My grandma always cooked rhubarb and served it as a sauce…sort of like applesauce. There was always a covered dish in the fridge with this sweet-tart, pale pink nectar of the gods. She had to swat me away from it or I would eat the whole thing.

I used to cook up rhubarb when my father-in-law would bring us a mess of it. At dinner last night, my older daughter told us she often came home and there would be two buckets full of rhubarb on her porch and she knew Pop had been there.

We celebrated my son-in-law’s grandma’s birthday last night. Since I’m not eating gluten, I didn’t have cake. But I did splurge with a little vanilla ice cream with warmed strawberry-rhubarb sauce over it. Oh, that was heavenly…taking me back in time. The addition of strawberries gives just a little something extra to an already divine concoction. Grandma Lois turned 87 and she wanted me to share the recipe she used.

Grandma Lois’ Strawberry-Rhubarb

• Trim and wash your rhubarb and be sure to discard the leaves of the rhubarb as they are poisonous.
• Cube and measure out 8 cups of rhubarb and put in a large saucepan.
• Add 1 cup of washed, hulled, and sliced strawberries.
• Cook on medium heat till they start to break down then add 4 cups of sugar.
• Stir and bring to a boil then simmer a little bit till the sauce is smooth.
• You can adjust the sugar by adding a cup at a time till you get the taste you want.

This sauce is wonderful warm over ice cream. The family ate it over angel food cake last night although they are quite fond of serving it over warm biscuits. It’s great as a side with roast pork. And…it’s good straight out of the pan with a spoon. When I think of summer foods, I think of watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, corn on the cob, cucumbers and onions, and rhubarb. Once I have had those foods, it’s really been summer.

❤️

“This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit.”

Amos 8:1 NIV

Photo Credit: sunnysidelocal.com