Vintage: Raspberry Tapioca Sunset

My niece found this refreshing dessert in her Great Grandmother's recipe book from 1938, Miss Dine About Town, Marvelous Meals with Minute Tapioca.

You can find the Raspberry Tapioca Sunset recipe on page 18, under Matinee Luncheon in Miss Dine About Town, Marvelous Meals with Minute Tapioca.

Its has only six ingredients plus water.

It calls for Sugar, Tapioca, Salt, heavy whipping cream, Lemon juice, and water. 

And Fresh Raspberries!

You add the fresh crushed berries and lemon juice to the hot tapioca mixture after it comes to a boil.  

Once it cools down you pour the mixture about 1/3 in to each of your serving dishes and Chill. Saving the remainder of the mixture to fold in your whipped cream and chill. Once chilled you add the tapioca and whipped cream mixture on top and top with whipped cream and garnish with some fresh raspberries.  

I picked up these cute mini cups and spoons at my local dollar store. 

Bottom layer is the raspberry tapioca, next is the raspberry, whipped cream tapioca, topped with fresh whipped cream and berries!

This vintage recipe is a refreshing, not-too-sweet dessert you're going to love. 

I would serve this for Easter, Mother's Day or even a spring brunch.

Don't discard those old recipe books without checking them out. I overlooked the black and white photo (yes, I eat with my eyes) my niece pointed it out  while going through her great grandmother's books.  

Let me know if you have this vintage cookbook in your family cooking library. 

Have you tried any of these vintage treasures? 

Maggie

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Flipping Thanksgiving leftovers!

Here's to another Thanksgiving holiday, hope yours was a wonderful one too. 

I don't know about you, but we always have leftovers the next day, which taste even better.  Not sure if it's the flavors having time to marinate or that I have less prep work to do the next day. In any event, I'm looking for new dishes to flip our leftovers into and upgrade them.  

This morning I took the homemade bread - yes, it's homemade bread that deflated on me! Oh, but it may have been unintentionally flattened, but still tasted just as good.  So, this morning I took that flat loaf and made some tasty French toast. Then I took the leftover cranberry sauce to top it with.   

 

Oh, but I was not done!

No, there is a bowl of homemade whipped cream in the refrigerator.

Yes, that's what I said, whipped cream!

This dish did not feel like two-day-old leftovers! 

Would love to know how you flip your dishes. 

 

What's old is new again - Mother's Day treat

 While going through family boxes, I came across my grandmother's 1937 Royal Cookbook. Within these well-loved pages were notes from my grandmother. Reading them was like I was in her kitchen again. 

  

So, with Mothers Day around the corner, I thought I'd honor Mothers past and present and make one grandma had notes beside: an Orange Tea Donut.  Due to the copyright, I can't share the recipe, but if you're lucky to have a copy of the Royal Cook Book you can find it on page 15, minus grandma's notes. 

I followed the Orange Tea Donut recipe, grandma noted she changed the nutmeg spice to cinnamon.  It's an easy recipe to follow even to this day. 

 Once I had all the ingredients and the dough was formed, I floured my board and rolled out the dough.  I also prepared two cookie sheets with parchment paper to set off to the side.

I also came across grandma's biscuit/donut cutter, you can see in this photo how well used/loved it was. 

I kept the cutter in a cup of flour to keep the dough from sticking in between cutting out the donuts. 

I had no issues with sticking dough.  

The recipe stated it made 24 donuts, Grandma's notes said she made 5-6 dozen.  I think grandma didn't stick to the 1/4" thickness.  I rolled the dough out to a 1/4" thickness and came up to 24 donuts and, give or take, some scraps.

I separated the hole's from the rings and laid them on the parchment lined cookie sheets. 

 

Once I had all the dough rolled and cut out, I heated up my oil on the stove top.  As a safety precaution, I kept a lid nearby.  In the meantime, I took another cookie sheet and placed a cooling rack in it.  

Once my food thermometer read the required 400 degrees I began frying my dough. Using a mesh spoon, I lowered my holes and rings into the hot oil.  I started with the holes first to test the readiness of the oil. I didn't mind if I didn't get the hole right.  My family would tell you this is a good thing. 

As the color began to golden, I would flip them over. Once the other side was done, they were transferred to the cooling rack. As soon as they were all done frying, I turn off the heat and placing the lid over the hot pot of oil to cool.  

This recipe didn't say anything about glazes or icings, so following grandma's tradition I did my own thing. I made a vanilla bean glaze and since these were orange tea donuts I toped each glazed donut with light sprinkle of fresh orange zest.  

Check out those brown vanilla bean bits in the glaze!

The orange zest gave it some freshness you don't find in todays donut shops.

Don't over look those old treasured recipes, you could be missing out!

Happy Mother's day 

I would love to hear about your family recipes.

*No fire alarms went off during this recipe. 

Mother's day Brunch

For the beginning of May I kept busy with a simple buttercream retirement cake.  I used a butter cream transfer method to create this sweet red motor cycle, camper and camp fire.  Then I  constructed a retirement plaque out of rolled fondant.    Best wishes to the United States Postal Service Person, enjoy your retirement.

 

On  Mother's Day I did a spring brunch for my mother on Sunday afternoon.  I made this Broccoli-Cheddar Quiche, a recipe I found from Martha Stewart. I used a pre-made pastry shell and I added portobello mushrooms to the recipe. Using some of the egg white, I brushed on the edge of the pie crust to give that golden glossy shine to it. It was a very easy and quick recipe to whip up and you can even do it ahead of time for convenience.

As a side for the Quiche,  I made a Non-GMO micro-green salad with julienne cucumbers and strawberries,  drizzled with a pomegranate salad dressing.  These delicate micro-greens needed delicate garnishes and doing a julienne cut to the cucumbers and strawberries worked great.  Drizzling the pomegranate dressing just before serving is a must.  These greens don't need much which make for a light and refreshing side. 

Micro-Greens Strawberry Salad

Ingredients: 

2 oz. package of Non-GMO Micro-Greens (Black Pearl Gardens) 

2 large fresh strawberries (sliced thin, and finely julienne)

1 small seeded cucumber (sliced thin, and finely julienne)

 Marzetti Simply Dressed Pomegranate Salad dressing (placed in a clear squeeze bottle) 

In four small bowls divide Micro-Greens, next top each with a table spoon of julienne cucumbers and julienne strawberries each.  Drizzle with dressing just before serving.

My mother and I were introduced to micro-greens last year at a Cooking Matters with Diabetes class that we took at our local library.  It was sponsored by Gleaners Community Food Bank  and Ford Motor Company. Our class chef introduced the students to new and healthy foods including micro-greens.  We loved them and were hooked ever since last year. (Micro-greens are young delicate vegetable greens that come in mild and spicy varieties.) So I wanted to treat my mother to this side for brunch.  It took some time finding a market that carried micro-greens but I found these at my local Holiday Market.  I called and talked to the young man in the produce department who was very helpful and knew exactly what I was asking for (some local produce markets had no idea what they were).  He even made my day when he informed me they carried a local brand Black Pearl Gardens from Ann Arbor Michigan. I  love supporting my local farmers and shops.  I stopped in that night and was pleased by the variety they had to chose from.  I went with the "Mild Mix Mini & Mighty     Micro-Greens". For the Dressing I used Marzetti Simply Dressed Pomegranate Salad dressing.  

Served with fresh brewed Raspberry Iced Tea garnished with a fresh strawberry.

 

Lastly, we finished with a Cookies and Cream dessert pudding garnished with a Oreo Thins Chocolate creme cookie. 

Wishing my Mother and all Mother's a very Happy Mother's Day!