Rhubarb Cobbler Delish

I love rhubarb. To be more exact, I love it once or maybe twice a year. The exciting thing about rhubarb is that it is the first edible thing from our garden each year. How the first person to eat it ever decided it was edible is beyond me. Eaten in its natural state, it's like a joke that the "we make gross sour candy" people would play on celery. Yet, someone figured out that if you cook it with lots of sugar it's pretty good stuff.

This morning when Dave came in from walking the dog, he brought in about 10 stalks of rhubarb. This afternoon I looked for a rhubarb recipe in a cookbook that was compiled a few years ago by my sister-in-law, Venice, for the ladies at Church.  Many of the women who contributed to the book were/are survivors of the depression era. They knew how to cook from scratch, and feed large families with small resources. One of these women, Lucille Bushman, contributed the rhubarb recipe that I used today. She is in her late eighties now. If I went to a Church pot luck dinner tomorrow and someone told me that Lucille  brought a chicken casserole cooked with chicken that she raised herself and that earlier in the day she had chopped off the chicken's head, pulled the feathers, butchered it and cooked it up, I would not question the truth of it. However, I don't mean to over generalize that generation of women.  Lucille was a friend of my Mother-in-Law, Vivian, who was also a great cook, but she took to modern methods with gusto. When the TV commercials admonished women to be the first on their block to own a microwave oven, Vivian took the challenge seriously.

I made Lucille's cobbler and just like her title promised, it was pretty delish. It is actually a peach cobbler recipe with a rhubarb variation. I had lots of rhubarb so I doubled the recipe. The only thing I did differently from the original recipe was that I added about 2 tablespoons of  red sugar sprinkles to add color. People often add red food coloring to rhubarb, because depending on the stalks, it can be more green than red or pink. I add red cake sprinkles for color since for some reason I can always taste a chemical taste from red dye. The red  sugar sprinkles probably have the exact same dye in them but the mental trickery works for me.

                                                       PEACH COBBLER DELISH
1 1/2 cups fresh sliced peaches
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
     OR
Rhubarb variation
3 cups rhubarb, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 cups sugar combined with 1 Tablespoon flour
1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon butter
Mix in large pot on stove, stir, bring to a boil, remove from heat and set aside.
Batter:
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon shortening
1/2 cup milk
2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Combine all ingredients for batter and mix well. Pour into greased 9X9 inch square pan. Pour or spoon hot peach or rhubarb mixture over batter (do not stir). Back at 375 for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Batter will rise to top while backing. Recipe can be doubled and baked in a 9X13 inch pan.