Last week, I got out to the garden and cut about 2/3 of the stalks. I left enough for a few more pies this summer and early fall.
But I wasn't relishing the thought of hand-chopping all of that rhubarb. I'm right-handed, and my right hand has developed some arthritis, making using a knife for extended periods kind of painful. It's ordinarily not a big deal, and I don't have pain, for the most part. So, I'm not complaining.
But all that rhubarb. Ugh! then I thought, "gee, I have a food processor, and these sort of situations are really where kitchen appliances shine, so why not use it for the chopping?!" And that's what I did. I fed the cleaned stalks through the FP, using the slicing disk. And in about 5 minutes, it was all chopped. If I'd chopped all of this rhubarb by hand, not only would it have been painful, but it would have taken a good half hour or so.
I decided to just cook all of this rhubarb into sauce for use later in fall. I got out my largest stock pot, and when all was cooked, I had 10 quarts of rhubarb sauce!
Nothing wasted, my work was minimized, and now I have some already made fruit sauce for meals this fall.
I ask myself why I don't always use the FP for these jobs. I think I have it in my mind that it's going to be more work to use it and wash it afterwards. But actually, I put most of the FP through the dish washer, so there's no extra work at all. Just one of those silly misconceptions about just how.hard.something.is.going.to.be. NOT!
