Two summers ago was my first time at Brian's home in NY. Much to my surprise, his mother actually grows rhubarb in her backyard. I left that visit with an armful of rhubarb, and when I returned to my home in NJ, I had so much that I had to figure out what else to do with it. I ended up making rhubarb coffee cake in addition to my much-loved pie.
Brian, however, strongly dislikes rhubarb. Just a couple of weekends ago, while visiting his parents', Brian's mom again allowed me to walk away with plenty of rhubarb. Since he dislikes it, and I can't very well eat a whole strawberry-rhubarb pie by myself, I turned again to the rhubarb coffee cake. I got a little bit sneaky, and decided to cut up the pieces of rhubarb really small, and I figured that the taste would not be noticeable if I did so. I was right.
When Brian came home from work, I told him that I made coffee cake, and I didn't mention the dreaded ingredient. He tasted it, thought it was delicious, and that was the end of it. I told him just before writing this post that it did, in fact, have rhubarb in it. He was only momentarily shocked to find he had eaten his sworn enemy, but I think I maybe proved that rhubarb can be good, even for him.
If only he would like to eat strawberry-rhubarb pie! Perhaps I will make one anyway. More for me!
