Rhubarb Applesauce

Can you believe I've never had rhubarb? I think I had a rhubarb strawberry piece of pie once, but really didn't understand the rhubarb. Well, it's finally in season and I was inspired to purchase some at the farmers market, despite it not looking like the red chute I expected. It looked a little too much like celery. But it did not deter me. The rhubarb farmer had a nice little sign up, undoubtedly from answering the same "what is rhubarb and what do I do with it" question combination repeatedly. It mentioned stewing them, so I figured I'd start there. I asked the woman to help me pick it out and she looked at me like I was crazy, grabbed 2 long stalks, and asked for money. I was a tad embarassed.

Two stands down I was calculating how much money I had left (since they seem to only take cash) and decided I'd take a quick peek, with the intention of not actually getting anything. They had some bins of apples- nothing too exciting, I thought. But there was a kind I'd never heard of- Virginia's own Stayman variety. I took a taste and liked it, so I picked up 4 of them. On the way home it hit me that stewed apples are delicious, and I was told to stew the rhubarb...so why not add them together like I do with other fruits?

Rhubarb Applesauce
2 large apples
2 long chutes of rhubarb
Cinnamon

Cube the apple and cut the rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces. Add both to a saucepan with 1/4 cup of water. Boil 30-45 minutes until nice and soft. Add cinnamon.

Rhubarb tastes a lot to me like a Granny Smith apple, but maybe even with a little more pucker.
Combining it with the apple was a good idea- came out quite tasty.

Baked Apples and Peaches

Fruit is amazing when it's cooked. Baked bananas with some unprocessed cocoa are my favorites. But other fruits cook well, too.





I sliced one gala apple and one little peach and put them in a pyrex dish with about .5 cup of milk and some ground cinnamon. They baked on 375 for 15 minutes and I turned and added 2TB flax seed because I was reading something the other day about how great it is and I remembered that I still have quite a bit of it in my fridge that I haven't used in ages. My original plan involved peanut butter. They baked for another 15 minutes or so.

The picture isn't the greatest, but it tasted nice. I should have put the cinnamon on closer to the end and it possibly could have cooked 10 or 15 minutes longer.