Hello everyone.  I’m going to be out of town most of the day today on family business but thought I’d offer you this short post sharing some links I like to visit from time to time.  The first group is provides links to several sites that list cowboy slang and idioms along with definitons and usage.  The second is a group of links to cowboy recipes – I especially like the cowboy candy, but warning – it is not for those who shy away from spicy dishes!

Links to COWBOY WORDS & WISDOM

Western Slang & Phrases

Old Slang, Lingo, & Phrases 

Famous Cowboy Sayings of the Wild West and Modern Day

Cowboy Bob’s Dictionary

Cool Western Slang

Cowboy Quotes, Sayings and Wisdom

Links to COWBOY & TRAIL RECIPES 

Cowboy and Ranch Recipes

Old West Cookin’ 

Cowboys Recipes That’ll Put Hair on Your Chest 

Cowboy Cooking Trail Recipes 

Cowboy Candy Recipes!

I love stopping by Petticoats & Pistols in the role of guest blogger.  It’s always a fantastic experience for me.   Mainly because I like to think some of the amazing-ness of the lovely, talented Fillies will rub off on me.  (Hey, a gal can hope.)  I also enjoy focusing on one of my favorite topics/passion—all things Western, especially all things Old West.

I have no idea when my fascination with the Old West first started.  Unlike my husband’s side of the family, I have no direct connections to the area.  My family came from Scotland in the early 1700s (they were outcast Highlanders).  The Andersons settled in Virginia, migrated to Georgia and ultimately ended up in Jacksonville, Florida sometime in the latter part of the nineteenth century.  But that’s a whole ‘nother story that goes back to that outcast thing.

On the other hand, my husband’s family—the Halversons—came to this country much later.  They traveled directly from Norway and settled on the fertile Midwest prairie.  This was really just an interesting factoid to me until I signed on to write my latest Love Inspired Historical, HEARTLAND WEDDING: Book 2 in the AFTER THE STORM historical continuity series.  Waving to Vicki Bylin, one of the Fillies who wrote Book 3 in the series, KANSAS COURTSHIP, which will be out next month.  Valerie Hansen wrote the Book 1, HIGH PLAINS BRIDE, which came out last month.  Both books are fabulous!!!

But I digress.  One of the great things about HEARTLAND WEDDING is that it features a Norwegian Immigrant heroine.  Rebecca Gundersen is a cook at the local boarding house in High Plains, Kansas.  I loved researching Rebecca’s background because it afforded me the opportunity to explore my husband’s heritage as well.   

In my research, I came across many of the reasons why people left Norway.  I’m going to give you what I think are the top six.

1. The promise of fertile land.  This was true of many of the pioneers, but especially true of the majority of the emigrants from Norway.  These Scandinavians were mostly farmers.  Settling in the Great Plains made sense, especially the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  This area was often called “New Norway” since over eighty percent of Norwegian immigration settled there.
2. Heavy promotion by emigration agents and newspapers.  These entities worked tirelessly to advertise the benefits of a new life in the United States.  The Norwegians liked what they heard and took a chance on the promise of a new life.
3. Railroad and mining companies promoted the stellar employment opportunities.  Jobs in American cities also offered more work at higher wages than was available in Norway at the time.  Are we seeing a pattern here?  Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity.
4. Handbooks were published and distributed throughout Europe, and especially Norway, praising the climate and stellar living conditions in the United States.
5. Political freedom and the opportunity to vote.  Although there wasn’t universal voting in the United States in the nineteenth century, the right to vote in Norway was only available to an elite minority of the population.  The majority of the Norwegians who came to the United States were not in the upper class.
6. Word of mouth, or rather letters sent to friends and families back home.  The sender often urged the receiver to join them in America. 

So, there you have it, the top reasons for Norwegian (and most other) immigration to the United States in the nineteenth century.  Aside from learning about the Norwegian’s motives, one my biggest pleasures throughout the research phase of this book was learning how to cook some of my husband’s favorite Norwegian dishes.  Most of Norway is above the Arctic Circle so of course these dishes are rather harder.  

