Our extended family will celebrate Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving this year. Grandma Josie’s tapioca fruit salad will grace our table. The recipe for this delectable family favorite debuted on this blog in January of 2012 and is making a return appearance for two reasons. First, it keeps making the rounds on Pinterest. Secon I’m still slaving over the PTSD book edits to meet the November 30 deadline so there’s hardly time to cook, much less try new recipes!
Today’s recipe comes from my mother’s mother, Josephine Newell Hess. She made huge batches of this tapioca fruit salad when her 8 children, their spouses, and her 39 grandchildren gathered for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Once she was unable to host the gatherings, the recipe was lost for many years. Finally, my sister and I were so hungry for it, we recreated the dish with help from Mom. Now we serve it at Thanksgiving and Christmas and eat it as greedily as hobbits do mushrooms.
Though the recipe below doesn’t make as big a batch as Grandma whipped up in her prime, it’s still enough to fill a large Tupperware bowl. Why make so much? Because we love to eat what’s left over the next morning for breakfast!
Holiday Tapioca Fruit Salad
1 box (8 ounces) large pearl tapioca
4 cups water, divided into two equal parts
1/2 cup sugar
1 20 ounce can pineapple tidbits
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1-2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups seedless red grapes, halved
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 apples, cored and diced
2 bananas, sliced
2 oranges, diced
The night before the meal, put tapioca in a medium bowl. Add 2 cups of water to the tapioca, cover, and let soak overnight.
Several hours before serving, place soaked tapioca in heavy saucepan. Add 2 cups water and the sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until most of the tapioca is translucent and the mixture is very thick. Pour into a large bowl and immediately add pineapple (juice and all) into the thick tapioca. Stir thoroughly. Put in the refrigerator or on the porch to cool.
An hour before serving whip the cream. Add sugar and vanilla. In a large bowl mix the tapioca, fruit, (except the bananas), and whipped cream together. Immediately before the meal, slice the bananas and stir them in, along with the nuts.
Yes, today’s recipe for cranberry-apple sauce is one more encore post in a string of encore appearances that spanned most of October and are now encroaching into November.
But I have a really good reason.
Turns out, authors don’t have much time to cook in months where one book releases and a manuscript is being frantically edited in what may be a vain attempt to get it to the publisher by the November 30 deadline. Add to that a couple family emergencies, a few speaking engagements, and an upcoming visit with kids and grandkids, and it’s hard to find time to cook a thing.
Much less try a new recipe.
So, don’t look for any new recipes to debut along the gravel road this month. Instead, expect to see favorite Thanksgiving dishes like this one grace Wednesday posts until after Turkey Day and the manuscript deadline are both history.
Cranberry-Apple Sauce
1 12 oz. package fresh or frozen cranberries
2 apples, peeled and chopped
2/3–3/4 cup sugar, depending on your taste
1 cup water
Put water and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring mixture to a boil. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add cranberries and apples and return to a full boil. Lower heat to a low boil and cook for 10 minutes. Pour into a bowl. Chill for 2–3 hours before serving.
November is such an awkward, unlovely child with it’s chilly days and long nights. Even so, here are ten reasons to love this hard-to-love month.
10. The chances of being bitten by a rattlesnake are low.
9. It’s a good time to rearrange the living room and sweep the insect corpses that have been hiding under the furniture since the Man of Steel discovered the bee hive in the AC unit a while back.
8. Turkey prices go way down. Good for humans. Bad for turkeys.
7. The trees that still have leaves look so courageous, hanging onto their foliage with all their woody might.
6. Morning walks are lighter for a few weeks once Daylight Savings Time kicks in.
5. Outdoor plants moved inside to winter over give the house a safely-tucked-in-bed feeling.
4. Every once in a while God offers up a gloriously warm, calm, and sunny day.
3. In case you haven’t yet heard, The Caregiver’s Notebook released this November. What’s not to love about that?
2. It’s time to make pie.
1. Thanksgiving with the family, eating great food, playing board games, and hugging our grandson!
What do you like best about November? Leave a comment.
Our extended family will celebrate Christmas the weekend between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. And Grandma Josie’s tapioca fruit salad will grace our table. The recipe for this delectable family favorite debuted on this blog in January of 2012 and is making a return appearance for two reasons: it’s making the round on Pinterest and I’ve been to busy for the past few weeks to try any new recipes.
Today’s recipe comes from my mother’s mother, Josephine Newell Hess. She made huge batches of this tapioca fruit salad when her 8 children, their spouses, and her 39 grandchildren gathered for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Once she was unable to host the gatherings, the recipe was lost for many years. Finally, my sister and I were so hungry for it, we recreated the dish with help from Mom. Now we serve it at Thanksgiving and Christmas and eat it as greedily as hobbits do mushrooms.
Though the recipe below doesn’t make as big a batch as Grandma whipped up in her prime, it’s still enough to fill a large Tupperware bowl. Why make so much? Because we love to eat what’s left over the next morning for breakfast!
Holiday Tapioca Fruit Salad
1 box (8 ounces) large pearl tapioca
4 cups water, divided into two equal parts
1/2 cup sugar
1 20 ounce can pineapple tidbits
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1-2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups seedless red grapes, halved
1 cups chopped walnuts
2 apples, cored and diced
2 bananas, sliced
2 oranges, diced
The night before the meal, put tapioca in a medium bowl. Add 2 cups of water to the tapioca, cover, and let soak overnight.
Several hours before serving, place soaked tapioca in heavy saucepan. Add 2 cups water and the sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until most of the tapioca is translucent and the mixture is very thick. Pour into a large bowl and immediately add pineapple (juice and all) into the thick tapioca. Stir thoroughly. Put in the refrigerator or on the porch to cool.
An hour before serving whip the cream. Add sugar and vanilla. In a large bowl mix the tapioca, fruit, (except the bananas), and whipped cream together. Immediately before the meal, slice the bananas and stir them in, along with the nuts.
