Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb!

Rebecca is inviting us all to join in a big ole' celebration of the joys of rhubarb! A rhubarb fest! And I love, love, love rhubarb!!! I love it almost any way you can serve it...in pie, a sauce, rhubarb cake, rhubarb muffins, in a crisp, a cobbler. Oh, and rhubarb anything jam! Can't forget that! But for the celebration, I'm going to share this recipe for Honey Rhubarb Betty. Its tried and true and if you love rhubarb, I can't imagine that you won't love it.

Honey Rhubarb Betty
1 lb. or 4 cup rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
dash of salt
2 tablespoons water
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 cup honey
5 slices bread, torn or cut into cubes

Combine rhubarb, sugar, nutmeg, salt and water in a 10 X 6 X 1 1/2 inch baking dish. Blend butter and honey; stir in bread cubes. Spoon evenly over top of rhubarb. Bake in 375 degrees (Fahrenheit) oven about 30 minutes or until topping is a light golden brown. Yield 4-6 servings.

I doubled the recipe and used a 9 X 13 inch baking dish.

And here are couple of rhubarb recipes that I've shared in the past; rhubarb muffins and blueberry rhubarb jam. I think you'll like them too!

I've had rhubarb growing at some of the places we've lived before but I don't have a patch here. I was planning on correcting that this spring but along came the big electrical project which involved ditches and men tromping over the planned patch. The project is nearing completion and I'm hopeful that it won't be too late to get in a patch this year. I've had some very generous friends who have kept me in the stuff in recent years but its past time to correct that and be on the giving side of sharing rhubarb.

For information on growing rhubarb, rhubarb varieties, rhubarb history, rhubarb festivals (other than Rebecca's), rhubarb recipes, non-food uses of rhubarb and just about any other sort of rhubarb information you can think of, I've found The Rhubarb Compendium to be the go-to site.

Now its your turn to join the celebration of this wonderful plant. Put up your own rhubarb post and share the link with Rebecca. Or leave your rhubarb thoughts in a comment at her site. Just do it by Thursday to be at the party. See you there!

Rhubarb Walnut Muffins

Rhubarb season is winding down but I had enough to make these tasty muffins today. What a treat!

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped rhubarb
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Combine dry ingredients. In another bowl, thoroughly mix wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients mixing only until moistened. Fold in rhubarb and walnuts. Spoon into greased muffin tin.

Combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts and 1 tsp. cinnamon for topping. Sprinkle over muffins. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 325 degrees. Makes 12 muffins.

Blueberry Rhubarb Jam

Here's one for the rhubarb lovers among us. That includes me and, since I am also a blueberry lover, this recipe is practically perfect in my opinion.

In a large saucepan, bring 7 cups chopped rhubarb, 1 can blueberry pie filling and 4 cups sugar to a boil and keep at the boil for 10 minutes. Then add two 3 oz. packages of raspberry Jello stirring until dissolved. Remove from heat. Can be frozen or preserved using the hot water bath method.

And it is good!