Rhubarb BBQ Sauce

Strawberry rhubarb jam

I love rhubarb. I should plant some in my yard, but since this is the first time I've ever been here in the summer, it's not surprising that I haven't gotten around to it. A couple of weeks ago I bought a few stalks in the grocery store and made rhubarb strawberry jam - yum! Out of all the jam I made this past year, this is one of our favorites.

When we were in Palmer last week, Ryan's mom suggested we pick some rhubarb to take home from her neighbor's garden. Her neighbor has an amazing patch of rhubarb (Palmer is the place where they grow world record vegetables, afterall) and doesn't like to eat it herself. She graciously let us pick all we wanted. We came back to Seattle with four, one-gallon-size ziplocks in our luggage.

Today I tried rhubarb BBQ sauce, suggested by my friend Ginny who got the recipe from The Local Kitchen Blog. It was a fairly easy recipe to make, compared to other things I have canned. And it is delicious. The jars are cooling right now, but I left one out of the hot water bath to eat soon!

I learned an important lesson about cooking with habanero peppers while making the BBQ sauce - wear gloves! My fingers are still burning from touching the pepper. Shortly after I chopped it up and threw it in the pot, I measured out the honey required for the recipe. I got a little on my finger and licked it off - oops! After chopping the onion (to which I have a severe eye-watering, running nose reaction) I blew my nose and somehow got habanero juice on my nose because now it feels like it's burning too! I also touched my eye without thinking. Apparently I have a lot to learn about cooking with habaneros!