• Cooking Time: 90 minutes
• Servings: 10
• Preparation Time: 1-2 hours
• 1 pound dates, pitted and chopped
• 1 pound walnuts, chopped
• 3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup boiling water
• 3 eggs, well beaten
• 2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons rum
• Rum glaze (optional but good)

1. Cream butter and sugar until well blended. Add dates and nuts. Mix soda with water and pour over nut/date mixture. Add eggs. Stir in the flour and salt, beating until smooth. Add the rum and blend well. Pour into a greased 13"x9"x2" baking pan and bake in a preheated oven 300: for 1 1/2 hours. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove from the pan. May be frosted with the rum glaze if desired.
3. Rum Glaze
5. Mix 3/4 cup 10x powdered sugar with 1 Tbsp rum or as much rum as needed to make the glaze thin enough to pour. Just make sure that it is not too runny.

When I first got married in 1964, grocery stores sold cookbooks. I started to collect Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, each month they would sell one volume. I collected all 12 volumes.