Happy Holidays! With Date Nut Tapioca Pudding

Updating yet again as we are coming up to Grandma’s 100th birthday in just two weeks! (I originally posted this in 2006, when our son Mack was still with us and 2 years old helping in the process. Now our daughter is nearly through college and Grandma is about to hit a century! We remain blessed.)

This treat has been a staple in our family my whole life, for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Google will tell you there are a variety of recipes out there, but I have never met anyone else who knew of this treat. I am proud to call it our own. Enjoy!

Great Grandma McNamara’s Date Nut Tapioca Pudding*

Description:
They say it’s a salad, but it tastes a LOT like a desert to me!

Ingredients:
4 C Water
1 1/2 C Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp. White Sugar
3/4 C Tapioca
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1 C Chopped Nuts (optional, but then it is only a Date Salad!)
1 1/2-2 C Dates

Directions:
1) Boil water, Brown Sugar, and White Sugar
2) Add Tapioca in above, cook till thick.
3) Add Vanilla, Nuts, Dates
4) Chill, top with Whipped Cream and dot with Maraschino cherries.
5) “Serve in a beautiful crystal bowl,” Mae E. McNamara

Number Of Servings: A bunch.

Preparation Time: 2 hrs w/ help from toddler

*At the dinner table Great Grandma told us that the recipe is, in fact, from an aunt, and Mom said that she has since found it in an Amish cookbook. Given that Great Grandma’s father was a German baker it is likely that there is a common heritage.

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