Rhubarb Crisp for Summer Dessert

Summer is time for fruit, flowers and favorite foods. I just learned that one of our favorite foods isn't a fruit like I thought, but a vegetable! I thought the tomato was the sole claim of that confusion. I used to tell the kids in the nutrition classes I taught that if we were talking horticulture it was a fruit, and if we were talking food it was a vegetable. Rhubarb is just the opposite, a vegetable that is mostly eaten as a fruit in pies, cobblers, and often paired with strawberries. Maybe it's tartness and need for lots of sugar is what pushes it into the fruit dessert category. 
Rhubarb stalks look like red celery with large leaves. Just remember the leaves are poisonous, so only harvest the stalks. A friend gave me about 20 stalks recently, just right for rhubarb cobbler. Here's my favorite recipe that could use fresh or frozen rhubarb. 

RHUBARB CRISP

Ingredients:

6 cups rhubarb (can add blueberries to make it to 6 cups)

3 tablespoons flour

2/3 cup sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Topping: 

¾ cup rolled oats

¾ cup brown sugar, packed

6 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon cinnamon

6 tablespoons butter

Instructions: 

1.    Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

2.    Wash and rinse rhubarb and cut into 1/2” pieces.

3.    Toss rhubarb with flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Place in a 2qt. baking dish. 

4.    In a separate bowl, combine topping ingredients with a fork or pastry blender. Sprinkle over rhubarb mixture. 

5.    Bake for 35 minutes or until rhubarb is tender and topping is golden. 

6.    Cool 5-10 minutes before serving. Top with ice cream, cream, or vanilla yogurt. 

chopped rhubarb and blueberries with sugar, flour,
 and cinnamon. Ready for topping. 

With topping, ready for baking. 

Key Lime Tart - A Refreshing Taste

Summer tastes are tart, sweet, and refreshing. This Key Lime Tart is just that. With key lime juice, coconut crust, and whipped cream topping you can almost imagine you're in the tropics on a warm summer day. A little high in calories, but cut the pieces small and enjoy. Since I got a tart pan a couple of years ago, I've been on the lookout for recipes to use it with. You could also do this in a large pie plate if you don't have a tart pan.
Key limes are a tropical fruit similar to lemons. They are native to Southeast Asia and with Crusaders and other early travelers, made their way to the West Indies where Columbus found them. These are the type of limes that are used in most of the world. We in the U.S. often confuse them with the larger limes we find in the grocery stores that are a hybrid developed in the early 20th century. Key limes are smaller, yellower in color, and more sour. They were grown commercially in southern Florida and Florida keys before the groves were destroyed by a hurricane in 1926. They are now grown in some backyard gardens and commercial production is making a slight comeback.
Key limes are primarily know for their flavor in Key Lime Pie but the fresh juice is also a tasty flavoring for fish, meats, and in marinates.  Key Lime Pie recipes include sweetened condensed milk, which the pie was invented to use soon after condensed milk was developed as a luxury food.

Key Lime Tart in Coconut Crust

Coconut Crust                                            

Crust ready to bake

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

3/4 cup shredded coconut

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling       

Filling 

4 large egg yolks

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup Key Lime juice

1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whipped Cream      

Topped with whipped cream

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Garnish: Toasted coconut and/or lime

   zest (optional) 

To make the Crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine graham cracker crumbs, coconut, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir in melted butter and vanilla. Press into bottom and sides of a 9-inch tart pan. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Cool

To make Filling: Lightly whisk egg  yolks in a mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar, Key Lime juice, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Pour into cooled crust and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Chill pid several hours or overnight. 

To make the Whipped Cream: Place cream in a mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add sugar and vanilla, and continue to beat until stiff. Spread or pipe over pie. Garnish with toasted coconut and/or slivers of lime zest.

Ummm, good!

Makes one 9-inch tart

from Bonnie Aeschliman, Cooking with Bonnie: Farm to France

A Taste of Summer - Banana Split Pie

One of the best parts of travel is the new food to try. For this recipe I didn't even have to leave home, just read a travel magazine! Southern Living's Drives and Dives offers many places I'd like to visit as well as several recipes to try.


This spring has been a long cool one, true we appreciate the rain but now we're anxious for warmer weather and the foods that taste special in the summer. This recipe combines many of those tastes in an easy to make dessert that looks rich but tastes light. Using some substitute ingredients such as lite whipped topping and egg substitute help keep the calories lower, but it is still a dessert with sugar and butter, not completely a 'free food'. I made this for a covered dish lunch of our Women's Educational Club and because it was a day of many desserts was able to bring a couple of pieces home for supper. For the lunch I did cut it into 12 smaller pieces because everyone wants to try lots of foods at these gatherings.

