Easy Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Bars

I'm reposting this recipe for exactly one reason - I need to make it this week. It's a little past rhubarb o'clock, but I have faith that I'll be able to find some. It's been too long since it's sour joy mixed with something sweet made my day better.

And this recipe is a very good combo of sour and sweet.

Bonus! It's easy.

 Easy Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Bars

(adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter (the "cold" part is important)
1 egg
Zest and juice of one lemon
2 pound fresh strawberries, sliced
2 cups fresh rhubarb, sliced (hint: smaller stalks are easier to cut and less "stringy")
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup white sugar
5 teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup sliced almonds

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Grease a 9" x 13" glass pan.

3. In a large bowl, combine the one cup of sugar, baking powder, flour, and salt. Stir with a whisk until well combined.

4. Add the cold butter and egg.

5. Use a fork to cut the butter and egg into the flour mixture. When you get tired to trying to get the fork to do the trick, resort to using your hands. You want a crumbly mixture that doesn't have any large chunks of butter. Just keep squishing and you will win the battle. (I'm sure a food processor would do a great job of this, but I don't like food processors. I'm a rebel like that.)

6. Add the lemon zest. Stir it all up.

7. Smoosh half of the flour mixture into your 9" x 13" pan. If you are math challenged, half is about 2 1/2 cups of it. No need to be exact. Just get close.

8. Get out another large bowl. Put the 1/2 cup white sugar, almond extract, cornstarch, and lemon juice in there. Stir things up.

9. Add the strawberries and rhubarb then stir some more.

10. Spread the strawberry mixture over the crust in your 9" x 13" pan.

11. Add 1/2 cup of your sliced almonds to the remaining flour mixture you have sitting off to the side. Mix it all up.

12. Crumble the remaining flour mixture over top of the strawberries and rhubarb. There should be enough to completely hide the strawberries and their friends.

13. Sprinkle the remaining almonds over the top.

14. Bake at 375 degrees for about 50 minutes or until the top is very lightly browned.

15. Allow to cool before cutting.

16. Drown yourself in some strawberry rhubarb happiness. You've earned it.

And Tenth Grade is Over (OMG)

 

That's a Wrap on Second Grade

If I have to see this, so do you.

That was yesterday, I think? I've become very bad at the whole time thing since the pandemic started a decade ago, but it can't have been more than a few days ago.

And a blink later, this happened.

So, second grade is done? I guess? I don't know how it is that we're letting infants into third grade, but apparently we are. Despite the fact that all of this is seemingly impossible, Mila had a solid year at school. She still loves every second of every day, with the exception of her first legit fight with a friend. It turns out that Mila will react in a very not productive way when someone tries to blackmail her into doing something she doesn't want to do. In this case, it was her friend saying, "Do this or you can't come to my birthday party" and Mila being like, "NOBODY TELLS ME WHAT TO DO" and basically being a jerk for a solid week.

Life lessons right there.

Another life lesson that came with second grade is that I think maybe, just maybe, Mila has fallen in love with reading. She is willingly reading a chapter or two of a book every night before bed. She just had to get past that competency hump so she could have fun. Amelia Bedelia books are currently her favorite, which is likely a surprise to absolutely nobody.

While she has fallen in love with reading, Mila still loves math best, with science as a close second. She legitimately LOVES solving math problems to the point that she will ask me to solve random equations at all of the best times. Who doesn't want to answer 452 x 78 while trying to merge in traffic on the Fort Pitt Bridge?

It's me. I don't want to do it. That doesn't stop Mila from trying to make me. I finally figured out, far too late, that I need to just flip it on her and ask her to solve an equation. She will do it and she will do it gleefully, which leaves you free to go back to concentrating on the thing you were trying to do.

Anyway, second grade is a wrap. If I had to sum it up in one sentence, I still think I would steal the words that her teacher said early in the school year. She described Mila as "aggressively happy" and ... yep, that checks out.