Recipe 36: SCALLOPED RHUBARB (Side dish)

Rhubarb is funny. You either like it or you dont.
My grandmother grew rhubarb in her backyard for YEARS and YEARS.  she always had Rhubarb pies and Rhubarb jams and Scalloped Rhubarb.

A NOTE ABOUT RHUBARB:  Do not use the leaves or roots. The leaves and roots of Rhubarb are toxic. Only use the red stems.  Eating too much rhubarb is NOT good for your digestive system. It is a powerful laxative if eaten in large quantities. It also has an astringent quality in the mouth.  When you eat rhubarb, it can make your mouth "tender".
Believe it or not, Rhubarb is a vegetable relative of Buckwheat. It has a very earthy, tart, sour flavor. For this reason you usually see a lot of rhubarb recipes mixed with other sweeter fruits, or sugar.

This is one of my Grandmothers recipes.  Beatrice was one of the best cooks I know. When she died in 2000, I inherited "THE BOX". A little oaken box that she kept her notecards and recipes in. I open it up and it still smells like her. I feel her around me when I go through her recipes that she collected throughout the years.
She has newspaper clippings glued onto notecards that I am quite positive are over 50 years old. In 1963 her friend Bertha mailed her a recipe on a postcard. It cost 4 cents in stamps and into the box it went.

This scalloped rhubarb is in her handwriting, and not one written down by a friend.


THE RECIPE:

4 cups rhubarb. (clean rhubarb stalk, cut into 1/2" to 1" chunks)
2/3  cup sugar.
mix together and put into a 9x13 pan.

in a separate bowl:

3 cups dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup sugar
mix together and sprinkle evenly over the top of the rhubarb.

Sprinkle MORE sugar evenly over the top.
Top with several dabs of Butter. and then sprinkle drops of water over entire casserole.

bake at 350 for 1 hour

Recipe 21: BEST POTATO SALAD (side dish, picnic foods, potatoes)

This is my moms potato salad recipe. I am generally not a  huge fan of potato salad. Many times it is too mayonnaise-y, or too much celery(blech), or not enough mustard. Potato salad is funny. It has to be just right.  When my mom makes this everybody chows down. It is so good! This uses Miracle Whip instead of mayo, and it makes a huge difference.  I make this for cook outs, pot lucks, picnics, functions, parties...anything. It is just really really good.

 My mom says she just kind of makes it "by sight", but watching her and making it myself, this is the general recipe. You can add or detract according to your taste.

THE RECIPE:

10-12 potatoes; peeled, quartered and boiled until tender

6 hard boiled eggs; peeled and chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped small

1/2 yellow onion, chopped fine

6 sweet gherkin pickles, chopped small

After the potatoes are drained and cooled, cut them into various bite sized pieces and place in a large bowl.

GENTLY mix in chopped eggs, celery, onion and pickles.

In a bowl mix together:

1 1/4 cup Miracle Whip(more or less according to taste)

1 TBSP sugar

3 Medium Squirts Yellow Mustard (you can adjust to taste)

Gently mix this with the potatoes until evenly coated.

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.