In which we invent silly name for a traditional spring food

 

"Let's have a slumber party!" said Megan.  "We can eat tacos, and giggle, and eat dessert twice, and go to bed at 9pm because we are old."

"Giggling was on the menu, and we did a bunch of that, until the laughing itself became something to laugh about, and right about then we had First Dessert, and in the middle of all that she mis-spoke but I love it and that is now the name of this food.

RHUBERRY-STRAWBARB CRISP

As always, I looked at a recipe before I started putting this together, and then I closed the cookbook and made it up as I went along.  

But I took photos!  Yay me?

It's rhubarb season so I picked this about 10 minutes before I started chopping, 
but frozen chopped rhubarb works fine

Ingredients

As always, I leave out the ingredient measurements.  Use what you have, make it taste the way you like.

FILLING

Stalks of fresh or frozen rhubarb, chopped

Fresh or frozen strawberries, chopped

Sugar

Allspice (optional)

Cinnamon (optional)

Ginger (optional)

A bit of flour to thicken the sauce (optional)

Chop the fruit into little-bite-size pieces.  

Add sugar and spices to taste, and set aside.  If it is extremely soupy and syrupy, add the flour to thicken.

Strawberries that we picked last summer

Rhubarb and strawberries aren't really at peak ripeness at the same time (at least, not here in the Swamp), so I usually have to use one ingredient fresh and the other frozen.

I like to add allspice and cinnamon and not too much sugar, but suit yourself

Taste the mixture after it's been sitting for a few minutes and adjust
the sugar/spices as needed

CRISP

Oats and brown sugar in about equal amounts

Butter (about half-as-much as the oats) softened but not melted

Mix the crisp ingredients together with a pastry blender. 

Mix until you have pea-sized chunks of butter coated in oats and sugar.  

ASSEMBLING:

You can put this dessert together in a baking pan or pie pan if that suits you.  I also make them in disposable pot-pie pans, or (as here) in silicon cupcake-liners.  I discovered (the hard way) that paper cupcake-liners just absorb the juice and unite forever with the food, making an inedible mess.

Whatever you're using, put down a bottom "crust" of the crisp mixture, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, and press it down firmly.  

(When making this in a cupcake tin, I can press the crust down in all the compartments simultaneously using another cupcake tin because that's something I do with firming down bedding plant pots so why not do it in the kitchen as well?!)

Now, overfill the container with the fruit and sugar mixture.  The fruit will cook down and look sad if you don't absolutely heap it before it's baked.  

Top with a little bit more of the oatmeal/butter mixture.

Bake at 350* until it's bubbly--about 15 minutes for cupcake-size, 20 minutes for pot-pie tins, and 45 minutes for a baking pan.  You can broil it for a couple minutes at the end to toast the top if you like.

These can be served in their little silicon party hats,
or warm them up and turn them out over vanilla ice cream.