Rhubarb Delight

Crust:

1 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon shortening 1 egg 2 tablespoons milk

Directions:
Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Blend in shortening, then add egg and milk and mix well. Spread evenly over the bottom of an 8x8" baking pan.

Filling:

3 cups chopped rhubarb 1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour 1 box cherry Jello (dry)

Directions:
Spread chopped rhubarb over crust. Combine sugar, dry Jello powder and flour; sprinkle over top of rhubarb.

Topping:

3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup melted butter.

Directions:
Combine flour, sugar, and butter; blend together until crumbly. Sprinkle over rhubarb. Bake at 375° for 40 minutes or until rhubarb is tender and topping is lightly browned. Cool until Jello sets before serving.

Notes:
This recipe was collected by my mother, Doris Hill, and she wrote it by hand on a recipe card for her files.

As I've been typing, I've thought about the big clump of rhubarb at my childhood home. It was an old pioneer rhubarb of the most sour sort, but my mother managed to make some pretty good desserts with it. One of them was a delicious mulberry-rhubarb concoction with a crunchy topping. I don't have the recipe to it, unfortunately.

My sister and I pulled stalks off that rhubarb plant and used the big leaves as palm fronds in our re-enactment of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.