Is the rhubarb ready?

I met my neighbor at the mailbox last week asking her the above question. 'Yes! Please, take some!' - was her response. Her mother planted rhubarb years ago in order to 'pay off' the road grater (we live on gravel roads) and other [useful] service folks. Now - there's enough to go around for the entire neighborhood. Luckily, I've grown fond of rhubarb and have learned of various ways to bake with it. The best recipe, being this one. It literally takes 6 minutes. In the microwave. No joke. Put it on a Biscoff cookie with some mascarpone... holy buckets. (Great - after going to the Biscoff site, I find that they're on sale. I'm doomed.)

Being it's June Dairy Month and me not in the mood to bake, I made some smoothies. My daughter loved it. So much that she sat in her highchair with her mouth open until I'd give her another slurp. I'll be honest though, I gave her the non-gingered-rhubarb-compote version to avoid giving her all of that extra sugar. I'm a nut case.

Smoothie for a Neighbor

Serves 4-5

1 large banana, peeled and cut into chunks,
6-7 large strawberries, hulled and cut in half
1 peach, pitted and quartered
1/4 cup gingered rhubarb compote (click for recipe)
12 oz Greek yogurt, any flavor
1/4 cup milk

In a blender, combine all ingredients. For a thicker smoothie, add less milk - for runny smoothies, add more milk (crazy how that works). Blend until fully combined and pour into a glass. Serve cold with sliced strawberries.

You can really add any fruit you'd like. Some people even add vegetables. Maybe I'll be daring and give that a try some day.