I'm waiting for my canner to reach boiling. Inside are five jars of my very first jelly. Rhubarb jelly to be exact. I got some rhubarb from Rob's mum on the weekend to make strawberry rhubarb jam and of course I cut too much. I was going to just freeze all of the leftovers when I thought "why not try jelly?"

I made the juice last night and left the stewed fruit sitting in a muslin lined colander over a bowl until this evening. When I measured it out it was only a cup of liquid but it was very thick so I wasn't so worried about having to add water. While it was cooking it got very cloudy - almost the colour of bubble gum or strawberry ice-cream - but cleared up after the pectin was added and is now the most incredible, delicate pink. I've got two 250 ml jars and three 125 ml jars in the canner and I had enough jelly left in the pot to almost fill a fourth 125 ml jar. That one hadn't been sterilized though so I just stuck it in the fridge and we'll have to finish it in a week or so.

I can't wait for breakfast tomorrow.

I made sweet potato gnocchi for dinner tonight. We ate them tossed with a bit of butter, salt, pepper and shredded cheese. Simple, delicious comfort food (and I have a bunch more in the freezer for another day) which reminded me that I wanted to share my kasespatzle making adventure with you guys.

It's been a week and a half since I made the spatzle and time is the great healer. Right now I remember how good the cheese smothered spatzle and caramelized onions tasted, how fantastic the onions smelled as they were cooking, and how quickly the spatzle batter came together. I'm glossing over the hot, sweaty labour of standing over a pot of boiling water and forcing bizarrely elastic batter through the tiny holes in my colander. I'm also choosing to forget just how much batter was on my counter, stove, apron, arms, spoons, bowls, colander and floor by the time I was done.

My problems began with my batter. I found a few simple recipes when I did a quick search for kasespatzle and just picked one and went ahead. It turns out that spatzle is one of those things where you really need someone to show you how it should feel. The recipe I started with didn't include this vital information (in fact most of them don't). Some further searching, while my batter was resting, turned up this blog post with some wonderful pictures showing how the batter should be, along with a nice description of it; that post is probably the only reason I actually managed to make spatzle. There is no way the batter I'd started with could have been forced through anything. At all. Ever.

Just before settling in to write a few minutes ago I decided to check Smitten Kitchen for a spatzle recipe (I'd been reading her gnocchi recipe earlier). Why do I not visit there when I'm looking for useful cooking information? Not only does she have a recipe for spatzle, she did comparisons between different recipes and methods and even specifies how big the holes you're supposed to force this batter through should be (note - the holes in my colander are smaller than that). Reading her recipe and recommendations I think I might actually try making spatzle again one day (when I get a spatzle maker). Which would be nice because kasespatzle is really good.

My research revealed that kasespeatzle has only three important elements - spatzle, cheese and caramelized onions - and the only variation is the method of combination. Sometimes they were just tossed together, sometimes they were layered in a casserole, sometimes the onions were only on top … determined, as far as I could tell, by taste, tradition, and how long you're willing to wait for your dinner. I opted for the "toss it all together in a casserole and put it in the oven for a bit" method. This meant we would have a crust of cooked cheese on top of the spatzle. It also meant that I was able to have a much desired nap between making the spatzle and setting the table.

This was my breakfast this morning: tea, an apple and a rhubarb muffin.

I made the muffins yesterday so I could take half a dozen over to my mum. I don't know why but I was pretty set on rhubarb. We won't have any from the garden for a while yet but I still have plenty in the freezer from last year and I thought it would make pretty pink muffins. I did some quick internet searching for a nice recipe but they all called for things I didn't have or were a lot fancier than I felt was necessary. I ended up making my usual blueberry muffin recipe with rhubarb instead. They turned out perfectly.

I'm sure I'm not the first to post this but just in case someone else out there is looking for a simple way to use up some rhubarb (fresh or frozen) here is my recipe:

Simple Rhubarb Muffins
(adapted from the blueberry muffin recipe in Company's Coming's "Muffins & More")

1/4      cup    butter or margarine
1/2      cup    sugar
1                   egg
1          tsp    vanilla
1 3/4  cups   flour
3         tsp     baking power
1/2      tsp     salt
3/4      cup    milk
1         cup    chopped rhubarb

Cream butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla. Add dry ingredients alternating with milk (dry - milk - dry) and mix just until moist. Fold in the rhubarb. Divide batter into 12 greased muffin cups and bake for about 25 minutes at 400℉ (200℃). They are especially good if you sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar before you bake them.