Day at home

Today I knew I had to get some stuff done around the house. I had a bag of rhubarb (17 cups after I chopped it!) and a box of tomatoes that needed to be dealt with. Matt went to the office to work on his book so it was just me and the kids today.

I LOVE rhubarb pie. I don't even need the strawberries. So I got a recipe from Karyl and started in on it. Well my first challenge was deciding if I needed to pre-bake my crust. When I have made this crust in the past it bakes for close to 2 hours. Karyl's recipe did not call for that much baking so I wasn't sure what to do. I decided not to pre-bake it. Probably fail #1. Karyl's recipe called for 2 tbsp orange concentrate. I did not have any of that and didn't want to run to the store (again) so I looked in the freezer and spied my frozen cherries. Cherries seemed like they would go well with rhubarb, so I tossed a bunch in the blender (1 cup) and ground them up. I also did not have almond flavoring so I substituted orange flavoring. Seemed like it should all be fine, right? Well I forgot to add the butter at the end. Fail #2. I put the pie in the oven and Matt called. I told him about my recent attempt and he pointed out that the cherries would offer a lot more moisture. Well it was too late to do anything about it now. Fail #3. I was not happy with my crust after Karyl's recommended cooking time so I left it in another 10, then 20, then 30 minutes. It could have cooked another 20 minutes at least in my opinion. Despite all that, it did taste good. But it was very soggy in the center. The outer 2/3 of the crust was good but the center was not what you want to eat with your pie.

Levi was so funny. He was eating it and picking out the rhubarb. He said "what is this?" I told him the stuff that looks like celery is the rhubarb. He said "well, I don't like that too well." He asked "what is the red stuff?" I told him it was the cherries. He said "That is good, you should just make a cherry pie." Then he adds "next time you should put celery in it instead. I asked him why? He said "because then it wouldn't be sour."

Then it was time to tackle the salsa. I chopped my box of tomatoes and added Serrano chiles, cilantro, a head of cabbage, tomatillos, and fresh squeezed lime juice. It needed salt and I don't think I added enough. It turned out pretty mild. The trouble was when I touched my face with my hand after chopping the chiles. It started to BURN. So I went to the bathroom to wash my hands and hold some water up to my cheek. Somehow it got into my eye, and that was excruciating! I started screaming and jumping up and down. The kids thought that was hysterical. I ran to the computer and tried to google how to treat this problem. It was hard to see with one eye shut and the other streaming tears. The best I could find was to run it under cold water for 5-15 minutes until the pain stops. So that is what I did. Matt came home for dinner not long after that. He tried the salsa and said it was really mild. We have enough to eat it for every meal for over a week. I see lots of tacos in my future.