stewed rhubarb revisited

my grandmother had a huge garden with several rows of rhubarb. at one summer reunion, she made a huge pickle jar filled with stewed rhubarb. since most of the meals were buffet-style, i was able to skip a helping of it whenever it came out.

that year, it happened that my sister, mrs. wright, and i stayed with my grandma a few weeks after the reunion. the pickle jar was still half full of stewed rhubarb, and grandma would serve us up a helping at almost every meal. mrs. wright and I couldn't wait for that jar to empty. the rhubarb was mushy and tart - not our favorite food. but we were taught you eat what you're given and you don't complain to your grandma. so we ate it. and after a few days, we finished the last of it off for breakfast. (hooray!)

mrs. wright and i went to the library latest tha morning, and when we returned, grandma had more rhubarb cooking down in a huge pot on the stove. I wish then that I knew the rhubarb bread recipe that I make now; it's a delicious use of rhubarb. mostly because you use plenty of sugar and butter.

we continued to stewed rhubarb the rest of our two-week stay. and you know why? because grandma thought we liked it. of course, we continued to let her think that why we were with her, then complained to our parents about it after the fact. now it's one of those inside family jokes.

the really funny thing is that this summer when i got more than my fair share of rhubarb from my csa farm (and I had already made my bread recipe twice, strawberry rhubarb jam, and rhubarb pie), I kept thinking about grandma's stewed rhubarb but these days it's called rhubarb compote. sounds fancy. it's not really.

simple bites has a really good article on uses for rhubarb compote. I made their version enfaced with orange and ate it on oatmeal. it was delicious. grandma would be proud.