Rhubarb Crisp

This isn't going to become a recipe blog. There are tons of existing resources for allergy friendly recipes out there already. However, as I was throwing together this rhubarb crisp tonight, it occurred to me that it's free of most allergens, and well, delicious, so I thought I'd share. It's very seasonal and easy to make.

1) Wash rhubarb and cut into small chunks -- about 4 cups worth, more or less.
2) Mix chopped rhubarb with 1 c sugar and 1/4 c flour and toss it all in a baking dish.
3) Combine the following in a bowl: 2/3 c brown sugar, 1/3 c butter (cold and cut into pats or smaller), 1/2 c flour, 1/2 c oats, and 1 tsp cinnamon. I mixed this all together using a pastry cutter cuz I own one and I'm cool like that. You could also use your fingers or two forks. Get it to a kinda crumbly consistency.
4) Shake crumbly topping on top of the rhubarb mixture in the baking dish.
5) Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. It should be bubbly around the edges, with the topping having come to a brownish crisp. (Mine took the full 40. Damn!)

Yum.

Question is: will we share with our allergic daughter? Hmmm....

Happy Birthday (Cake)!

For Christmas, we received a wonderful cookbook full of allergen-free recipes from my sister in law. As excited as I was to receive and pore over this thoughtful gift, I must admit that I've been delinquent in actually putting it to use. I think this has much to do with the fact that, lucky for us, Georgia was young enough this year not to be aware of, or begging for, any of the yummy foods that she was missing out on due to allergies. And, of course, the reality is that she can still eat the vast majority of what we normally eat without any recipe adjustments. But when her birthday rolled around, I figured it was time to break out the book and get to cooking her an eggless cake. Somehow even very young children living an otherwise cake-free life know that on birthdays there had better be a cake, candles, and ice cream! So, here goes nothing....


Barefoot, pregnant, and doing Martha proud. That's the picture of what the cake is supposed to turn out like.


The finished product. Note: the guitars are not part of the allergen-free recipe, but rather a fulfillment of our toddler's cake decorating wishes, (as inspired by another mom's creative avoidance of overly-complicated icing requests).

But did it taste okay?

Survey says: YES!

Here is the book I used:

Note that although the cover says "no eggs, no dairy, no nuts, no gluten," each recipe can be tweaked to take out as many of those offending ingredients as you need to. I did not make the dairy and gluten free version of this cake, but that can be done.

REVIEW:
Quality of cookbook: Excellent. Useful info, great pictures, and easy to follow recipes.

Quality of cake: Very good. No one was turning it down, but I'm not gonna lie; in a side by side comparison with Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines, it would probably not fare well. The cake was quite tasty and I would make it again, but compared to other cakes I've had, it was a bit on the drier and denser side. (I wonder if I cooked it a few minutes too long?)

Quality of icing: Excellent. But I wish there had been more. If I make this again, I will double the icing recipe, so that there's no struggle in icing each layer, plus the top and sides.