This has been a wonderful week filled with family celebrations.

Both my mother and I are born in June so we were planning to celebrate our birthdays together, as we usually do. What we did not expect was that my grand-daughter would come a few weeks early and we would have a precious baby girl to celebrate with us.

I spent most of my birthday helping my daughter while she recovered in the hospital. I was able to hold my grand-daughter for hours, to sing to her and talk to her and to celebrate her birth. I could not have dreamed of a more wonderful gift.

One of my favourite memories of when my daughters were young is how we would go strawberry picking in June with my sister and her daughters. The girls would eat more berries than we could pick but we had lots of fun. Then we would cart berry covered girls and the baskets of fruit home and promptly start making jam.

One of my favourite things is the unique flavour combination of strawberries and rhubarb. This year I made a strawberry and rhubarb compote. This delightful, fruity topping can be served on ice cream, as a cheesecake topping or in crepes that are topped with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. Any way that you choose to enjoy this recipe I hope it will remind you of this wonderful time of year.

Strawberry Rhubarb Compote with Mint

Ingredients

3 cups 1/2-inch-wide pieces fresh rhubarb (cut from about 1 pound)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 1-pint container fresh strawberries, hulled, halved
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Directions

Combine rhubarb, sugar, and 1/4 cup water in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to simmer, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Simmer gently until rhubarb is tender but not falling apart, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in strawberries. Transfer to bowl and stir in mint. Chill until cold, about 1 hour.

Use in your favourite recipe as a topping or crepe filling.

Recipe from Epicurious.com