed odd in a meatloaf anyway, so I left them out. I used 2 lbs. ground beef, since that's what I had, and added a dash of dry mustard and garlic powder and 1/2 cup evaporated milk to the meat mix. Then I followed the egg-in-the-middle suggestion, which I thought sounded intriguing, but only 2 of mine fit well so I left out the 3rd. Lastly, I mixed the following topping and poured it over the loaf before baking. Very yummy!!
Topping:
6 T. brown sugar (I'd use less next time)
1/2 c. catsup
1/4 t. nutmeg
2 t. dry mustard