Here's one I found. Mexican Fruit Cake 2 c. flour 1 c. sugar 1 c. brown sugar 20 oz. can crushed pineapple with juice 2 eggs 1 c. pecans, chopped 2 tsp. baking soda Icing: 8 oz. pkg. softened cream cheese 1 stick butter, softened 2 c. confectioners sugar 1 tsp. vanilla milk Mix all cake ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees in a floured cake pan for 45 minutes. Mix icing ingredients together and blend until smooth. Spread onto cooled cake. __________________

This recipe is from the Aunt of a good friend of mine: Joan's Fruitcake Cookies 1/2 lb. candied cherries, chopped 1/4 lb. candied lemon and orange peel, chopped 1/4 lb. candied pineapple, chopped 1 lb. dates, chopped 1 lb. white raisins, chopped 1 lb. walnuts, chopped 4 cups pecans, chopped 2 1/2 cups flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp cinnamon 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 cup butter, softened 2 eggs Mix together flour, soda, salt, & cinnamon. Beat eggs. Cream butter and sugar. Combine everything really well... including fruit and nuts. Shape into walnut-sized balls with your hands. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 10 (15) minutes at 300º F. Makes about 150 balls, which is why I usually halve the recipe. And, just for fun: Fruitcake Brownies 1 cup unsalted butter + 2 Tblsp. to butter pan 9 oz. semisweet Chocolate, chopped 1 1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped 1 cup plus 2 Tblsp. sugar 3 large eggs 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup all purpose flour 1 tsp. Baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 1/3 cup chopped dried apricots 1/3 cup chopped dried figs 1/3 cup chopped pitted dates 1/3 cup dried sour cherries or dried currents Preheat oven to 350ºF Butter 13x9x2 glass baking dish (?) Combine 1 cup butter and both types of chocolates in saucepan. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and 3 eggs in large bowl until very thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Stir in cooled chocolate mixture and the vanilla extract. Whisk 1 cup flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl to blend; then add to chocolate mixture. Mix in walnuts and dried fruits. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Bake until top cracks and tester comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 35 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. Makes about 24 squares.

Seagrass, I live in Central Wisconsin now. Aside from the two plants in great soil, the rest of my rhubarb is growing in super sandy soil and a good bit of shade and has to compete with tree roots. Those plants need supplemental water and fertilizer to keep growing through the summer. Generally cool weather. Some 'summers' we're lucky to hit 90 degrees for a couple of days! So don't give up on your plants. If the plants are still small, you could dig in some bagged cow manure & compost around the perimeter of the plants and/ or toss them a couple handfuls of high nitrogen fertilizer. Manure & compost preferable, of course. Also, some moisture crystals dug in to help retain soil moisture if rains aren't reliable. In Oklahoma, rhubarb is mostly a spring crop because the heat and drought zap it. Here in Wisconsin, we can harvest from the plants all summer. Edited to add... Seagrass, Lindac....would you, pretty please, share the rhubarb custard pie recipe? I've never tasted it and keeping hearing/ reading how wonderful it is. Just a mention...my grandmother made wonderful jams and jellies. My favorite of hers, hands down, was a mulberry rhubarb jam. My second favorite jam is blackberry...the mulberry rhubarb jam reminded me of a very rich tasting blackberry jam.

Now is a good time to think about next year's plans because it's early November here in NH and while I have some Asian greens, I haven't been cooking with them like I thought I would so that's wasted space. I should have fresh carrots but had a germination problem this year, possibly because I didn't keep things watered. I need to check the date I planted bulls blood beets because I don't think there has been much beet development. Leeks were planted late so they aren't very big. Lettuce is still good shows some frost damage. Kale self seeded and is overwhelming the space in the high tunnel. I don't have parsnips or Gilfeather turnips this year. Why not! Doing bed cleanup to plant hardneck garlic, I discovered two overlooked zucchinis and they were covered with squash bugs. Yikes! Broccoli in the high tunnel is slowly developing but I'm not sure the heads will get any bigger. I need to check the planting date on these, too. A couple of weeks can make a big difference. Although my Great Aleppo Pepper Adventure was mostly a flop (lots of pepper but not the flavor I wanted), I ended up discovering a whole new world of peppers. Buran bell peppers were big winners, very productive plus great flavor. Urfa biber are slightly hot which is just hot enough for us. Zolotisty yellow bells have a fabulous flavor. No more Ace peppers for me. I also got peppers mixed up during harvest so I'm not sure if it was Carmen that turned a beautiful dark red with a wonderful sweet flavor but I've been growing it for several years and will continue to have one or two plants. Yesterday I weeded the two new asparagus beds. The beds themselves are good but I have Creeping Jenny in our weedy lawn that was creeping into the bed.