Although I was bred on southern cooking, I took it upon myself to make a few of the easier Norwegian recipes in my own kitchen.  Unfortunately, I managed to fail more often than not.  I will never mastered Kumla, one of my husband’s favorites.  Essentially, Kumla is potato dumplings plopped into a boiling broth and cooked until the dumplings are cooked through the middle.  Not as easy as it sounds.  Here’s a typical recipe for Kumla:

 
Cover with water about 1/2 the depth of ham.
Boil from 2 – 3 hrs., or until tender and done.
Cook the ham in a large kettle with a lid.
When the ham is done, take out of the broth to be served later with the potato dumplings.

How you make the Dumplings:
Start preparing the dumplings about an hour before the ham is done.
5 cups grated and peeled raw potatoes
About 6 cups unsifted flour
9 tsp. baking powder, should be level

Taste the broth to see if it is salty- if not salty add 1 tsp. or a little more salt.
Mix flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to the grated raw potatoes.
Stir together, should be like biscuit dough.

Take some of the dough the size of a small baseball, roll in flour to absorb some of the
stickiness, shape into round dumplings with your hands- drop into boiling ham broth.

Boil very gently for 1 hour, turning dumplings for more even cooking.
Do not put too many in kettle, allow some room to raise.  Use the cover when boiling dumplings.  Serve with lots of butter!

ENJOY!  If you dare.  Remember, most Norwegian recipes are very, uh…hardy.  This one more than others.

Thanks again, to all the Fillies for having me here.  I’m giving away three copies of HEARTLAND WEDDING.  Leave a comment and you’ll be entered in the drawing.

Renee Ryan is a multi-published author with Steeple Hill.  She writes for both Love Inspired and Love Inspired Historical.  Find out more about her upcoming releases at www.reneeryan.com

Thanks to everyone who stopped by Wildflower Junction today and left a comment. It was a pleasure to visit with you.

 I placed all of your names in my cowboy hat and drew out three:

Vickie McDonough

Julie Steele

Karyn Gerard

Please send your address to me at: SaintJohn@aol.com, and I’ll get your autographed book out to you!

And for the rest of you, I’m posting the recipe for the cake that’s in the picture with my critique group. A couple of you mentioned it, and it’s one of my favorites to make and serve. I got the recipe from a neighbor many years ago, and have made it regularly since. Enjoy!

The super easy recipe calls for a Bundt cake pan. I have a silicone Bundt pan now and LOVE it! You just stick it in the dishwater and when it’s dry, stuff it into a baggie and tuck it away. I also have silicone muffin pans. Best invention ever! No more rusted tin or scraped-up Teflon.

 Black Forest Cherry Cake

1 pkg (2 layer) chocolate cake mix (not pudding in the mix)

¼ cup olive or canola oil

3 eggs

2 cans (21 oz each) cherry pie filling

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine oil and eggs with a wire whisk. Add one can of cherry pie filling and beat with electric mixer until batter is smooth.

Pour into sprayed 12 cup Bundt pan and bake 45 minutes or until done. Cool in pan about 20-25 minutes, then invert onto rack to finish cooling. If you use a silicone pan, you can cool a little longer and the cake won’t stick, then invert directly onto cake plate.

Heat the other can of cherry pie filling and pour over the top and into the center of the cake. Slice and serve with whipped topping.

Christmas Fruit Pizza

one pkg yellow cake mix

 (orange, butter pecan & fudge work too)

two eggs

one-fourth cup water

one-fourth cup butter

one-fourth cup packed brown sugar

one-half to one cup chopped nuts

Mix together, it will be thick. 

Spread in a circle on large cookie sheet and bake 10 -12 minutes at 350, or until golden brown. 

Cool.

Spread top with whipping cream (Cool Whip works, too). 

