Memories plucked from the Family Recipe Box

I can picture the scene so clearly in my mind. Sitting around the Formica topped table in my grandma’s old farmhouse kitchen. Gathered with my grandparents, my parents, and my siblings, for a home-cooked-from-scratch meal on holidays and other special occasions.

The noodles rolled and cut by-hand and the hot, homemade dinner rolls. I remember taking as large of a first serving of noodles as I thought I could get away with, knowing it would be slim pickin’s the second time around. My brothers watched the dinner rolls with an envious, almost covetous eye. The last one or two rolls never failed to cause a skirmish between those three onery boys. Dessert consisted of grandma’s specialty, hickory nut cake with thick frosting, served alongside a dish of fruit-laced Jello topped with a layer of homemade whipped cream and sprinkled with chopped nuts.  

But on Thanksgiving, we were treated to an extra-special dessert, date pudding. I looked forward all year to this variation in the dinner-at-Grandma’s menu.  When I wished out loud for date pudding to grace our table more often, Grandma shared the recipe with her signature bluntness. “You can make it yourself, you know.” And so I did, make it for the next family dinner. One of the first recipes I wrote in my wedding-shower-gift cookbook was Grandma’s Date Pudding. Years later, when the well-worn lined pages and the envelopes for storing recipes began to fall from the three-ring-binder cookbook, I was sure to rescue the stained page where I’d carefully penned the recipe years before.

When I look at the large portrait commemorating the Burnworth family’s 1916 summer gathering, I wonder if my grandma, the baby on her mother’s lap, received the date pudding recipe from her mother or grandmother. I never thought to ask the story behind the recipe. I wish I’d asked more questions about a lot of things before Alzheimer’s chipped away at Grandma’s mind for almost a decade before she passed at the age of 90. This October marks Grandma’s 110^th birthday. I think the occasion calls for a double batch of date pudding served with a dollop of homemade whipped cream.

Date Pudding

Snip 1 cup of dates into a 9 inch round or square dish; add 2 T. butter. Pour 1 cup boiling water into the dish, to soften the dates and melt the butter.

In a mixing bowl, combine with a fork:

• 1 egg
• 1 ¼ c. four
• ½ c. granulated sugar
• ½ c. brown sugar
• 1 t. baking soda
• ½ t. baking powder
• ½ t. salt
• ½ c. nuts

Smooth the batter over the softened dates in the baking dish. Sprinkle with 1 ½ c. brown sugar. Slowly pour 1 ½ c. boiling water over the batter.

Bake @ 375 ° for approximately 40 minutes. Serve warm OR cold (I prefer it cold) with a dollop of whipped topping.