Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

My wonderful man's birthday was last week. His mother had already made him his very favorite - carrot cake. So I decided to make a strawberry/rhubarb crisp to eat on his birthday. He's a fan of most things sweet, so he was good with that plan. :)

The Recipe:

Fill a large pie plate with rhubarb cut into 1" pieces and strawberries sliced (about 3 c. of each) that have been mixed with 2 cups of sugar. (you can see from the picture, I used a 9 x 13 dish, if you decide to use that large of a baking dish, consider doubling the following topping recipe, if you really like the crisp part.)

The all important crisp topping -
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
5 1/3 T cold butter

Cut with a pastry blender or crumble with fingers until butter is in pea size pieces. Add a handful or two of old fashioned oats. Distribute evenly over rhubarb and strawberries. Bake at 375 for 40 to 50 minutes - until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbly.

Without further adieu, Molasses Krinkles!

The long awaited Molasses Krinkles post. These are a holiday favorite in our family. To give them a more summer twist, sandwich them with a bit of vanilla ice cream.

The Recipe:

Mix thoroughly -
3/4 c. soft shortening - NOT BUTTER
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 c. molasses

Sift together and stir in -
2 1/4 c. flour
2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. cloves
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. ginger

Chill dough. Roll into balls (about 1" in size); dip into a bit more sugar. Place sugar side up, 3 " apart on greased baking sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with 2 or 3 drops of water to produce cracks. Bake just until set but not hard at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes.

Now for some reason, the picture above shows that mine turned out a bit more puffy then normal. They should be a bit flatter cookie. I guess I'll make another batch soon to see if I can get that right. :)