Rhubarb Crisp

Yesterday, my parents came for a visit.  We don't see them enough so a visit is always cause for celebration.  They also brought the giant snowblower that I bought for $13.  It's a long story (well not really but I always seem to make those stories much longer than they need to be) and sufficed to say, the snowblower is gigantic and wouldn't fit in either the van (with the seats removed) or the Tahoe (YIKES!!!) so my parents offered to bring it up in the back of their truck!!!

It really is huge.  If I were motivated I would go take a picture but it is quiet and the baby is snuggling me so you will have to use your imagination....it is roughly the size of a riding lawn-mower only it is on 2 wheels.  Our driveway should be snowblow-ed out with a swipe down from the garage and then the pass back up to put it away!!!!

If it works...

My parents brought it up and the visit with them was lovely.  Finn loves her Grammy and Grampy and was busying yelling GAMMMMMMA GYAMMMMMMMMPA all day to show them something or other.  We played outside, grilled delicious brats and hotdogs (courtesy of mom and dad from the Appleton meat market...aka HOUSE OF SAUSAGE) and Cori grilled some yummy yummy steaks (his grill specialty)

To celebrate, I make some fresh rhubarb crisp (with double the crisp topping because really...isn't that why we all eat fruit crisp???)

Rhubarb Crisp
4 cups rhubarb (cut into bite sized chunks...about how you cut them up for a little one to eat
1/2 cup sugar (I always use a little less..I like the rhubarb to still be a bit tart)
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp H2O

crisp topping (I double this amount because...well...yum)
3/4 cup quick oatmeal
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (room temp)
1 tsp cinnamon

in a greased 9x13 pan (a cake pan) spread the cut rhubarb...sprinkle the tbsp of flour and tbsp of H2O over the top of the rhubarb.  Sprinkle the sugar on top of it all. (pretty simple right?)

In a bowl, mix together: oatmeal, brown sugar, flour, salt and cinnamon.  Cut room temp. butter into tbsp sized cuts and, using a pastry cutter (or a fork) smoosh the butter into the mixture until it is all blended together and the mixture seems to hold together in clumps...you want to make sure you mix the butter in enough (I think the fancy term is "cutting" in the butter) so that the whole mixture sort of holds together...no loose dry parts to mixture.

Sprinkle the crust mixture over the top of the rhubarb mixture and place in a 350 oven for 35-45 mins (I always err on the side of 45-50 mins as I would rather have the crisp mixture crispy rather than soggy.

It smells delicious cooking in you house and tastes even better

It is especially wonderful served a little warm with a dollop of vanilla or cinnamon ice cream plopped on the top.

Our ice cream didn't work out yesterday so we had it plain...it's pretty freakin' good plain as well.

I have never had rhubarb crisp made to the recipe as I have always doubled the crisp part...it seems like there might not be enough crispy-ness but maybe I am just a sucker for butter, brown sugar and oatmeal :)

You can try it both ways and let me know which is your favorite.

Happy Sunday everyone and never forget to tell the people you love just how much they mean to you!!!

2 years old and ODD

So...after our recent fiasco where we were told that Finn is not on the spectrum (OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK) but rather severely cognitively delayed with ODD...how can they even say that about a 2 year old I want to know...because seriously, isn't EVERY 2 your old ODD?  I mean...isn't that part of being 2 and why it is called the "terrible twos?" AND if she is so severely cognitively delayed (because she refused to make a choo choo out of 3 blocks because EVERYONE knows a choo choo isn't made out of 3 blocks) how can she have ODD?  ODD implies a willful challenge that being severely (to the extent they told us) delayed would prohibit...

Anyway...I digress....

Yesterday I had Finn help me make a simple banana parfait.  I think she liked helping more than she liked actually eating.  We will be adjusting her meds, again, since she has lost a pound in the last 2 1/2 weeks (stupid topamax.)  Over the next 15 weeks (once insurance approves it) we will be gradually weaning topamax and adding lamictal.  Here is hoping it helps with the seizures as well as the eating.  It would be nice if Finn's pants didn't fall off!!!  :)


Simple Banana Parfait

48 Nilla Wafers
2 medium bananas
1 box instant vanilla pudding (make according to pudding pie recipe)
container of whipped cream


mix pudding according to pudding pie recipe and set aside
layer 24 Nilla wafers in a baking dish (like and 8x8x2)
cut up one medium banana into slices and spread over wafers
cover the bananas with half of the pudding
cover the pudding with half the container of whipped cream (we used cool whip)

repeat with remaining ingredients

I also spread some butterscotch topping over the whipped cream portion as well (simply because I had it in the refrigerator and Finn likes to squeeze the bottle) :)

Everyone in the family thoroughly enjoyed it (even with Finn's obviously finger marks in the final whipped cream layer) and we had a great time counting out cookies and licking bowls :)