I’ve lived in the north Flathead Valley of Northwest Montana for 19 1/2 years. This past Memorial Day weekend was only the third that had sunshine and OMG! – there was sun ALL THREE DAYS!!

And the temperature was in my personal range of perfection: mid-60’s.

Bear, Bob and I enjoyed being outside a good part of all three days. I puttered about doing some yard chores, potting my herbs, cleaning the Jeep, cleaning Wild Thing (motorhome), some minor maintenance chores on both vehicles – all alternating with sitting on the front porch with a cup of coffee, tea or glass of wine.

It was mah-ve-lous!!

It was SO marvelous that I’m thinking of taking the entire 4th of July week – or at least the 4th and 5th – off to do a similar amount of nearly nothing.

But, I digress.

Monday morning, I picked rhubarb. I ended up with slightly less than a cup after cleaning and chopping.

I searched recipes with rhubarb and settled on a chutney which I adapted to the following:

1 cup rhubarb
3/4 cup chopped sweet onion
1/4 cup currants
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves

Combine all, boil and then simmer until thickened – stirring frequently. SO easy and my house smelled wonderful.

A side note about some chalkboard labels and stakes. I first found the garden stakes: ceramic with a chalkboard glaze – so much fun for the herb pots! Those have been working so when I noticed the labels and wine charms, I bought a quantity of those also. The labels are particularly useful in that I can date items and have my own private “use by” date system. Much better than the sniff and guess method. Both items were found on Etsy.

Onward.

I intended to make a stir fry to test the chutney but ended making a pizza topped with thin sliced mozzerella, carmelized sweet onion and some grilled chicken. I added some goat cheese and the chutney after the pizza was ready.

Oh boy – that worked.

A perfect blend of savory-sweet-tangy-hot-cool goodness.

I should get another similar harvest from my little rhubarb patch and another batch of this chutney.