Use any kind of fruit to top the whipping cream. 

Melt apricot jam and brush on the fruit.

Ideas for Christmas: 

Kiwi slices cut in half for leaves. 

Strawberries cut in half for poinsettia leaves and pineapple tidbits for center of flowers. 

Green grapes work well, too.

See examples below.

Merry Christmas! 

Looking for a way to unwind from the stress and bustle of Christmas?

I have just the thing for you. It’s quick and easy and makes you feel like a pampered queen in as little as fifteen minutes.

* * * * *

SINFUL CHOCOLATE CAKE IN A MUG

1 coffee mug

4 Tbsp. cake flour (plain, not self-rising)

4 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. cocoa

1 egg

3 Tbsp. milk

3 Tbsp. oil

Small splash of vanilla

3 Tbsp. chocolate chips, optional

Add dry ingredients to mug, mix well with a fork. Add egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in milk, oil, and vanilla. Mix well. Add chips if using.

Put mug in microwave, and cook for three minutes on high. Cake will rise over the top of the mug–do not be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little; tip onto plate if desired. Eat!

(This can serve two if you want to feel less guilty.)

And if you drizzle some ice cream fudge topping over the cake while it’s still warm, you’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven. Yummy!

Here’s a tip: Measure out the dry ingredients and store them in an airtight jar. Then when you get ready to indulge your sinful craving, just dump into your mug and add the egg, milk, oil, and vanilla.

Grab yourself a throw and sit in front of a cozy fire. It’s the ultimate guilty pleasure!

Happy New Year everyone!

How many of us, at the end of a holiday dinner, go back in that kitchen and stare at that carcass and just want to throw it straight into the trash.
Yes, there’s still a LOT of food on that thing. But come on, we’re STUFFED. (Insert your own turkey stuffing joke here)

Saving large amounts of food at this point seems like a ridiculous waste of time. A person can convince themselves that it’s the RIGHT thing to do to pitch the whole bird.
Unless you’ve got this recipe. Then you WANT that turkey meat. You’re looking forward to having it on hand.
Maybe not right away, but a week from now you’ll be coming out of your L-Tryptophan induced haze and really be wanting to eat again.
Although, this recipe is so good you might decide not to wait. And you might decide you need to eat it even when you’re not recovering from some major holiday.

Turkey Almond Casserole

6 Cups Cooked Turkey
2 Cups raw Rice
2 Cans Mushroom Soup
1 Cup Mayo
½ Cups sliced Water Chestnuts
1/2 cup slivered Almonds
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
1 ½ Cup raw Celery
1 small Onion

Mix ingredients together, top with crushed cornflakes and sprinkle with cheddar cheese
Bake in 9 x 13 pan for 1 hour.

Anyone with a great recipe for turkey….here’s your chance. Post it today. And if you’re awake and your head is clear from the feasting….Merry Christmas Everyone! http://maryconnealy.com

I love Thanksgiving! If my mom heard me say that, she’d laugh. Starting in 1960, it became tradition to have Thanksgiving Dinner at my parents’ house.  My mom cooked Thanksgiving Dinner every year for close to 40 years. By the twentieth time or so she’d had enough, but she kept going until I took over.  Considering we always bought the biggest turkey in the store, I’m guessing she baked close to a half-ton of turkey.

That’s a lot of white meat. And a lot of drumsticks! It’s also a tradition I want very much to continue in our new home. My sons love my turkey, a skill that came directly from my mom. She passed away in July and I’m miss her a lot. I also know she’s quite happy to not be baking yet another turkey! 

Here’s how she taught me to do it.  I bake the bird on a rack so the drippings get nice and brown. That makes for wonderful gravy!  I also cover the turkey with a tent made of heavy-duty aluminum foil.  I have no idea what the tent does, but the turkey comes out great.

