Last of Last Year's Rhubarb

Score! I thought I had used up all the rhubarb I had diced and frozen from last summer making DD#2's birthday cake request, Strawberry Dump cake, which I blogged about here. Moving things about, even after the inventory of my freezer, I discovered about two cups worth of rhubarb in two different freezer bags. This won't be enough for the cake or a batch of jam, so am having a good think over what to do with it. I remember once being in a diner and that had an assortment of syrups on the tables to go with pancakes and waffles. One was a rhubarb syrup, and I recall it being quite tasty. Surely there has to be a simple syrup recipe out there. Score again. At The Kitchen, waiting for me to find was a simple syrup recipe. 

As I only have half the rhubarb, I will half the recipe and end up with about a cup of cooked syrup. Before I can make it,I need to get a fine mesh strainer. Part of what I like about jams as opposed to jelly's is not needing to take the chunky bits out. When I make current jelly, I have a mill I use to squeeze all the juice out after I cook down the berries. I have so little rhubarb, and with the fibrous nature of it, I think it would end up getting stuck in the blades and mesh and not squeeze out properly. I have to make a stop at the Dollar Tree for a birthday card after church and will check there first to see what they might have before stopping in at Target or Walmart. I'm excited to try this, and if it works, I have plans first to try it out as an addition to lemonade, plain first, but won't ever rule out turning into a "fancy" cocktail. I'll give you an update once I track down the strainer. 

I held onto a vintage looking bottle-perfect to serve some homemade rhubarb lemonade.

 

I'm back after that intermission. The syrup was as easy to make as it sounded form the link. I didn't even have two full cups, but had some frozen strawberry's so I ended up with a strawberry rhubarb syrup, hence the darker color. I reused an 8 oz. salad dressing bottle, so you can see I didn't even get it half filled. I think it is thicker than the website shows-not sure if I used more sugar and that caused the thicker end result, perhaps? I didn't measure exact levels. I tasted just with my finger and got a hint of rhubarb, but I think the strawberry might come out more. I didn't have lemonade ingredients nor any bubbly water so tried it out just in some tap water. It had a nice little hint of flavor-sort of the hint you get when cucumbers are sliced in a pitcher of water-subtle. 

The syrup would make a nice addition to a homemade food gift basket. I could see a couple jars of jam, a bottle of syrup, some short bread cookies, a bottle of club soda, and maybe a loaf of homemade bread for a house warming, or to treat new parents. Dilemma though, as I do not pressure cooker can jams and jelly's, I am not sure there is enough acid in this to safely can that way. Because it was so easy, and can be done in small batches without much fuss, it could be just given for refrigerator storage I suppose. that's another days decision. This batch is mine. 

 

Cake, Pie, Pudding and...Dessert

I like something sweet at the end of a good meal.  I grew up calling this dessert. It meant the treat at the end of the meal. Desserts were pies, or crisps, or cakes; the items had names.  I noticed over the years though women of certain ages referring to various sweet concoctions as a "dessert" as in  "That was really good.  What was it called?  "Oh, that was a new cherry dessert."  I started associating using the term as a name, as opposed to the ending course of a meal, with matronly older women. These were women that had creatively mixed and adapted other recipes, and stuff in their cupboards and came out with a dessert in the end.  The more successful ones were jotted down and handed out at bridge club and sewing circles.

In putting together some food items to haul to the family lake cabin tomorrow, I did some scouting around on the Internet to find something different that I could make on Saturday, and would go well with the assortment of other food I had on hand, without making a special trip to the store.  I still had bits of frozen rhubarb and strawberries from last summer in the freezer and remembered someone posting something using both and a cake mix on a Face book page. 

I surfed and found this, strawberry rhubarb crumble recipe.  I had more strawberries and less rhubarb than called for, so improvised.  There is quite a bit of sugar, considering the cake mix, jello, and another cup of sugar, so not for those trying to tone down the sugar consumption. We will be working hard cleaning, weeding, mowing, and moving water crafts around so I am pushing the calorie count aside for tomorrow. Baking, it made the whole house smell delicious.  I baked in a 9" by 13" pan-not the bowl, and had to bake about eight minutes longer to get a little coloring on the top, but it looks pretty delicious. 

Pretty soon both girls wandered in, complimented me on the smell, and then asked what it was.  I honestly couldn't remember what it was called. I told them I found it on the Internet, the bridge club of my generation. After a moment of hemming and hawing I said, "It's a strawberry rhubarb dessert." I am now a woman of a certain age.