The quotes will continue. As I type, the judges are furiously um, judging all the incoming entries in order to bring you 25-50 by the weekend.

But first, Rhubarb-Mumble Crumble.

When I dropped El Yo off at the airport for his June trip, as I was peeling out to head on home, I saw a huge stack of rhubarb sitting on the corner, on someone's verge. And as I drove past I could have sworn that there was a sign next to it reading "FREE". Oh y'all, if there is nothing on this earth that I love more than free things by the roadside, it's free roadside rhubarb. So I turned around, pulled over into a not-really parking space, dashed across the traffic (doesn't that sound exciting? But it's Vermont, so really I sauntered across two lanes of nada) and lo and behold, that sign did indeed say FREE. FREE. RHUBARB. So I took the whole bundle and stuffed it in the YoMobile before anyone else could come claiming that bounty.

What? I know. And yet, I know how to run rhubarb under the faucet, to clean it off. I bring the mad skills. With two esses and no zeds.

Zed. Last letter of the alphabet. Stay with me, Muricans.

Anyway. Rhubarb. I spent the whole night washing and chopping and chopping and chopping and ultimately freezing. By my estimate, I took home nearly 18 pounds of rhubarb, making me just about the luckiest person alive. Much of it was eaten during the great Smoothie Craze of Oh-Five, but some of it managed to stay frozen until Jen's arrival. I'd been wanting to try out this rhubarb crumble because if you look at the picture, you too will suddenly obsess on crumble. But when I pulled a frozen bag out and cooked it down, it was a much smaller pile than anticipated. Luckily, there was a punnet of blueberries and one of strawberries in the fridge, and by the time I got ready to crumble, these fruits had drawn lines in the frost and were facing off in a gangland style fight to see who could go off first. Judges called it a draw when both punnets wound up being tossed in the oven with the rhubarb. I won, they got eaten. Tra la!

I loved this topping shamelessly. This is easily the closest thing to the crumble topping my Gran serves and the whole thing was demolished in record time. Although I used no sugar in cooking the rhubarb, substituting instead local honey (for local noses, with local allergies).I maintain that my version is the Rhubarb-Mumble Crumble, because while I was nominally billing it as Rhubarb Crumble, in reality it was Rhubarb-Blueberry-Strawberry Crumble, which is obnoxious and cries out, in the night, to be abbreviated.

Voila. Next up: Rhubarb compote with mascarpone custard cream.