Rhubarb Cake

1/2 cup butter

1 and 1/2 cups white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups rhubarb, chopped

1 Tblsp. flour

1/4 cup butter

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup packed brown sugar

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla.

In another bowl, stir together 2 cups flour, soda, and salt. Add ingredients alternately with buttermilk to creamed mixture.

Toss rhubarb with 1 Tblsp. flour, and stir into batter. Spoon batter into greased 9 x 13 pan.

Blend together 1/4 cup butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar, sprinkle evenly over batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 - 55 minutes or until done.

Can top with whipped topping or ice cream.


This cake is so good, I've made three of them in the last 2 weeks (not all three were for us, though)!

Mushroom Oven Rice

1 cup uncooked long grain rice

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (I use 1 small can, drained mushrooms instead)

1 can chicken broth

1/3 cup water

1 to 2 Tblsp. soy sauce

1 Tblsp. dried parsley flakes

In a skillet, saute the rice in butter for 2 minutes. Add celery and onion, cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add mushrooms; cook and stir until celery is tender. Transfer to a greased baking dish. Stir in the broth, water, soy sauce, and parsley. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until liquid is completely absorbed and rice is tender.

Monster Cookie Bars

1 cup corn syrup or honey

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup chocolate chips

4 cups oatmeal

1/2 cup mini M & M's

Boil corn syrup or honey to gentle bubbles, and remove from heat. Quickly add peanut butter, then chocolate chips until melted. Add oatmeal and M & M's. Press into lightly greased 9 x 13 pan.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Melt 1/3 cup butter in 8- or 9-inch round cake pan. Sprinkle 1/2 cup brown sugar evenly over butter. (Reserve pineapple juice as you drain pineapple rings.) Arrange drained pineapple rings in an attractive pattern on the butter-sugar coating. Garnish with maraschino cherries and pecan halves.

Make the cake batter (see below) and pour it over the pineapple. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until a wooden toothpick thrust into center of cake comes out clean. Immediately turn upside-down on serving plate. Do not remove pan for a few minutes. Brown sugar mixture will run down over cake instead of clinging to pan. Serve cake warm with whipped cream.

Cake batter:

Beat 2 eggs until thick and lemon-colored (5 min)

Gradually beat in 2/3 cup sugar.

Beat in all at once:

6 Tbsp. reserved pineapple juice

1 tsp. vanilla

Sift together and beat in all at once:

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour or cake flour

1/3 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

This recipe is from the 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, which my grandma gave me for a bridal shower. I have made this once, for a French-Canadian rich woman classmate of my husband's during graduate school, and she loved it! (She is a pineapple fan.) That's the kind of thing a new bride gets nervous about... I hope it turns out as well for you, Kristin, if you decide to try this recipe, and it kind of makes me want to try it again!

The recipe doesn't give the size of canned pineapple to buy, but make sure you get the rings, not tidbits or chunks (those would work, but this looks prettier). You could always use fresh pineapple, too, I suppose, though cutting into those things confuses me. That's another thing I should try sometime...

Photo credit: thecakelab.com

(Doesn't that cake look lovely up there? In my cookbook, it shows pecan halves placed kind of between the pineapple rings.)

I'm Looking For A Good Recipe

Hi! I almost forgot that I am authorized to post on this blog! I was just wondering if any of you out there have a good Pineapple Upside Down Cake recipe? It's one of my husband's favorite cakes and I made one about 5 years ago, but it was a huge flop. I mean, HUGE. That's the reason it's been 5 years. But I decided that maybe I should suck it up, quit feeling like a pineapple-upside-down-cake-failure, and try it out again - for my husband's sake. I don't feel like trying my "flopped" recipe again, so if you have made one before and it turned out (and tasted great!), then please share the recipe with me!

Thanks!
Kristin

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pizza

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 (12 oz.) package semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

1/4 cup peanut butter

M and M's

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 12 to 14 inch pizza pan.

Cream butter, sugar, brown sugar, and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, flour, and baking soda. Stir in half of the chocolate chips. Spread or press the dough onto the pizza pan, leaving a one inch edge as the cookie will spread as it bakes.

Bake 18 to 24 minutes until light brown. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle remaining chocolate chips over the top and drop spoonfuls of peanut butter over the top, let rest for 5 minutes. With a knife, smooth out the chocolate. Add M and M's immediately. Let pizza cool before cutting and serving.