George and I were shopping at the grocery store and I decided I wanted to make tapioca pudding the old fashioned way. I remember that my mom used to make it for us kids and it was wonderful. When I got to the packages of tapioca, I didn't read the directions on the back, and I chose "regular" over "quick cooking". Big mistake.
When I got home that evening, I decided to read the directions and make the pudding. The first line was "soak overnight". There went that idea. So, two days later, I did have time to soak overnight, and this morning I had soaked tapioca and more directions.
Next line. Put milk in top of double boiler and cook for one hour, watching carefully that it doesn't boil. An hour. Okay. So I hung around the kitchen for an hour this morning making sure that the milk didn't boil. Then it said, "beat egg yolks with sugar, add to mixture and stir for 15 minutes. Whew. Ok. I stood at the stove and stirred for 15 minutes.
As I was standing there I was thinking about my mother and how often she made tapioca pudding for us, and how many hours it must have taken her to make something and then watch her family devour it in a few minutes. I was getting grumpy about the stirring and I thought it was a good thing that I was doing this for myself and not because someone asked me to do it, or I would have been REALLY grumpy.
I got myself into this and I would get myself out. I beat up the egg whites, added the vanilla, folded the mixture into the hot pudding mix and ... voila...beautiful tapioca pudding that only took only a few hours to make.
Old fashioned perfection.
Have a great day.
