Frog Eye Salad

Recently we invited to a family gathering where the hamburgers and hotdogs would be provided, and we were asked to bring a side dish.  This gave me the chance to make Frog Eye Salad, my wife received this recipe years ago from her aunt and it continues to be one of our favorite salads.  This recipe that makes a very large quantity of salad, and we only make it when there will be quite a few people present to consume it.  This salad is very easy to make, though it does require some preparation the day before it is to be served.

Frog Eye Salad Recipe:
   1 package Acini Di Pepe No 44 Pasta
   ½ teaspoon salt
   1 2/4 cup pineapple juice (drained from cans of pineapple)
   ¾ cup sugar
   3 tablespoons flour
   3 eggs
   2 cans chunk pineapple, 16 ounce (drained, save juice)
   1 can crushed pineapple, 16 ounces (drained, save juice)
   4 cans Mandarin oranges (drained, one can for garnish)
   1 cups small marshmallows
   1 cup coconut
   12 ounce Cool Whip

Directions:

1. Cook entire box of Pasta per directions on package with the ½ teaspoon of salt in a 3-quart pan.  Rinse cooked pasta in cold water and cool.
2. In a medium saucepan, mix the 1 ¾ cups of pineapple juice, ¾ cup of sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, and 3 eggs.  Cook on medium heat stirring constantly until thick (approximately two minutes after it starts to boil).
3. Mix the sauce with the pasta and refrigerate overnight.
4. Mix remaining ingredients and mix with the pasta, garish the top with the remaining mandarin orange slices.

Because we were traveling to Seattle for the function, I decided to start the salad the night before we left home; I cooked the pasta with the salted water in a large stockpot.  Once the pasta was completely cooked, I drained the pasta and placed it in a large ceramic bowl in the refrigerator to cool.

While the pasta cooled, I drained the cans of pineapple and mixed the ingredients for the pineapple sauce in a medium saucepan.  I placed the saucepan on the range on medium heat and started stirring.  It took about ten minutes to bring the mixture to a boil.

I noticed that some of the egg whites where starting to cook together, but I just stirred a little more to break up the clumps.

I used a large mixing bowl and stirred the warm pineapple sauce into the cool pasta then I returned the pasta to the ceramic bowl and returned the pasta to the refrigerator for the night.

The next day we drove to Seattle where we spent the night.  In the morning, I mixed the remaining ingredients into the pasta.  The container of Cool Whip was only available in 20 and 10-ounce sizes, so I purchased a 20-ounce container and only used part of the contents.  The cans of pineapple were also larger than specified in the recipe, but I went ahead and used the entire cans of pineapple in the recipe
.

We divided the salad into two bowls and garnished the top of each bowl of salad with the fourth can of mandarin oranges.  I neglected to take a photo of the finished salad, so you will have to use your imagination.  We divided the salad because in the past, when we serve one large bowl, sometimes only a small amount of the salad gets eaten (people think it is cottage cheese), so we decided to put out one bowl and if was eaten, we would put out the second bowl.  As it turns out, there were only enough people at the event to eat the one bowl, so we ate the remainder with our family the next day.

If you need a salad to serve a large number of guests, Frog Eye Salad and a great salad to make.  However, you might want to set out a small card with the ingredients, so people know exactly what they are eating.  We will continue to make the salad, and over time, we may put out less and less so that there is more for us to eat after the party!

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Cracking the Case of the Coconut

The Olympic Games are in process and we really enjoy watching them on TV every night.  We use our Digital Video Recorder to record the nightly four hour program, and then we usually will start watching the recorded portion about an hour after it starts.  This allows us to skip the commercials and the silly time wasting segments the network inserts.  Why do we need to watch ice skaters when they have finished skating and waiting for their scores for five minutes? 

One of the problems is that we often fast forward so much of the programming and catch-up our recorded viewing with real-time, so we are forced to watch every single competitor in every single event; snore!


To overcome this problem, we will watch another program that we recorded at an earlier time while the Olympics slowly keep recording.  One of the programs we recently watched was an Alton Brown Good Eats where he discussed how to milk and open a coconut.  We thought that was interesting, so earlier this week while we were at the store, we bought a coconut to enjoy.


Today was the day that we cracked the case!  We took the coconut for a quick trip to the garage workbench.  There I used my cordless drill with a 3/8 inch drill bit to drill holes into two of the eyes and down into the center of the coconut.  Using the two holes, we drained the coconut of the liquid (milk) and then strained the liquid to remove the drilling residue.

The filtered milk didn’t last long as we quickly drank it right from the bowl. 

Next we heated the Electrolux oven to 375 degrees.  Once the oven was at temperature, I put the coconut on a cookie sheet and place it in the oven to bake for fifteen minutes.  The shell is supposed to crack making it easier to remove the meat.

After 15 minutes I checked the coconut, no cracks.  Hmmm, OK back into the oven for another 7 minutes.  This time when I checked, there is a crack running around the shell of the coconut.  I removed the coconut from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes, then took the coconut back to the garage (my wife won’t let me hammer on our new countertops) for a few whacks with my trusty hammer to crack the shell the rest of the way.

Alton calls for an oyster knife to remove the meat from the shell.  I don’t have an oyster knife and after the other day, I really didn’t want to use a knife that would slip and send me after another Band-Aid.  I found that a heavy duty spoon works very well.  I slid the spoon between the shell and the meat and just popped the meat out.

Next I have to remove the thin brown husk that covers the outside of the meat.  Thanks to Alton for the information on this, I just used a vegetable peeler and quickly removed all of the husk.  A quick rinse in cold water and we have a nice quantity of coconut meat ready to use.  Or, in our case start eating with a little sugar.

We do have a little left that is in the refrigerator, and I have to find a recipe to use it.  Hmmm, maybe cake!