Tapioca pudding just like Mama used to make! Well not exactly. She would have never garnished it with fresh berries that my 9 year old self would have picked off before eating. However, that is one of the little scalloped Pyrex glass bowls that she used to serve it in. Also, it’s a tad lumpy, but it tastes just like I remember.
Tapioca pudding was hardly my mother’s crowning achievement in the kitchen. She was a great cook, albeit a practical one. I still have her recipe file containing dozens of handwritten recipes for things like “Ritz Cracker Pie” and “Crunchy Date Rounds” as well as numerous ones clipped from the local newspaper and magazines like Family Circle or Woman’s Day. Some of them she probably never made; they just looked interesting. I can promise you we never had “Cabbage Fruit Salad” (yes, there’s a recipe for that). Some she annotated with “Good!” I can only assume the ones that were “Bad!” ended up in the trash after one go at it.
Cooking, and food in general, has been elevated to a level far above what it was 50 years ago. Websites like Epicurious offer a world of exotic recipes at our fingertips and stores like Whole Foods and Central Market have the ingredients needed to prepare them. High end appliances like Wolf ovens have become status symbols, even if they’re only used to heat water for hard boiled eggs. And who among us hasn’t walked into Williams Sonoma and purchased an overpriced kitchen gadget just because we thought it was cool? Yes, I own an asparagus steamer; don’t judge.
I do wonder what childhood food memories kids today will carry with them into adulthood. Fifty years from now will they be standing in their kitchens thinking, “I sure could go for some creme brulee right about now. I wonder if I still have Mama’s old chef’s torch?”
I'm Just Being Frank 