My stuffing recipe came from my dad’s side of the family.  It includes Farmer John pork sausage, onion, celery, Mrs. Cubison’s stuffing mix (or Pepperidge Farms if I can’t get Mrs. C’s), giblets diced down to powder and–most important of all–a grated green apple.  It all gets mixed together the night before, cooled in the fridge and then baked in the bird. 

Let talk gravy.  Any tips to get rid of lumps?  My trick is to mix the flour in cold water until it’s the consistency of thin pancake batter and lump free. When I add the mix to the drippings, I have a glass of cold water on hand.  If the flour mix sticks, I pour in a bit of water.  It works!  No lumps.

Here’s a Bylin family tradition that usually makes people say, “Huh?”  Does anyone else have rhuttabagas as Thanksgiving?  They’re also called yellow turnips.  They’re good when mashed with lots of butter and a little sugar.

The rest of the menu is pretty standard. Mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Green beans or peas and carrots.  For dessert, though, I switch out pumpin pie for cheesecake. That’s another of my mom’s recipes. She cut it out of a newspaper back in the 1950s.  Here it is.

Mom Bylin’s Cheesecake

 Graham Cracker Crust

My mom use to grind up crackers with a rolling pin. I follow the directions on the box of ready-made crumbs.  Trust me, the box kind is much easier and just as good. I use a 9-inch glass pie plate and follow the directions for the baked crust. You’ll need butter or margerine and sugar.  Be sure to keep out about an 1/8 cup of the butter/sugar/crumb mix for a topping.

Filling

9 oz regular cream cheese (This used to be 3-3 oz squares, but I haven’t seen those in years)

1 8 oz carton of sour cream

1/2 c. granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Soften the cream cheese. (My mom used to let it sit on the counter. I do it in the microwave on the lowest power, being very, very careful not to liquefy it.) Blend the cream cheese and the sour cream in a small bowl until it’s lump free (or as close to lump free as you can get it; tiny lumps will melt when baked.)  Set this bowl aside.

In a bigger bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla. Add the cream cheese / sour cream mix and blend thoroughly.  Pour into the already made graham cracker crust and baked at 325 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the middle looks done.  Let it cool.

Topping

1 8 oz. carton of sour cream

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Blend in a bowl, then spread gently on the baked cheesecake.  Sprinkle with the leftover crumbs from the crust.  Bake for 5 minutes (sometimes less) at 450 degrees.  Refrigerate overnight and enjoy!

What about you having for dinner today?  Are you checking out Petticoats and Pistols after getting your turkey in the oven?  Or maybe you’re going out to eat? That’s fun, too. Either way, Thanksgiving Day is a wonderful time to count our blessings.  Here’s wishing everyone a time full of peace, love and the joy of family and friends.

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ” ~C.S. Lewis

I’m not an expert on types of teas. I just love tea and everything related, like china cups, chintz pots and pretty sugar bowls. We always associate it with the English, but tea originated in China over 5,000 years ago. The Chinese were aware of the health benefits we’re only beginning to recognize today. Later, Buddhist priests carried tea seeds to Japan. The first European to personally encounter tea and write about it was a Portuguese Jesuit Father in1560. The Portuguese developed a trade route by which they shipped their tea to Lisbon, and then Dutch ships transported it to France, Holland, and the Baltic countries. As far back as the 1600s tea was tremendously popular in France.

The first Queen Elizabeth granted permission for the British East India Company to begin trade routes and ports, which later led from spices to tea, cotton and other commodities. Coffee tea and chocolate were exotic beverages, which caused a revolution in drinking habits.

Before tea, beer or ale was the preferred morning drink. At first valued for their curative powers, they were soon counted among the necessities of daily life, and the utensils used in their preparation and service became essential as well. The practice of tea drinking arrived in colonial America with colonists from both England and the Netherlands and was established by the mid-seventeenth century, evidenced by the number of tea wares recorded in household inventories. The earliest of these were undoubtedly imported from abroad, but American silversmiths began producing teapots by the start of the eighteenth century.

