>The first spring in our home, eleven years ago, we discovered all kinds of fun things growing. We’d moved in late enough in the fall that everything except the grass was brown, and nothing was blooming. We enjoyed the show as daffodils, tulips, daylilies, and even a beautiful bleeding heart bush made their appearances on the stage. Tucked into the backyard next to the garage we found rhubarb.
I had never cooked or baked with rhubarb before, so I decided I’d better learn. This one’s tried and true, a regular product of my tiny kitchen.

Backyard Rhubarb Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cups whole wheat flour
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 cup applesauce or 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 large egg or ¼ cup egg substitute
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup fresh rhubarb, cut in ½ inch dice
Topping:
1/8 cup brown sugar, packed
1/8 cup chopped walnuts
¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat 12 muffin cups with non-stick spray. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.
Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and add the oil (applesauce), egg, buttermilk, and vanilla. Mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in the rhubarb. Scoop batter into the muffin cups.
Topping; Combine the brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture over the tops of the muffins, dividing equally.
Bake for 20 to 23 minutes or just until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean and dry. Remove from oven and cool on rack. Makes twelve muffins.
Alternate topping: After cooling, drizzle with a simple powdered sugar icing.

>Last week was an incredibly busy one. My calendar was so full the dates ran off into the wilderness to escape. Oh, wait, that was me.
Monday: meeting with school nurse to go over meds for camping trip; react and grieve for those at Virgina Tech
Tuesday: Public Health training (Oh, my, stock up on the bottled water and canned food!)
Wednesday: Off to camp
Thursday: Still gone to camp
Friday: Home from camp, start post-camp paperwork, retrieve over 150 emails at work
Saturday: early morning phone call from La Petite, camping out at the local Love Sac store’s grand opening; suffer through a forty-five minute power outage mid-morning
Sunday: go to school (with Amigo’s help) and begin catching up on regular classroom planning and paperwork
Each of these could probably rate its own post. I’ll work on Saturday’s event first.
Our local mall was recently graced with the presence of a Love Sac store. I read the newspaper blurb aloud because Amigo loves his simple vinyl bean bag chairs. La Petite was home for the weekend and got all excited, calling out to her boyfriend in the other room, “Honey, we’re getting a Love Sac!” Huh? It seems he adores the store and its product line. He was one of the first in line when the store opened its doors, and therefore found out about the megasale coming up. The first 100 people in line on the magic day would receive a sizable discount of at least 50% off on their purchases.
To make a long story (including midnight breakfast at IHOP, a big crowd, and a lonely nervous security guard calling for backup) they joined a few friends and lined up in the mall parking lot at about 4:00 AM. She called us at 6:00 to say, “Hey! I’ve got an 87% discount! Can you come get me in an hour in the van?” Husband headed out that way in my minivan and met her at the mall. Unfortunately, she didn’t get into the store itself until 9:30 because they were only letting a few people into the small store at a time. Fortunately, the two of them shopped with her discount and picked up over $1000 worth of fabulous furniture for around $300.
Yes, they came home and slept. Meanwhile, Amigo fluffed our PillowSac and sat on the rocker frame for the entire Brewers-Astros game. Rock on, kiddo, and go Brewers, too!