The Rhubarb Wins This Time...

Ah, yes.  That's a charming picture of the strawberry rhubarb pie I (Kari) was planning on making this week.  The recipe is from Williams-Sonoma, which I figured was a safe bet because W.S. has never, ever, ever let me down when it comes to their recipes.  

You see, the hubby and I were working in the yard awhile back, and I casually asked, "What would you like for our anniversary?"  I was really expecting a "nothing" from him, since he hardly ever has gift requests.  We celebrated year #2 of our marriage yesterday, so it wasn't like a hugely monumental anniversary anyway (although, in my mind, they ALL should be hugely monumental).  To my surprise, my husband replied, "I'd like a homemade strawberry rhubarb pie."  This was a random request as I had never heard him talk about strawberry rhubarb anything before, but it turns out that this is his favorite pie (sheesh!  The things you get to know about your husband after two years of marriage!)  So, I file this bit of information in the back of my brain because I'm so going to wow him with the most amazing strawberry rhubarb pie for our anniversary.  In the meantime, I go to Paris for two weeks, we take a week at the coast for my husband's work/golf/meetings thing the company does every year, and life in general happens.

So...this past Monday, I am all about the strawberry rhubarb pie.  Our anniversary is on Tuesday, so I have plenty of time to whip this baby up and surprise my husband.  Yessirree.  Then the hunt for rhubarb begins...

I go to every grocery store in Visalia and am informed that nobody has had rhubarb in for about two weeks.  I call every grocery store in Fresno and also come up empty-handed.  I set off in search of roadside stands selling produce, confident that some Central Valley farmer will have the most beautiful rhubarb ever seen to sell me.  Uh, no.  There is no rhubarb to be found.  I literally invest hours upon hours into finding rhubarb and never find it.

So, the anniversary rolls around and I'm consoling myself with the fact that my husband didn't want to do anything too wowy for our anniversary day anyway, since we are going on a fun trip, just the two of us, in a short amount of time and that will be our anniversary gift to the two of us.  I got him a gift, but it was kinda lame---two pairs of fancy-shmancey jeans that he needed but will not quite love as much as I do.  But no worries, because we are keeping the anniversary low-key and all, right?  Except, when he comes home from work, he has a beautiful bouquet of white roses and white hydrangeas (does this man know me or what?!) and there is something shiny and sparkly dangling off one of the roses for me.  And all I got him was jeans.  He likes the jeans (the guy is easy to please and generally just really nice to me), but I say, "I tried to make you a strawberry rhubarb pie, but there is not any rhubarb to be found in this Valley."  And he looks at me quizzically and says "...strawberry rhubarb pie?  What...?"  And I remind him how he told me he wanted a strawberry rhubarb pie for our anniversary and how I was unable to make one for him.  And he says, "I don't remember saying that---strawberry rhubarb pie is kind of random.  I must have been hungry at the time.  I like all pie."

So that, ladies, was my strawberry rhubarb pie fiasco.  And he didn't even know he had asked for it.  But...the next time I see rhubarb, I'm buying a case of it and we will have strawberry rhubarb pies coming out our ears!  :)