STRAWBERRY + RHUBARB OAT BARS

welcome back for part two of rhubarb week! since i bought so much rhubarb last week at the farmers market, i was able to whip up two different desserts. if you are anything like me, when it comes to a crumble or cobbler you try to scoop a little extra of the topping onto your plate. i mean, come on. the best part of any crumble is the mixture of buttery sweet oats. when i was little and my aunt would make me her apple crisp, i would only eat the topping & leave the apple slices on my plate. what little kid really wants visible fruit in a dessert?! well i call these strawberry rhubarb oat bars, it really reminds me of my dream fruit cobbler. it has crumbled oats on the bottom AND top of the fruit filling. i literally ended up eating half of it as soon as i finished taking the photos of it (should i have kept that to myself? true story). BUT since it is called oat bars, it's automatically healthy right? right?! this recipe has been adapted from smitten kitchen, one of my original favourite food bloggers:)

ingredients

• 1 cup quick oats
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon raw sugar
• pinch of salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup diced rhubarb
• 1 cup diced strawberrys
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• juice from half a lemon

directions

• preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• in a mixing bowl stir oats, flour, 1/2 cup sugar, salt and butter until a crumb texture is formed.
• press half the crumble into a greased 8 by 8 baking dish and form a crust.
• add strawberries and rhubarb to the baking dish and sprinkle with cornstarch, remaining sugar and freshly squeezed lemon juice.
• finish by topping the fruit with the remaining oat mixture and bake for approximately 30 minutes.
• let cool to room temperature before slicing into.
• top with powdered sugar if desired.

STRAWBERRY + RHUBARB PIE

rhubarb week commence! this past weekend i went on a hunt for the biggest & brightest rhubarb in the city. i ended up finding a beautiful bunch of ontario grown rhubarb from the farmers market in liberty village, along side some strawberries and asparagus. i like to call rhubarb 'pink celery' as not many people are familiar with what it looks like outside of a strawberry rhubarb pie. when my mom was growing up rhubarb used to grow wild in her backyard and they would eat it raw dipped in sugar. like a fresh jolly rancher! the pie crust is a butter based dough and full of buttery flavour. i have yet to make a pie dough using shortening (shortening scares me) because butter, right? maybe one day i will try to do a butter + shortening mixed crust, but for now this crust compliments the sweet & sour filling perfectly! plus, the bright pink & red colours look and photograph amazing.

ingredients

for the dough

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon raw sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cold & cubed
• 1/2 cup ice cold water

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

  for the filling

• 3 cups chopped fresh rhubarb

• 3 cups chopped fresh strawberries
• 1 cup raw sugar
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 pinch of salt

• 1/4 cup corn starch

  directions

• for the dough: using a food processor (can be done by hand too), pulse the flour, salt and sugar a few times to blend.

• add the cubed butter and vanilla. pulse until a crumb like texture is formed.
• slowly add the cold water one tablespoon at a time until a dough begins to form (if you accidentally add too much water add a bit more flour).
• once the dough begins to come together, turn out onto a pastry board and form into a disk using your hands.
• refrigerate for 2 hours, or overnight.
• for the filling add rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, salt, and corn starch in a mixing bowl. toss until sugar is evenly mixed.
• to assemble roll out half the dough to approximately a 1/4 inch thickness. cover pie plate, trim, poke air holes, and pinch in edges.
• add filling, and top with the second half of dough (note: i did a lattice top, but any style will work as long as you have slits for steam to be released)
• cook at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, turn temperature down to 350 degrees and cook for another 30 minutes.
• let pie cool to room temperature to set before slicing.

WEEKEND FUN

happy june first! here is a little photography i took over the past few days. this weekend in toronto had probably the worst weather in months. it rained all day saturday & sunday, plus the temperature decided to drop well below 10 degrees. however, we still managed to hit up a lot of toronto food spots! starting with a picnic by the waterfront friday night (before the rain hit), we ate sandwiches, drank old fashioned cream soda and got swarmed by the little black city bugs. saturday, knowing the rain was not going to stop we spent most of it indoors (eating). the day began with (loads of coffee) a souvlaki chicken lunch at it's all GRK on west queen west, an afternoon movie, freshly fried nutella doughnuts from fancy franks (sorry, they were devoured before i could take a good photo), and ended with a late night pizza dinner at the good son. as i have mentioned before the good son is my favourite restaurant ever.. and its not JUST because the entire restaurant is stocked with le creuset & old fashioned clocks:) sunday i finally got to go to liberty village's farmers market! even though it was kind of freezing and rainy, i came out with a massive bunch of rhubarb and strawberries (hint hint: pie is coming). to end off a lazy sunday, we ended up back at the good son (i swear, it's THAT good) for huevos rancheros, a dish i will never be able to pronounce properly,