I was listening to A Prairie Home Companion this weekend and they kept talking about rhubarb pie and I was drooling! I must get some rhubarb and make an array of delicious things.

That's a lotta rhubarb. It all sounds delicious.

You don't see a lot of rhubarb pie in these here parts.

I've always wanted to try rhubarb pie pie, and would order some if I ever saw it on the menu. The color looks great, and it's kind of mystifying how something that looks like a big celery stalk becomes part of a sweet dessert.

It's got the most wonderful tang to it. That's it. I'm getting some this weekend. Those recipes you linked to look wonderful, PY! Now where to get marscaropne cheese...

Ooh, berry and rhubarb is a good combination.

yg: Since you're in Chicago, you've probably got Italian grocery stores, you lucky duck. If not, though, a Whole Foods/Wild Oats kinda store, or a plain old richy-rich specialty grocery, ought to have mascarpone.

Oh how I love rhubarb. My granddad used to grow it, (along with every other damn fruit and vegetable under the sun) and every summer I spent with him he would stew up a whole load of it and we'd have it with icecream every night. Rhubarb always makes me think of him.

I hand a grandpa like that, too, gaspode! He didn't grow rhubarb, though - but same idea.

Yeah, there's something incredible about that acidic tang it has, when sweetened just enough. And it seems to pair incridebly well with anything creamy, like ice cream, that Devon custard, or that mascarpone idea-- that'll be great.

Yeah, Grandad introduced me to feijoas and papayas, before they could be seen in the stores in rural southern New Zealand. His garden was a glorious half acre, his whole back yard, with only room for little paths between each plot, and a glasshouse in the corner. He grew grapes on every fence, and planted flowers throughout the vegetable gardens (...and I'm blanking on the name of that gardening style) so everything looked beautiful as well as functional. That man could get anything to grow. Anything.

Man, he sounds just like mine. My grandfather's garden was in East Texas, but just the same. He grew figs and peaches, okra and hot peppers, squash, peas, beans, and morning-glory vines. He would take me out hiking sometimes to get mayhaws or blackberries which my grandmother made into jelly or sauce. She canned everything he grew. Then, too, he would barter his work for other produce and sometimes just come home with giant bags of corn or tomatoes, or live crabs, or something like that. He fished a lot, too. I'm so thankful I knew and grew up with people like that.

Yum! Why don't I ever get invited to "those" kinds of parties?

We have rhubarb out back, but a couple of plants aren't growing like they used to -- apparently we need to split them. We got a batch from my ex-SIL out in the country, and I made up a new recipe called "Swedish rhubarb pudding". It was basically stewed rhubarb with some vanilla and cornstarch. Delicious with whipped cream.

I'll have to find recipes for some of those others.