And here we are... at the start of it all.  The first rhubarb recipe of the season.  I wish that I could tell you that it came freshly picked from my garden but I can't.  It didn't come from my garden.  It came from my freezer.  From last year.  How embarrassing.  How un-food-blogger of me.
The truth is that life has lately gone into end of school year mode.  Lots of papers to sign, dates to book, grad dress to shop for, uniform stuff to take care of for september - it's kept all of us hopping.  Coupled with that, every spare second has involved, ripping things out of our house, cleaning up the back yard, cleaning and bagging things for donation, painting, drilling holes and hanging important things... I can't even think clearly anymore.  Our neighbours are pretty happy with us though.  In the course of one week we have put 1 chest of drawers, 1 bookshelf, 2 chairs, 1 table, 1 large basket and 2 8lb weights on the front boulevard.  All of them were gone within a couple of hours.  I think the neighbours are now keeping watch on our front sidewalk to make sure they get first dibs.  Our kids are wondering exactly when we are going to stop and whether there will be any furniture left in the house when we do.

Please note the large power tool in the lower right corner.

To be honest I have no problem getting rid of things.  None.  I could live with very little quite happily.  I form very few attachments to stuff.  Not always a good thing but it does come in handy when you are going through your house with the purpose of getting rid of stuff.  It can be hard to stop once you've started though.  I'm at that point right now and I know that this means I have to be careful.  I can get out of control.  I can justify almost any toss out.  I'd love to say that I would regret it later but I wouldn't.  I might feel bad that someone else feels bad about it but I wouldn't miss the thing I tossed... like I said, not always a good thing.
All of this toss talk ties in nicely to the rhubarb... and I love a good tie in.  The rhubarb is in the freezer.  The freezer and fridge that it's connected to will be donated very soon to make way for the new-to-me appliances that my BFF is handing over.  I don't even want to talk about how excited I am about it... it's awesome and I have an awesome BFF.  So knowing that my freezer/fridge is on it's way out, I'm using this as an opportunity to clear through a lot of that stuff too.  Seeing as there is still another bag of rhubarb in the freezer you can look forward to another rhubarb recipe or two coming soon.


Blubarb Crumb Bars adapted from 'Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy'

Quick Blubarb Jam makes about 3 cups

4 generous cups chopped rhubarb
4 generous cups blueberries
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey


Crumb Stuff

1 cup oat flour (blitz old fashioned oats in a blender until it's a flour like consistency)
1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
pinch of cinnamon
1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cubed
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350°F
Line a 9x13 baking dish or pan with foil and butter it.
In a bowl combine all of the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together.  Mix well.
Add the cubed butter and using two forks or a pastry cutter begin to cut the butter into the mixture.  Once it becomes fairly crumbly looking add in the egg and continue to cut everything together until the mixture is wet and crumbly.
Pat half of the flour mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.  Pat down firmly
Spoon about 2 1/4 cup of blubarb jam over the bottom layer.
Evenly sprinkle the rest of the flour mixture over the blubarb layer.  Do not press this layer down.
Bake for about 40 min or until the top is light, golden brown.
Cool completely before cutting the bars (this gives the jam stuff time to firm up again)