Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp

Last summer, on our grand tour of the USA, I bought a cookbook at City Tavern in Philadelphia. I've been wanting to make the Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp from that cookbook ever since we got home in July, but I have not been able to find rhubarb in the store, and I wasn't about to use frozen. After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I learned that rhubarb is a springtime plant so it reminded me to start looking for rhubarb again.  Sure enough, I found it on the first try. It was one of those, "I'm pretty sure this is rhubarb, but I don't see a sign confirming it" kind of moments. I just knew that it looked like red celery. I was relieved when the cashier agreed that it was indeed rhubarb.

As you probably know, I'm a very picky eater. I have to take deep breaths before tasting something new. I had had rhubarb once in a pie as a child, but I couldn't really remember it. And my mom had had a strawberry rhubarb pie that she said was delicious. But other than that, I have to admit that I was a little scared. I kept assuring Brett, who was very wary of the rhubarb, that it would be good, but I didn't tell him that I was also trying to reassure myself.

I cut up two cups of strawberries, and two cups of rhubarb, drizzled them with 1tsp lemon juice/2T water/1/4 cup brown sugar/ 1/2 cup white sugar mixture. Stirred that up and then dumped it into a baking dish. I made a traditional streusel topping- no oats or nuts- and sprinkled that on top.  I let it bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes (instead of 30) because the recipe was for individual servings and I thought it might need longer.

When it came out of the oven it was bubbling and beautiful, but very liquidy.  I think that maybe it didn't need the extra cooking time after all.

It turns out that I stressed out over rhubarb for no reason, because it was delicious. Brett claimed he couldn't even taste it.  The truth is, that anything would be good under all that sugar!