Rhubarb Meringue Squares

I had rhubarb and I wanted to make a dessert. I'm not sure I've done this before, but I pulled out the tiny binder my Mom started for her recipe collection and I thought just maybe she would have included the instructions I wanted. Now, I've had very few opportunities to be annoyed with my mother (an absent parent can't make many mistakes!) but seriously? Could the recipe be any less thorough? 

I particularly enjoy the instructions on the next page for "Speedy Marble Cake" that end with "The rest you'll know." No baking time or temperature is given.

I vaguely recall her sitting at the typewriter with these small sheets of paper, five inches tall, pecking out her recipes. There are only 40 recipes included. All desserts, muffins, or loaves. Three are peanut butter based, so I suspect it must have been a favourite ingredient. Fewer than half the pages in this book are filled, which is sad. I'm sure she intended to include more, but raising three little kids aged seven and under, and helping at my parents' grocery store, she will have been busy. And then she became ill and quickly her strength and health were gone.

I don't know how long I've had this recipe book, and it hasn't often been part of my conscious thought, but I do know that when I purchased a binder to start my own collection of favourites, there was only one colour I wanted: red.

Let's get to the recipe. I've borrowed additional information from the VMA recipe book (printed in 1995) and page 108 has almost the identical recipe, submitted by Nettie Wiebe. I've combined the two:

Base:

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp sugar

Rhubarb mixture:

5 cups rhubarb

4 Tbsp flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup cream

6 egg yolks

Meringue:

6 egg whites

12 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Base:

Blend butter, sugar, and flour. Press into cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. (I wonder if a 9x13 would have been better? The rhubarb layer is very thin on such a large baking pan.)

Rhubarb mixture:

Mix it, pour it over baked crust. Bake for 45 minutes.

Meringue:

Beat to form peaks; slowly adding sugar. Add vanilla at the end.

Spread meringue over baked squares, continue baking until it has browned.

You may have noticed my Mom has coconut included on top. I didn't add it.

This is not a very sweet dessert! The VMA recipe says to use 2 cups of sugar in the rhubarb mixture, but I thought it might be too much. I might go for 1 cup next time.