In the 1760s, the British imposed that pesky tax on tea, and colonists took to smuggling tea or drinking herbal infusions. Outraged merchants, shippers, and colonists staged demonstrations, culminating in the famous Boston Tea Party. Paul Revere’s ride and the first shots fired at Lexington were but a year and a half away.
Political hostilities were eventually resolved, and Americans once again enjoyed tea time. Moreau de Saint-Méry, a foreign visitor to Philadelphia in the 1790s, noted the warmth and hospitality of these events. “The whole family is united at tea, to which friends, acquaintances, and even strangers are invited.”

Queen Elizabeth II continues a tradition started by Queen Victoria in 1860 and opens the palace gardens once a year to host three afternoon tea parties, each attended by 8,000 people! I’m all for an afternoon tea party, but I usually plan something a little less grand.

In the late 1880’s in both America and England, fine hotels introduced tea rooms and tea courts. Served in the late afternoon, Victorian ladies and their gentlemen friends met for tea and conversation. These tea services became the hallmark of the elegance of the hotel, such as the tea services at the Ritz in Boston and the Plaza in New York.

In 1904 at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, trade exhibitors from around the world brought their products. A tea plantation owner named Richard Blechynden had planned to give away free samples of hot tea to fair visitors, but a heat wave hit. No one was interested. To save his investment of time and travel, he dumped a load of ice into the brewed tea and served the first iced tea.

Four years later, tea merchant Thomas Sullivan of New York developed bagged tea quite by accident as well. He wrapped samples and delivered them to restaurants for their consideration. The restaurants brewed the samples in the bags to avoid the mess of tea leaves, an a marketing opportunity was born. I must agree I much prefer bags over loose tea, too.

It’s difficult to get a good cup of tea while traveling or eating out, because restaurants serve you a cup of hot water and a teabag. Pooh. Real tea is brewed in a pot. True aficionados will even quibble over the type of pot and the blend of leaves.

How to make the perfect pot of tea:

Unless your tap water has a lot of chlorine, use tap rather than filtered water. Tea adheres to the minerals in tap water for a better flavor.

Make sure your teapot is clean and run HOT water in it and put the lid on so the pot is heated. A tea cozy is a good investment, but several insulated hot pads will do in a pinch.

I use an electric kettle to heat water, but for years I used a stovetop kettle or a heavy saucepan. Bring the water to boiling. (Unless you’re steeping green tea. With green tea, you want to extract the nectar, not cook the leaves.)

The rule of thumb is one tea bag per cup of tea or person. You can estimate by measuring how many cups your teapot holds. I buy family size tea bags and I prefer Luzianne brand. To one family size bag I add one or two flavored bags, such as India Spice Chai, Bengal Spice or Apple Cinnamon, depending on how much flavor or spice I want.

When water is hot, pour standing water out of your teapot, place the teabags in and pour the hot water over. Place the lid on your pot and cover with the cozy or insulated pot holders to keep the heat in while the tea is steeping. This process is known as the “agony of the tea” and is quite beautiful to watch if you’ve ever seen it through a glass pot. Let stand for about 4 minutes.

When you pour your first cup, enjoy the aromatic scent. Sweeten if you like or add lemon or milk (not cream). There’s nothing like a steaming cup of fresh hot tea.

I drink three or four pots a day, summer and winter, and I much prefer it over coffee. Scones are my treat of choice when I host a tea party, but biscotti or a cookie will do. If you want to hold a tea party, simply pick up a few pretty cups and a tablecloth at your local thrift store. Set a vase of flowers on the table and enjoy the company of your friends.

CLICK HERE FOR A MAGIC CARPET RIDE TO MY FAVORITE SCONE RECIPE

Years ago a friend from a writer’s listserv sent me a copy of a cookbook her grandmother had given her. Little did she know that all these years and books later, I would still be gleaning helpful tidbits from a booklet titled COOK BOOK compiled by THE LADIES of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Eureka Kansas, 1896.