Banana Split Pie

1 cup powdered sugar

½ cup butter, softened

¼ cup egg substitute

½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 (6-oz) ready-made graham cracker piecrust

2 bananas, sliced

1 (20-oz) can crushed pineapple, drained

2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed

chopped pecans

toppings: maraschino cherries

chocolate sauce

Beat first 4 ingredients (powdered sugar, butter, egg substitute, vanilla extract) with an electric mixer until smooth, spread in piecrust.

Top filling with banana slices, pineapple, and whipped topping, sealing topping to edges.

Sprinkle topping with pecans.

Cover and chill at least 1 hour.

Before serving, add toppings (maraschino cherries and chocolate sauce).

Makes 8 servings.

From Southern Living Drives & Dives (summer 2015)

Tip: Be sure to use the egg substitute, as this filling is not cooked! Look for egg substitute in the dairy/cheese/egg section of the grocery store. The carton is equal to 8 eggs or 2 cups. You only need 1/4 cup, equal to 1 egg for this recipe. To save the extra, I poured it into small plastic cups with lids and froze it in 1/4 cup portions. I've frozen it before, but not in portions, and this will be much easier to thaw and use when I need it. 

Peanut Butter Crunch Cake

Winter has hit Kansas with a blast this weekend. Cold weather and snow make staying inside and baking the best activities. Even the Rancher who has to go out to check new baby calves doesn't mind the weather so much when the house smells warm and sweet with fresh baked goodies. 

A great snack cake or light dessert

Peanut Butter is favorite flavor at our house, good in many recipes or just on a cracker for a snack. We even enjoy the standard PBJ sandwiches on some days. Peanut butter was first patented as a process for making the creamy paste in 1884, developed as a health food for those who had dental problems and couldn't chew solid food well. Today's PB has made many changes from the paste made of boiled peanuts in those days. Did you know it was called "monkey butter" in WWII? Or that it is called pindakaas (peanut cheese) in the Netherlands because only products that contain butter can use that name? 

This recipe starts with a cake mix, so it's preparation is quick and easy. The original recipe calls for chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Next time I make it I will use 1 cup peanut butter chips and omit the chocolate chips. I only had mini-chocolate chips and they didn't seem to add that much flavor (and looked like bits of something that shouldn't be there!)

Peanut Butter Crunch Cake

Ingredients:

1 yellow cake mix

1 cup peanut butter

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup water

3 eggs

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 cup peanut butter chips

½ cup chopped peanuts

Ready to go into the oven

Directions: 

Combine the cake mix, peanut butter, and brown sugar. Mix on low speed of electric mixer until crumbly. Set aside ½ cup of mixture. 

Add eggs, water, and oil to original mixture and mix on low speed until moistened. Mix on high speed for 2 minutes. Stir in ½ cup pb chips.

Pour mixture into greased 9 x 13 cake pan. Mix peanuts and ½ cup pb chips with reserved crumb mixture and sprinkle over top of batter. 

Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees. 

With the glaze (It was impossible to get a pic
before it was half gone!)

After I served the first servings, I thought it needed a glaze. 

For glaze combine: ⅓ cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, milk or half/half cream to make a thick glaze. Drizzle over cake top, if desired spread lightly with a knife. 

Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch

Strawberry ice cream from KSU Call Hall made this
extra, extra good!

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to eat heather - sound familiar? That, or a version of it such as lose weight, exercise more, etc, is the most common New Year's Resolution. So, including healthier types of desserts would be included in my plan. Since I have a new supply of frozen fruit from our church order, and strawberry-rhubarb is one of our favorite flavor combinations, this dessert was a popular choice. I like the texture and added fiber (healthier!) of the oats. It makes a large amount, but with more family members around after the holidays it was eaten quickly.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup cold butter, cubed
2 cups quick-cooking oats
6 cups sliced frozen rhubarb and strawberries
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package (3 oz) strawberry gelatin

crumb mixture on bottom

bottom crust topped with fruit

Directions
In a large bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly (Next time I make this, I'll do this step in the food processor). Stir in oats. Press half into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish; top with fruit.
In a small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; stir in water until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Stir in gelatin powder.  Pour over fruit. Top with remaining crumb mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until fruit is tender and topping is golden brown.
Serve with ice cream if desired (that negates the 'healthy' dessert!)
Yield: 12 - 15 servings.