Honey Vanilla Rhubarb

Oh rhubarb season, how sweet and fleeting you are. I love everything about rhubarb...its tartness, the watermelon-hue, and how transformed it becomes after cooking. I only have a small plant in my garden that won't be ready to harvest for a year or two yet, so when rhubarb finally showed up at the store, I bought almost all of it.

I have been making this recipe for a couple years now and I so love it. It takes about 5 minutes of prep time in the kitchen and goes well with so many things. I've been known to stir it into yogurt, spoon it over pancakes or waffles, serve it with a simple butter cake, or as a topping for rice pudding or tapioca.

The honey really makes this taste special and the smoothness of the vanilla tempers the rhubarb tang.

For about 2 cups:

• 4 cups rhubarb cut into 2-inch lengths
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a glass baking dish with cooking spray. Combine the rhubarb and sugar in the baking dish. Drizzle the honey evenly over the top. Scrape the seeds from the bean and add the seeds and the pods to the dish. Toss to combine. Add the 4 pieces of butter to the top and place the dish in the oven.

Bake for 30 minutes, stirring very gently twice during baking. Allow to cool for a few minutes and serve warm or refrigerate, covered for a couple days.