Strawberry-Rhubarb Cobbler

I saw rhubarb at the grocery store last week (nobody I know seems to grow it) and got to thinking about the rhubarb sauce you used to make when Russell and I were kids. I remember eating it plain, slightly warmed, with a spoon. That was just rhubarb and sugar, right? It was magical.

Then, in one of the many strange food coincidences of the late spring, my pal Kerry sent me a link to this rhubarb pie post.

I also saw that strawberries were on sale, and not knowing whether Lawson was ready to handle plain rhubarb sauce, I then got to thinking about strawberry-rhubarb pies.

But you know what? Pies are too fancy, with their fussy rolling pins and optional lattices and pie weights. So I decided to make a cobbler.

My favorite chapter in the 2000 Joy of Cooking is "American Fruit Desserts." It covers cobblers, grunts, slumps, crisps, pandowdies, and apple brown betty. The linguist in me is ecstatic over this.

I used the Joy strawberry-rhubarb cobbler recipe. It has just a tiny bit of cornmeal mixed into a basic biscuit dough. I used white whole wheat flour instead of white flour. And I made rough blobby chunks of dough the way you used to instead of rolling out the biscuit dough or something else all fancy.

It was delicious. Lawson, who found his one previous run-in with rhubarb pie kind of weird, loved it. So now I have to find out if I can grow rhubarb down here in South Carolina.

Microwave Jam

Here's an easy way to make a small batch of jam--one or two jars.

Berries, peaches, apricots, etc.

Sugar

Butter

In a large Pyrex cup or bowl, chop or mash fruit to make about 3 cups. Add sugar to equal one-half of the fruit (that is, for 3 cups of prepared fruit, use 1 1/2 cups sugar.) Add 1/2 teaspoon of butter. Mix well.

Cover loosely and microwave on High for 5 minutes. Stir again. Microwave uncovered in two-minute increments until it begins to jell when dribbled from a spoon.

Can't tell when it's jelled? It will be sticky but not thick. If you're not sure, put a tablespoonful on a plate to cool in the fridge. You can always cook it more later. Cooking time varies widely with the fruit: I cooked this batch of strawberry a total of 9 minutes, 5+2+2.

Place in clean jar. Refrigerate or freeze after it's cooled.