Hello Reader,
There has been a bit of a delay as I thought about what purpose this newsletter serves- my tag line for recipe fiction is “stories told here.” and I want this newsletter to reflect that. So I’m going to try and add a little bit more story behind the recipes. But, just like on the site, if you just want the recipe click the picture and you will be able to skip the story.
While it’s not quite rhubarb season here in Maine, the trees are just beginning to bud and the grass turned green yesterday, it must be somewhere and I love rhubarb. A few years ago when I realized that you could have rhubarb pie without the strawberries it was a joyful revelation, and one that probably should have occurred to me sooner.
I’ve got a brand new recipe for pickled rhubarb and pickled celery with fennel, plus a rhubarb recipe roundup with some of my favorites from years past.
There is added sugar in both pickled things, the rhubarb sort of needs it but for the celery it’s a matter of personal taste. If you make the salad with goat cheese and decide when pickling the celery to omit the sugar you might want to use just the rhubarb brine or a blend of the brines to dress the salad, the pink hue of the red wine vinegar and rhubarb adds a spring glow and I think the sweet works well with the fennel seeds ( a flavor I like best in small doses)
I added both to my egg salad sandwich yesterday and while I never would have thought I’d advocate for pickled rhubarb in egg salad I think yesterday’s lunch changed my mind.
For the roundup I reshot the photos for the piquant cocktail and have been using the resultant rhubarb peppercorn simple syrup as an added burst of flavor to my seltzer water.
Fiction
I am still struggling to find my voice in stories again. How about you?
I’ve continued to write my morning pages but I still find myself distracted by the internet- some days Siri has a whole list of things to look up later by the time I’m done writing- and I am also getting a lot of other chores that i’d put off done as I continue to avoid writing with purpose.
Both Elizabeth Gilbert in “Big Magic” and Julia Cameron in “The Artist’s Way” talk about the need to open the window if you want to let creativity in. And let’s just say if creativity is a bird, after a few bruised wings and beaks, it is still avoiding my window. Bu,t even though it’s been a cold spring, my window is still open a little bit.
See you next week(ish)!
Melinda
