Rhubarb Pecan Muffins

Rhubarb - what a wonderful, old-fashioned vegetable. While it looks like celery, its lemon-like tartness leads most folks to treat it like a fruit.  And so it gets cooked up in pies, tarts and desserts.

If you can't find rhubarb near you, check a farmer's market or head to Lancaster County. Most farms  here grow it.  Once you know that you like it, it's a good idea to plant it. Then it will appear in your garden every spring. Our variety is the strawberry rhubarb - it's a little sweeter than the green kind and is happy to live along with our flowers.

One year it even blossomed for me!

Here's the recipe for the muffins:

!/2 cup chopped pecans (toasted)
1 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb

Chop pecans, place them on a cookie sheet in a 350 oven and toast until they start to brown a little.  You’ll be able to tell they are done when they start to smell good. Remove from oven and cool.

Cut the rhubarb and set aside.

Stir together these dry ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a separate bowl, beat together:

1 1/4 cup brown sugar,
1/2 cup vegetable oil,
1 egg,
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix by hand.  Add the cooled pecans and chopped rhubarb.  Spoon batter into muffin cups.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter, mix with 1/3 cup white sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.  Sprinkle over the tops of the muffins and bake in a preheated 350 oven for about 25 minutes – or until tops spring back when pressed.

Have muffins left over?  They freeze well.

Can't find rhubarb or don't want to bake?  Well, come on out to The Artist's Inn in Lancaster County and we'll be happy to serve up a batch of muffins just for you!

One Potato, Two Potato.....Heck with Three; Gimme More!

It's hard to find another vegetable so versatile as potatoes.  Serve them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. 

Fry them, bake them, broil them or boil!

 Cut them into all kinds of shapes and slather them with a variety of toppings.  

Face it, Americans are in love with potatoes.  Whether they are white, yellow, red, blue, sweet, new, russet or fingerlings; there are certainly enough to chose from.

 

And, like any other crop, potatoes should be bought from your local farmers. 

 

 

Not only will the potatoes be fresher because they haven't spent days and nights in trucks traveling across the country, but the soft skins will peel like butter.  

 

 

If you have any trouble finding farmers in your area, then just make a trip to The Artist's Inn in Lancaster County, and we'll be happy to steer you in the right direction.

 

Actually, you could just follow the signs!

 

 

Great Places to Shop in Lancaster County (Fourth in a Series)

Unlike my other blogs about places to shop, this post is not about one particular store. But it does describe one of the best things about living in Lancaster County: our local farm stands.

They carry a wide variety of fruit and produce so freshly picked that they sometimes still holds the warmth of the sun. To be able to get fresh asparagus in the spring, dozens of ears of corn in the summer, and pumpkins by the wagon load in the fall is pure joy to anyone who likes to cook, eat, or decorate!

Harvest time makes for a very special time to visit - as crops burst from every roadside stand and market.

To know that your purchases help support local farmers makes the shopping experience so much richer. We are grateful to have at least eight stands within two miles of The Artist’s Inn. Thank you to the farmers who work such long hours to bring us the best food around. And especially the ones who grow unusual crops – sugar plums, heirloom tomatoes, white peaches, chestnuts, ten different kinds of squash – you just never know what you’ll find!
One thing is almost guaranteed: you will find a money box; for these purchases are made on the honor system as most farmers are too busy to tend the stand. This is a tradition that is common to the locals, but surprises my guests, who are often from suburban areas.

So, if you can’t visit, I hope you enjoy this little blog journey today – a feast for not only our taste buds, but our eyes as well.