First Fruits 2012~ Rhubarb

J and L cut up the rhubarb they harvested from our plant. We made a rhubarb crisp with it and stuck in in the oven. When Papa went to work in the morning he turned it on and we had a nice hot breakfast to wake up to! We are going to try and do more breakfast prep like this as the house is cool in the morning but not cool enough for a fire and the oven on for an hour or so warms us right up.

Next time though I'm going to remember to put sugar in the rhubarb!! 

Here is what we did.. it was pretty good, but not the best we've made.

Chop rhubarb into fairly small pieces.. too big and they will not cook through. 

We had about 8 to 10 cups of rhubarb.

Pour about a cup of sugar? (this is the part I forgot!) over the rhubarb evenly.

Mix together 

 1/2 cup flour, 

1/2 cup of sugar,

About a cup of melted butter,

1tsp salt,

2 cups and a bit :) oatmeal,

1 tsp cinnamon 

until well mixed..
I used my new mixer with the whisks.

Dump this over the chopped rhubarb in the baking dish.. we used a roaster :) 

Make sure you cover all the rhubarb.

Bake at 350F for about an hour.

 ENJOY!! 

We love rhubarb crisp with cream or milk on top for breakfast, lunch or dinner :) Or dessert :) 

Or all 4 :) 

Cheese Making 101?~ What IS The Problem?

Papa and I made a batch of cheese Mothers Day weekend in his new SUPER POT. This is how much cheese 8 gallons of milk makes :) YUM!!! Too bad the cheese was hard and rubbery! We are still trying to make a decent cheese. I did another smaller batch today with a different culture and all the cream. Our cheese making friend Mrs. E's told us taking the cream off can cause your cheese to be rubbery, we are willing to try just about anything at this point. The only cheese we've made that was really eatable was my simple vinegar cheese! All of our hard cheese has been rubbery or holey or something. Papa was saying the other day that it is not like us to fail so badly at something so many times in a row. It is not a cleanliness issue as our cheese, rubbery as it may be, does not mold.  

Update :) The cheese I made yesterday is out of the mold this morning and the tiny taste I got tasted a LOT better.. so maybe buttermilk culture will be our saving grace of cheese making! I'll keep you posted :)