Schteveo wrote:And I do whole cranberry sauce year round, right outta the ice...cold...can!

Schteveo wrote:This is that time of the year when the world takes out its hostilities on defenseless Fruitcake.

I think it's because we are supposed to be good to each other, kicking the pets is, IMHO, perpetually verbotten, so that leaves the poor, inanimate fruitcake. You can't yell at grandma, so you make fun of fruitcake. You can't spank the kids while Aunt Susie the HyperLib is in town from her teaching job at Berkeley, so...fruitcake takes verbal abuse.

But Why? Have you LOOKED at a good fruitcake? (I do know not all of them ARE good) Good fruitcake contains a great number of the things we're storing for SHTF. Mix them up with some apple sauce, a little whiskey, a couple eggs, bake it and you've got fruitcake. Slice it, wrap it, you've got a great emergency food bar. I'm posting my Italian Grandmothers Fruitcake Recipe, 'cause I'm betting you'll like this one. That and most of us have nuts and stuff sitting around from other recipes now ANYWAY.

Ferrara Fruit cake

¼ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

2 tbl cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup Bourbon (or whiskey, or Rum if you like that better)
1 14 oz can apple sauce
1 10 oz jar cherries
1 14 oz dates
1 14 oz package figs
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain cherries and reserve the juice. Cut cherries in half. Dust the cherries and raisins in ½ cup of the flour. Cut the dates and figs into small pieces.

Cream together the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.

Sift together remaining flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Add the dry mixture to the creamed mixture and mix well. Add the apple sauce and bourbon to this and mix well. Add the fruit and nuts just to mix through.

Pour batter into into a tube pan and bake for one hour without opening door. Check with a BBQ skewer for doneness. Bake for up to 30 minutes or as needed to finish.

Cool well before cutting.

(slice it into 3 or 4 ounce slices, wrap them well, store them in something sealable to keep moisture in and germs / bugs out; Seal-aMeal pouches would work great here)