Jelly Roll and Fruit Bars

It's pretty much the most obvious thing ever, isn't it? But a jelly roll is a great way to use up all those jars of jelly I make. However, in this cake I didn't use jelly. I used a great strawberry rhubarb sauce. It was delicious with a dollop of crème fraîche. I used a recipe for angel food cake jelly roll in the Joy of Cooking. I can justify it by all the eggs we get from the chickens. I have to do something with them!

And then there's fruit bars. I don't know about you, but I seem to go through a lot of these. I buy a great deal of them, but that's because I wouldn't be able to keep up with a certain toddler's hunger for them. These are like homemade fig newtons, but the filling is elderberry-apple sauce. The sauce was basically the leftover pulp from elderberry apple jelly I made. I took the pulp, added sugar, and it made a great healthy filling.

The recipe I used was from Linda Ziedrich's The Joy of Jams, Jellies and Other Sweet Preserves. I guess you could say I've got a lot of joy in my kitchen. And you would be right.