I can still taste the tang of fresh rhubarb as my mom picked long stalks of the stuff from our garden as a kid. (I also remember yelling to my friends who always seemed to be grabbing it for a snack, “No! That’s not celery!”) But what a transformation: How soft rhubarb became in the oven, set in a custard pie filling along with sweet strawberries. Strawberry-rhubarb is the killer combination of spring. So as those first stalks are spotted in markets everywhere, these recipes are on our radar:

The Classic Approach:

Rhubarb Custard Pie: This is it! This is exactly the sweet and creamy pie I remember, the one I’ll make for our kids this spring.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp: If your kids have never had the combination of strawberries and rhubarb before, Ina Garten’s 5-star crisp from Food Network Magazine is the place to start.

Grandma’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie: Complete with tapioca to soak up some of those gooey juices, this old-fashioned recipe gets top-rated reviews.

The Kid-Friendly Approach:

Strawberry-Rhubarb Tart: Attention, busy parents — with shortcuts like using puff pastry and store-bought jelly, this one’s for you!

Guy Fieri’s Individual Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumbles: There’s just something fun about eating THE WHOLE THING — and I’m pretty sure kids aren’t the only ones who think so.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Shortcake: This two-layer cake is brimming with fresh berries and creamy rhubarb that’s been softened and sweetened. And if you use a boxed mix for the cake? We’ll never tell.

Charity Curley Mathews is a mother of four small kids and the founder of Foodlets.com: Mini Foodies in the Making…Maybe. When she’s not wishing that pile of dishes in the sink would somehow magically go away, she writes about healthy family meals for The Huffington Post, Babble and more. Which usually means creating more dishes to wash.