From this little gem, I have used names, recipes and tips, and created businesses for the fictional towns in my stories. Cookbooks are pieces of history, especially those put together by the women of those early towns and cities. The advertisers who paid for space and thereby funded the ladies’ project were a diverse group. Leedy’s Dry Goods and Clothing House for example boasts the lowest prices guaranteed and quality unexcelled. Their tag line: Good cooking is most appetizing on neat linens. We have them. Chas. A. Leedy sold dry goods, boots and shoes, fancy goods, clothing, and men’s furnishing goods. I have no idea what a men’s furnishing good was, but I am confident Mr. Leedy sold only quality in that line.

Interesting that listed among the directors of the First National Bank was none other than C.A. Leedy. Seems men’s furnishings were making him a tidy profit.

H. C. Hendrick called himself a dealer in pure drugs—my how the times have changed. No one admits to being a drug dealer nowadays. H.C. sold medicines, chemicals, oils, varnishes, glass, putty, fine brushes (my husband swears a little putty and a fine brush can conceal anything; he must have descended from the Kendricks). They also sold a full and complete line of fancy toilet articles, fine stationary, choice perfumes, books, dye stuffs and all other articles usually kept in a first class Drug Store. Prescriptions were accurately compounded.

Then there was H.C. Zilley, dealer in hardware, stoves and tinware who sold agricultural implements and wagons, with sidelines of furniture and undertaking. Why not get into the undertaking business? He already had the shovel and wagon.

Lewis’ Art Studio did photography in all its branches; proofs are shown and all work guaranteed. VIEWING A SPECIALTY. I don’t know what that means either, I’m just telling you how their ad reads. YOUR PATRONAGE SOLICITED. Those printers liked their capitals, and they had all kinds of fancy fonts. This place was opposite the courthouse, FYI.

Now, Frank B. Gregg, he sold Fire,…Lightning and Tornado… Insurance – and he liked effusive punctuation. Okay, this was Kansas, so that tornado insurance probably came in handy. Suppose Aunty Em took out a policy with Frank?

A.Frazer’s Transfer and Bus Line: Meets all Trains, All Calls Carefully Attended

Your guess is as good as mine here.

Miss Nellie Smith was pianist, teacher of piano and organ and a pupil of Rudolf King, Kansas City. Her terms were moderate.

W.W. Morris was another dealer in pure drugs and medicines. Also advertised were paints, oils, varnishes school and  miscellaneous books, stationary, window shades, wall paper, musical merchandise, jewelry, fancy and toilet articles. “We manufacture the following specialties and guarantee them to be the BEST articles for the purposes recommended: Calla Cream, Castole, Excelsior Compound.” They were located NO. 23 OPERA BLOCK

The church ladies who contributed to this publication had wonderful names like Madella Smith, Eva Downard, Katie Addison, Olive Sample, Hattie Kelley, Lydia Thrall, Cornelia Newman, Mabel Mueller, Lulu Kendrick and Lizzie Bell.

A big percent of the recipes contain lard, and many of them, like biscuits and Boston brown bread, ginger cake and ginger snaps  are items we could whip up in our kitchens today, with the exact ingredients and directions. Others—not so much. Like suet as an ingredient. I’ve only fed suet to the birds. And what is black mustard? It’d required to make cucumber catsup. Another example:

Scrapple: Scrape and clean well a pig’s head as directed in pig’s head cheese, put on to boil in plenty of water, cook 4 or 5 hours, until the bones will slip readily from the meat :::are you shuddering yet?:::  take out, remove meat, skim off the grease from the liquor in pot and return the chopped meat to it, season highly with salt and pepper and a little powdered sage if liked, and add corn meal till of the consistency of soft mush; cook slowly 1 hour or more, pour in pans and set in a cool place. This is nice sliced and fried for breakfast in winter and will answer in the place of meat on many occasions.

