Rhubarb Bread

To continue on my latest rhubarb streak, I decided today to try and make rhubarb bread.  I've never had such a thing, but thought I'd give it a try.  I have to say that I thought it was good, not my favorite, but good.  However, it seems that my family and the neighbors really enjoyed this recipe.  Brandon also noted that it was much better tasting than the rhubarb cake I made a few weeks ago.

Ingredients
1 c. milk
1 T. lemon juice
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
2/3 c. canola oil
1 egg
2 1/2 c. flour
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 1/2 c. chopped rhubarb
2/3 c. chopped walnuts (I used toasted pecans)
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 T. melted butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly grease two 9x5 loaf pans.
2. In small bowl, mix together milk, lemon juice and vanilla.  Let stand for 10 minutes.
3. In medium bowl, mix together flour, salt, and baking soda.
4. In large bowl, mix together brown sugar, oil and egg. Stir flour and milk mixture alternately into sugar mixture until just combined.
5. Fold in rhubarb and nuts
6. In small bowl, combine 1/4 c. brown sugar, cinnamon and butter.  Sprinkle mixture over the unbaked loaves.
7. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaves comes out clean.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Okay, this was great, but I forgot to get a picture of it before we ate half of it!  It's been a long time since I have had rhubarb crisp of any kind, and I had forgotten just how yummy it is.  Thanks to all my facebook friends for recommending that I make this.  Yum!

Ingredients

1 c. sugar (I think you could use less if you wanted)

3 T. flour

3 c. sliced fresh strawberries

3 c. diced rhubarb

1 1/2 c. flour

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. butter

1 c. rolled oats

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. In 9x13 pan, mix together first 4 ingredients
3. In large bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, butter, and oats using a pastry blender.  Crumble mixture on top of rhubarb and strawberry mixture.
4. Bake 45 minutes, or until crisp, lightly browned, and bubbly.
5. Serve with ice cream and enjoy!

Rhubarb Cake

 While trying to figure out what I should make for this week, my mom brought down 8 cups of rhubarb.  I decided I should probably find something to make with that.  I started searching and found that you can really make a lot of things with rhubarb.  This recipe was simple enough and I had all the ingredients to make it.  It turned out pretty well.  I chopped the rhubarb really fine, and I think it could be a much courser chop to get good taste of rhubarb.  I also think it could have used a little more rhubarb.  Perhaps 2-2 1/2 cups.  It was really good served with some cool whip.

Ingredients

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. butter

1 egg

1 c. applesauce

1 t. vanilla

1 t. soda

1/2 t. salt

2 c. flour

1 1/2 c. rhubarb chopped

1/4 c. sugar mixed with 1 t. cinnamon

Directions

1. Cream together sugars and butter.  Add in egg and vanilla.
2. Stir in applesauce, soda, salt and flour.
3. Spread into 9x13 pan and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
4. Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes

Strawberry Shortcake

Well, Brandon wanted some strawberry shortcake, so I delivered. It's simple, but this is the recipe he loves. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Strawberries

Sugar

1 c. baking mix (like Bisquick)

1T. sugar

1 1/2 T. melted butter

1/4 c. milk

Directions

1. Clean and cut up strawberries.  Mix in sugar and let rest.
2. Heat oven to 450 degrees.
3. Mix together baking mix, sugar, melted butter, and milk.
4. Drop by spoonful onto baking sheet to make 3 shortcakes.
5. Bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
6. Serve warm with strawberries and whipped topping.

Churros con Chocolate

Okay, so my cousin is helping with a Spanish themed bridal shower brunch this weekend and was put in charge of bringing homemade churros.  One might ask why, but well, let's not.  Anyway, she asked if I would help with a dry run and I said sure.  The only thing I didn't have was a pastry bag and a star tip, as I don't decorate well anyway, why bother.  We decided that they would be fine if we just cut a hole in the corner of a plastic storage bag and made them round.  Sure enough, worked great.  The only really hard part of making these is making sure your oil is hot and to make sure you don't crowd the pan to keep the oil hot while frying.  Otherwise, these were delicious!  As a lessons learned, we think we could have made the hole in the plastic storage bag smaller, fried them to be a little darker golden, and perhaps serve them with some dulce de leche as well.  Yum!  I wish I was attending this bridal shower!

Ingredients

Churros

3/4 c. flour

3/4 c. water

1/4 c. butter

pinch of salt

2 eggs, beaten

cinnamon sugar

Chocolate Sauce

1 c. milk

2 t. corn starch

4 oz good quality dark chocolate, chopped

2 T. sugar

Directions

1. In a medium sauce pan, bring the water, butter, and salt to a boil.
2. Add the flour and stir vigorously.  The flour will come together to form a soft ball
3. Remove from the heat, and stir in eggs until you have a thick paste.  (This step takes a while, but get it into one good ball of dough.)
4. Heat oil (3/4" to 1") in a large skillet to 350 degrees.
5. Put the dough into a pastry bag with star tip or plastic bag with small hole cut in corner.  Squeeze out about 4-5 lengths of the churro into the hot oil.  Cook on each side until dark golden brown.
6. Remove from hot pan, to a plate with paper towels and quickly transfer into a plate of cinnamon sugar.  Toss to coat with sugar
7. Repeat steps 4-6 until all churros have been made.
8. Mix 1/2 c. milk  and chocolate to a small sauce pan and heat over low to medium low heat to melt chocolate.
9. In a small glass, mix the other 1/2 c. milk with corn starch and sugar.
10. Once the chocolate has fully melted, add the cornstarch mixture to the chocolate.  Heat until the mixture thickens.
11. Serve the churros with a small bowl of the choclate and enjoy!