AJ Likes Rhubarb!

One of AJ's favorite things to do has become baking with me. I tell him about the ingredients and measure them out, and then he helps pour or dump them into the bowl, stirs, whisks, etc. If it's a recipe that there is not much he can help with, I give him a bowl of flour or rice and let him measure and dump into another bowl. Yes, it gets messy, but so what? It all cleans up, and he has fun (and I get a dessert!). Maybe this tells you a lot about how much of a sweet tooth I have developed over this pregnancy, but I figure it's better to make things at home from scratch so I know exactly what's in them...and I'm sure the added interaction between AJ and I is good too!

Lately we have been making lemon bars, oatmeal cookies, chocolate cake and other goodies, but last week we made Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble together. AJ went with me to the store to buy the fruit and everything, and he liked saying his new word - "woo-bahb!". I thought he'd like the recipe and might want to taste the rhubarb, but what I wasn't expecting was that he'd actually LIKE it...raw! For any of you who have never tasted raw rhubarb, it is VERY tart. It's actually amazing to me that something so tough and sour can end up tasting so good when cooked (with a little sugar!).

I know this does look like many of our faces would if we'd taken a bite out of a raw rhubarb stalk, but this is AJ making a happy face.  He had absolutely no puckered-face reactions, and even left the pile of strawberries almost alone!

Maybe the funniest part of this whole recipe was that once it was baked, AJ did not want to eat it!  He talked about "rhubarb crumble" for days, but if either of us asked him if he'd like some his answer was always, "no, thank you". Hahaha!