As you can see the Methodist Episcopal Church Ladies have given me plenty of material for my stories. Since receiving this book, I’ve lost touch with Karen McKee, but Karen, if you get a google alert for your name: THANK YOU!

Tonight I’ll draw names from the comments for THREE advance copies of my December book HER COLORADO MAN – so leave me a comment!

I’m a firm believer that many of the old ways are the best, and with that theory I include cooking. Finding an old cookbook is a treasure, especially those that are collections created by church ladies—the best cooks ever. Many of my grandmother’s and my husband’s grandmother’s recipes are still family favorites.

Anyone who knows me knows that I frequent flea markets and can’t resist a garage or rummage sale. At a garage sale a year or so ago, I unearthed a fat packet of yellowed recipe cards held together by rubber bands. Eureka! I asked the young woman how much they were. She took them and said, “I didn’t know these were here.” Then turned aside. “Mom, do you know what these are?”

“They must have been Grandma’s,” replied the older woman.

My heart sank. They hadn’t meant to toss them out with the junk.

But persistent one that I am, I asked, “How much?”

“Fifty cents,” says the daughter.

“Oh, a quarter,” says her mother.

“Halleluiah,” I say under my breath and snatch them back.

In that bundle I discovered newspaper clippings and recipes from old packages and hand-written recipes in the spidery penmanship of yesteryear. I’ve had a wonderful time testing them out.

My family loves rhubarb, and it has taken my husband and I several years to establish a good patch of our own. Now I’ve made rhubarb in a good many ways over the years, from plain sauces to crunches and crisps and jellies.  But today I’m sharing with you the recipe that made that purchase a gold mine. It’s Rhubarb Cobbler by a lady named Gladys, and while the process seems a little odd, it’s the best cobbler I’ve ever tried.

Back in the day, these ladies weren’t concerned about sugar consumption, but I have experimented with less amounts of sugar and even with substituting part of it for a sugar replacement, and it still comes out great every time.

Rhubarb is a vegetable with a unique taste that makes it a favorite in many pies and desserts. It originated in Asia over 2,000 years ago. It was initially cultivated for its medicinal qualities, and it was not until the 18th century that rhubarb was grown for culinary purposes in Britain and America. In more recent history we heard it referred to as pie plant. Rhubarb is often commonly mistaken to be a fruit but rhubarb is actually a close relative of garden sorrel, and is therefore a member of the vegetable family. Rhubarb is rich in vitamin C and dietary fiber.

Rhubarb is a perennial plant, which forms large fleshy rhizomes and large leaves with long, thick (and tasty) petioles (stalks). Rhubarb stalks are commonly found in supermarkets. Gourmet cooks prize fresh rhubarb. Some folks say the finest quality rhubarb is grown in Michigan, Ontario, Canada, and other northern states in the United States. Fresh rhubarb is available from early winter through early summer. Winter rhubarb is commercially produced in forcing houses in Michigan and Ontario.

RHUBARB COBBLER

From the kitchen of Gladys

4 cups (or more) of cleaned and chopped rhubarb

Place in 9×13 pan (lightly sprayed or not)

Sprinkle with ¼ cup (or less) sugar

Cream together all at once:

¾ cup (or less) sugar

1 cup flour

3 Tbsp melted oleo (margarine)

½ cup milk

1 tsp baking powder

salt

Pour batter over rhubarb.

Mix 1 cup (or less) sugar with 1 Tbsp cornstarch.

Sprinkle over batter.

Pour 1 cup boiling water over all.

Grind cinnamon over the top.

Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serve plain or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I have used as much as 6 cups of rhubarb with the same excellent results.

I have run out of flour and used pancake mix with excellent results.

I’ve added 2 Tbsp of chocolate to the flour mixture and had yummy chocolate cobbler.

I’ve added ginger and cinnamon to the batter for a change.

You can’t mess this up no matter what you do!

My next experiment will be introducing strawberries to the fruit.

Cherries or peaches are also a good combination with rhubarb.

Thank you, Gladys!