June 28, 2013

Bear Essentials: Rhubarb
( + Peanut Butter and Rhubarb Jam )




So...I made jam, and it was embarrassingly easy.  In fact, as long as you remember to keep your face and other body parts from hovering over the sputtering pot of molten fruit, it's almost the easiest thing you can possibly do.  Just mix fruit with sugar, and place over heat.  Bam.

June 27, 2013

Bear Essentials: Rhubarb
( + Lemon-Rhubarb Chicken )




Sometimes, when I'm working on a blog post, I'll start a mindless task and let my mind wander where it will, taking the recipe in question as a starting point.  More often than not, this leads me to a place where words rain down on the page without much effort.  Jogging used to be great for this, but since I've started working I've had to cut that out.  Now I do my meditation during my daily commute.

June 26, 2013

Bear Essentials: Rhubarb
( + Rhubarb Muffins with Almond Streusel )




The first time I had a rhubarb muffin was in Charleston, South Carolina.  It was a beautiful spring morning, and Mr. Bear was recovering from a very rough night.

June 25, 2013

Bear Essentials: Rhubarb
( + Pork Tenderloin with Spiced Rhubarb Chutney )






I want to tell you about this amazing pork tenderloin, but all I can think about is the word chutney.  Chutney.  Chuuuut-ney.  I'm repelled by it in a weird way that's kind of an obsession.  Chutneychutneychutneychutney.  It's like the sound a rollercoaster makes as it reaches the top of the first hill.  It's like the sound chickens make.

It's like the sound of chickens riding a rollercoaster.

Just live with that thought for a minute.


June 24, 2013

Bear Essentials: Rhubarb
( + Rhubarb Sorbet )




Sometimes I like to play a game where I give weird food to Mr. Bear just to see what his reaction will be.  I don't think this makes me an entirely horrible person, because he usually gets to eat dessert at the end of the game.  I'm pretty sure that if you get dessert, you can't claim it's torture.

The trick is choosing the right food, because I'm going to have to eat it too.  Squid eyeballs are out.  So is brain.  But rhubarb...rhubarb is perfect.  I bring home what (for all intents and purposes) appears to be red celery.  Then I make sorbet out of it.  And then I shove a spoonful toward my dubious husband.

"It looks like strawberry," he grimaces.  "But I know it's going to taste like celery.  You're feeding me celery ice cream."    

And the most beautiful thing about Mr. Bear is that he eats it anyway. That's love, folks.  

P.S. - It doesn't taste like celery.  It tastes like awesome.  Mr. Bear will vouch for that.

June 5, 2013

Bear Essentials:
Mitten Noms - Michigan Classics

(+ Paczki )




Is there anything prettier than the inside of a powdered jelly doughnut?  
Nope.  
And is there anything more impossible to clean up after?  
Not reallies.

It's worth it.

June 3, 2013

Bear Essentials:
Mitten Noms - Michigan Classics

( + Bumpy Cake )




"Bumpy Cake" is the theory of "frosting is the point of cake" made manifest.  It's the brainchild of the Detroit-based Sanders Candy Company, a devil's food cake topped with inch-thick logs of buttercream and then doused with an icing that is somewhere between a chocolate saucepan icing and caramel ice cream topping.  It is decadent, it is genius, and it is magic.

June 1, 2013

Bear Essentials:
Mitten Noms - Michigan Classics

( + Pasties )




If you're from Michigan, you saw this title and envisioned a meat- and potato-filled pie.  If you're from anywhere else, you might be expecting stripper glitter and tassels.

It's PAAH-sties, folks.  Not PAY-sties.