Rhubarb and my Dad

Janet here: I've been missing my dad — Pop Pop to you, Rachel — recently and I'm not sure why. He's been dead for nearly 25 years, almost as much time as we got to spend together. Maybe it's because we just filled a two-ton dumpster with all kind of junk from over the years and some of the treasures among the trash were photos of him and my mother. I also found a love letter he wrote to my mother just a few weeks after their honeymoon had ended. I was blown away by the declarations and open romanticism; this was not the dad I remembered!

Anyway my dad was a rhubarb fan and I can remember him cooking up some rhubarb on the stove in the spring. He'd add sugar and we'd have it for breakfast as a kind of fruity stew.

I decided I'd make something with rhubarb in his honor. There was just one problem: I had never ever cooked rhubarb. I also knew I didn't just want to stew it. So I did a little trolling on the web and came up with this rhubarb cheesecake, a combination of a few different ideas.

I think my dad would have been pleased. I hope you all are as well.

Rhubarb Cheesecake Pie

ingredients
crust
about 12 Oreos ground up
1/4 cup melted butter

layer one
3 cups rhubarb, cut up into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour

cream cheese layer
12 ounce cream cheese softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

topping
8 ounces sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

method
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Grind the Oreos in a cuisinart. Melt the butter. Then combine and pat into a 10-inch pie plate.

Combine the rhubarb, 1/2 cup sugar and flour. Place into the Oreo pie crust. Bake for 15 minutes.

While it's baking,prepare the cream cheese filling by beating the cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Then pour over the hot rhubarb mixture, lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 25-30 minutes until it's almost set. While it's baking, combine the topping ingredients together.

Take the pie out of the oven and spread the last topping over the hot layer. Let it sit for a while and chill in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.