Banana Pudding Dessert

This is recipe that Mom made often when we were growing up.  I always thought it was complicated because it was made from scratch, but it's not.  The cream sauce can also be used for a Trifle type dessert.

6 Tablespoons flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs yolks
2 Tablespoons melted butter
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

sliced bananas
vanilla wafers

Combine flour, sugar and salt.  Set aside.  In a medium saucepan combine egg yolks, milk and butter.  Add flour mixture.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk.  Cook until sauce thickens (about 10 minutes).  Stir in vanilla.  Let cool.  Layer vanilla wafers, banana slices, then cream sauce in a bowl.   Top with more vanilla wafers. Chill.

Pumpkin Roll Dessert

I can't say how many times I called Mom to get this recipe over the years.  I'd search my recipes and come up empty, thinking for sure I'd written it down the last time I requested it.  Anyway, it made for a good excuse to call and I think she was always flattered when someone asked her for a recipe.

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup canned or cooked pumpkin
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
powdered sugar

Preheat over to 350 degrees.  Beat eggs until lemon colored.  Gradually add sugar.  Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice.  Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt; add to egg/pumpkin mixture.  Line a 10x15 inch jelly-roll pan with wax paper, and grease the paper and sides of pan.  Pour batter into pan.

Spread batter evenly in pan and sprinkle with nuts, if desired.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Sprinkle powdered sugar onto a kitchen towel (a thin, non-terry cloth towel works best).  Turn cake onto towel, and remove wax paper.

Roll up cake and towel lengthwise.

Let cool.  Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Filling:

6 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup soft margarine
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whip cream cheese and margarine.  Beat in 1 cup powdered sugar and vanilla.  Unroll cake and spread with filling.  Roll up again (without towel!) and sprinkle with more powdered sugar.  Cut in half and wrap each roll in plastic wrap.  Chill again for several hours.  Slice into 2 inch servings.

Frozen Lemon Pudding

We had a lemon tree in our backyard in California which produced an abundance of lemons, some of them as big as grapefruit.  Our home was built on a former orange grove, so the soil and climate were no doubt ideal for citrus growing.  Mom was never one to waste, so she gave lemons to the neighbors, squeezed lemons and froze the juice in ice cube trays, and tried to find as many ways possible to use lemons in her cooking.  I've found so many recipes with lemon that I'm creating a lemon category, starting with an ideal dessert for the hot summer we've been having: frozen lemon pudding.

This is not pudding in the real sense because nothing is cooked.  Instead both egg whites and evaporated milk are whipped to make a light summertime dessert.  Mom made this quite often, so it will bring back memories for many.

Chill until icy cold:  1 cup evaporated milk

As milk chills, mix together in large bowl:  2 egg yolks (retain whites)
                                                                     6 Tablespoons sugar
                                                                     1/2 Tablespoon grated lemon rind
                                                                     2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Beat until stiff:  2 eggs whites
                         1/4 cup sugar

Fold egg whites into lemon mixture.
Whip chilled milk until fluffy.  Add 3 Tablespoons lemon juice and continue beating until stiff.  Fold into lemon mixture.  Gently spread into a 9 x 13 pan and sprinkle with 1/2 cup crushed vanilla wafers.  Put into a freezer set at the coldest temperature for several hours.  Cut into squares and garnish with mint or maraschino cherries.

My favorite new kitchen gadget is the Ultimate Microplane tool from Williams-Sonoma (http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/microplane-ultimate-citrus-tool/?pkey=cfruit-vegetable-tools%7Cctlfvtfru).  It makes grating lemon rind a breeze!

A Birthday Tribute/Fruity Ice Cream

Ruth Bryan on July 14, 2004

Happy Birthday, Mom.  We all miss you more than words can say.

In honor of what would have been Ruth's 87th birthday, I am posting an old family recipe for Fruity Ice Cream.  Her grandchildren can attest to the fact that Ruth always had ice cream in her freezer.  In her later years she would often request an ice cream cake for her birthday, like the one pictured above.

Fruity Ice Cream

This recipe requires a 4 quart ice cream maker.  If you only have a 2 quart machine, cut the recipe in half or freeze it in two batches.

2 cups whole milk

3 cups sugar

3 cups heavy cream

Blend all three of the above ingredients in a bowl until the sugar is dissolved.  Put the bowl in the freezer for 15 minutes, then add the following:

1 1/2 cups orange juice

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/4 tsp. salt

2 small packages of frozen strawberries or raspberries, thawed and mashed. 

3 bananas, mashed

Use the freezing process for your specific ice cream maker.  I used an electric 4 quart bucket freezer that requires ice and rock salt and it took about 40 minutes.  

My 4 qt. container filled to the brim

I always thought this recipe came from my grandma Annie, Ruth's mother.  However, I recently compared this with my sister Leanne's recipe, taken straight from Annie's lips, and it was different.  Hers made 6 quarts and used pineapple.  This isn't surprising, as Annie was famous for having a mental recipe box (i.e. not writing things down).  There could be even more versions of this recipe floating around out there, though it would be hard to beat this one!

Hot Milk Sponge Cake

It is sad to think that this Sunday will be our first Mothers Day without Ruth.  I know if she were still here she would be making this cake for Sunday dinner.  Hot milk sponge cake was always served as shown, with strawberries and whipped cream, usually in the months of May and June when strawberries are in season in California.  Mom usually bought strawberries from a roadside stand where they were picked straight from the field.  I've never tasted better strawberries, or a better way to eat them.

1 cup milk
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract

Put eggs in a large bowl and beat with rotary beater until very light.  Keep beating while adding sugar 2 tablespoons at a time.  Add salt and flavorings.
Heat milk and butter in a saucepan just to boiling point.  Add all at once to egg mixture.  Mix in.  Combine flour and baking powder and add all at once to the batter.  Beat with mixer until smooth.  Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.  Pour batter into pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.

To serve, mash 2 or 3 cups of strawberries and sweeten with sugar.  Add desired amount of sliced strawberries.  Slice a square of sponge cake in half and cover both layers with strawberry mixture.  Top with whipped cream.