Rhubarb Pudding Recipe

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Thursday, April 25, 1912: I am beginning to worry about final exams. I’m afraid that I may get left in some of my studies. But I hope that it won’t happen that way.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

It sounds like Grandma was at the procrastination stage—she knew that she needed to study, but hadn’t gotten beyond worrying.

When I procrastinate, I think of other things that MUST be done—like cooking.

Here’s an old Rhubarb Pudding recipe that I found in the April 1912 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine.

Rhubarb Pudding

Sift together two cupfuls of flour, a pinch of salt, spices as desired, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder and half a cupful of sugar. Stir in one egg beaten with half a cupful of milk and two tablespoonfuls of butter; add two cupfuls of rhubarb, cut into small pieces (use the pink part with the skin left on), bake twenty minutes and serve with a sauce.

The only spice that I used was 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg. The batter was extremely thick. I baked the Rhubarb Pudding in a 375 degree oven. It took about 40 minutes for the top to brown lightly. (Maybe I should have used a higher temperature.)

The Rhubarb Pudding was quite good. It was a pleasant mixture of sweet and tart tastes, and had the texture of shortcake.

I served the Rhubarb Pudding with Vanilla Sauce.

Vanilla Sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

dash salt

1 cup boiling water

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

dash nutmeg

Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in sauce pan. Add boiling water; and boil until thick and clear. Continue simmering over low heat, while stirring for 20 minutes. Stir in the butter, vanilla, and nutmeg. Can be refrigerated and reheated.

Rhubarb is one of my favorite Spring foods. Here are the links to past posts that included Rhubarb Recipes:

Stewed Rhubarb (Rhubarb Sauce)

Rhubarb Sponge Pie

Wind Rattled the Windows

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Wednesday, April 24, 1912: This afternoon was one of the howling kind. The wind certainly did rattle the windows of that old school house.

Recent photo of the building the once housed McEwensville Schools. The high school was on the second floor. I can almost picture Grandma huddled over her desk in a drafty classroom while the wind howled outside.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

I thought about calling this post—April Showers Bring May Flowers—but wanted to be sure that there had been showers.

Well—it didn’t rain on April 24, 1912 (so I had to come up with another post title). It was just a blustery, raw, spring day.  A hundred years ago in nearby Williamsport, the low temperature was 28.9 degrees, the high was 66.9 degrees, and there was no precipitation.

Click on data table to enlarge.

(The forecast for today for Williamsport is–rain; low: 34 degrees, high: 54 degrees.)

An Aside–

I found the temperature information on the National Climatic Data Center website.  Last January I explained how to find similar data for other towns and cities across the US.  When I went back to the site to get materials for this post, I found that the process had changed, but that I could still find the data I wanted.  I added a note to the end of that post which provides an update on the process.

How to Find the Temperature on Any Date in Any City in the US

Memorized Speech

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Tuesday, April 23, 1912: What an extraordinary thing for a dummy like I am. I know all of my piece from beginning to end. I learned the larger part of it this evening. There are almost a thousand words in all.

I can picture Grandma sitting in this house a hundred years ago trying to memorize a presentation.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma was memorizing a speech that she needed to present on the last day of school. The previous day she indicated that she’d completed writing it.

Assuming that Grandma spoke at about 150 words per minute, a 1,000 speech would take a little less than 7 minutes to present.

Today students don’t generally memorize speeches. Instead it is considered better to use notes to provide reminders about what to say.  I wonder if students were encouraged to write and memorize speeches back then, or if it just was something that Grandma decided to do on her own in an attempt to make sure that she said what she wanted to say.

Little Brother Recovered from Whooping Cough

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Sunday, April 22, 1912: I now have that wonderful oration the way it suits me. I finished copying it this morning. Jimmie started back to school today. So far I don’t have any symptoms of the whooping cough. Don’t want it for two weeks yet.

Jimmie Muffly, 1912

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma was working on a speech that she needed to present on the last day of school. On April 16, she wrote that she was trying to find a topic; and, of the 17th she wrote that she’d found an interesting topic.

I’m surprised that Grandma’s 6-year-old brother Jimmie had apparently been out of school for almost a month with whooping cough. On March 24 she’d written:

Jimmie threatened with the whooping cough. I don’t want him to get it, nor do I want to get it myself. I would have to stop school if I do, and that I shouldn’t like to.

But, Grandma never again mentioned whooping cough, so until this entry I’d assumed that Jimmie hadn’t gotten it.

Whooping cough was a bad illness a hundred years ago. According to Wikipedia:

Symptoms are initially mild, and then develop into severe coughing fits, which produce the namesake high-pitched ‘whoop’ sound in infected babies and children when they inhale air after coughing. The coughing stage lasts for approximately six weeks before subsiding.

So even though Jimmie was out of school for a month—it’s sounds as if he recuperated more quickly than the typical person.

Women’s Hats a Hundred Years Ago

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Sunday, April 21, 1912: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Wish I had my new hat. I’d wear it if I had.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Did Grandma want a hat like one of these hats that were featured in a hundred-year-old issue of Ladies Home Journal?

With the coming of summer one turns instinctively to the flowers, and there is an overwhelming desire to have them around us, in our gardens, and even on our persons. The desire to be personally adorned with them can find best expression in the use of the artificial. In these hats are shown what lovely artificial flowers can be had and at small cost.

“When Flowers Look Well on a Hat”, Ladies Home Journal, June 1911

Moved Sister to Own Bedroom

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Saturday, April 20, 1912:Locked Ruth out last night. I spent the afternoon cleaning house. It was my room. Rufus got stubborn and I had to do nearly all.

Picture of a bedroom in the April, 1912 issue of Ladies Home Journal. It probably doesn't look much like Grandma's bedroom--but it does provide an indication of what really nice bedrooms looked like a hundred years ago.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

When Grandma was upset she called her sister Ruth,  “Rufus”.

This is the second day in a row that Grandma wrote about moving Ruth to another bedroom. They shared a room during the cold winter months—but had separate rooms during the remainder of the year.

Grandma apparently had the better bedroom because Ruth did not want to move—or maybe Ruth wanted to make her little sister do all of the work involved in the move.

Trying to Get Sister Moved Back to Own Room

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Friday, April 19, 1912: Dear me, I haven’t anything worth writing. I’m trying to get my sister to moved back to her own room.

Picture of a bedroom in April, 1912 issue of Ladies Home Journal.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma and her sister Ruth sometimes shared a bedroom—and other times didn’t.

Based on previous entries, I think that there probably was a double bed in Grandma’s room—and that they shared it during the winter months because there was no heat on the second floor of the house and it was very cold. But now it was spring, and Grandma wanted her sister to move back to her own room.

The previous year Grandma had similar problems getting her sister out of the room. For example, on June 29, 1911 she wrote:

I moved Ruthie’s belongings into another apartment and she herself is going to occupy that room for a time. Don’t know how long it will be though. I’m so tired now, I can hardly stand upright.