Greeting Card Campaign: 7-15 National Tapioca Day

July 15th is National Tapioca Day - a celebration of all things tapioca. If your beloved doesn't like tapioca, you can always celebrate National Nude Day today, but I ain't makin' no card for that one. You're on your own there. This is a family site. 
 

 

I've chosen a kind of sappy romantic theme featuring pudding AND peaches.  These are the graphics (above) for the outside and inside of the card.  Just paste them as full page graphics on the front and back of the page in your document file.  You can use Word or Publisher, PageMaker (like I did) or any other publishing software.  The second page should be printed upside down compared to the first which is why the photo scan is upside down  That way the greeting will be at the bottom of the inside page.  This is a top fold card.  You can buy blank greeting card stock with a nice prefold in it or go cheap like me and buy straight cardstock and fold it yourself. 

I've also included a nice recipe for Tapioca Pudding & Peaches below if you want to get jiggy with the special effects. Nothing says I love you like a sweet treat.  For those of you guys doing something with whipped cream and a big red bow, just don't tell us about it, okay. I don't even want to imagine that.

 

Tapioca Pudding

With Peaches

Ingredients

·       2 cups (2%) milk

·       1 egg

·       tbsp tapioca

·       1½ cups coarsely diced fresh peaches

·       3 tbsp no-sugar apricot spread

·       1 tsp vanilla

Preparation:

1.     Beat egg lightly. Add milk, egg and tapioca to saucepan and allow it to sit for 5 minutes. 

2.     Stir peaches and apricot spread into mixture.

3.     Heat and stir over medium heat until the pudding comes to a boil.

4.     Cook for 1 minute after the pudding starts to boil. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

5.     Cool slightly; stir. Place plastic wrap directly on surface of pudding; chill.

Makes 4 servings.  If you can't get fresh peaches, you can use frozen peaches if you add 1 or 2 packages of artificial sweetener or 4 teaspoons of sugar to the milk mixture.

Tom King - © 2013

New York Style Pizza Crust (for Texans)

Here is your never-miss medium to thin crust pizza crust. The original recipe calls this "New York Style", but my bunch give it the Texas touch with the ingredients, which can be pretty much anything you want.

A pizza is a wonderfully versatile place to put all kinds of delicious stuff from meat to veggies to fruits and fruits masquerading as vegetables. Be creative. Add some jalepenos and cheddar, some spinach and goat cheese. Whatever you want. Make up a bunch of dough balls and have a make-your-own pizza party. You are only limited by your imagination.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup warm water – 110° to 115°
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2¼ cups all-purpose or bread flour
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon cornmeal (optional)

Directions:

1. Put all the dry ingredients except the yeast and cornmeal into a mixing bowl
2. Put the yeast into the warm water and whisk to blend.  Allow it to sit for 10 or 15 minutes till it starts to bubble.
3. Add liquid and any sediment in the cup to the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and mix with dough hook or knead by hand till you have a smooth dough ball. Add flour if needed till dough is just barely not sticky to touch.
4. Flatten dough on a very lightly oiled (olive oil is best) pizza baking sheet or pizza stone with a rolling pin or twirl it in the air or press it flat with your fingers (technique will depend on your pizza crust making skill.
5. Spread the dough to make a 12 to 14 inch circular crust.  You can make it 16 inches if you like a cracker thin crust and you've got a good rolling pin.
6. Preheat oven to 500°.  While the oven is heating add pizza sauce, cheese and toppings.  
7. Bake on bottom or middle rack of the oven till crust browns at the edges and cheese bubbles.

Makes enough crust for one 12-16 inch pizza


Tom King © 2013

Wacky Mac Salad

Great light lunch on a hot day!

This is a great hot weather lunch dish all by itself.  A bowl of this and a nice fizzy drink or some sweet tea, lemonade or other ice cold beverage and you’ve got yourself a summer lunch favorite that you are really going to like and it’s really easy to make and very difficult to mess up the recipe as you’ll see.  I measure most everything by handfuls and adjust ingredients to suit whatever I have in the fridge.

Ingredients:

• Package of “Wacky Mac”, rotini, elbow macaroni, penne pasta or other shaped pasta. I like the Wacky Mac. Nothing absorbs the dressing like Wacky Mac.
• ½ cup Miracle Whip
• ½ cup Mayonnaise
• ¼ cup Ranch Dressing
• 1 handful of diced olives
• 1 handful of cheddar cheese cubes
• 3 slices of bologna, turkey breast slices, Wham (for vegetarians) or other lunch meat cut into 3 inch strips (about a handful when you’re done
• 2-3 sweet pickles or 4-5 gherkins sliced (also about a handful of pickle chips
• 1 handful of sweet pickle relish
• 1 handful of finely chopped celery
• 1 handful finely chopped onions
• 1 handful finely chopped sweet bell pepper
• 1 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 handful finely chopped boiled egg (about two large eggs worth)

Directions:

1. Cook Wacky Mac according to package directions.  Should be slightly al dente (firm).  Drain and place in large salad bowl
2. Add Miracle Whip, Mayo, Ranch Dressing, then scrape everything else off the cutting board into the bowl with the pasta. 
3. Sprinkle celery seed over the rest and stir with a big spoon till the ingredients are evenly distributed.
4. Chill in the fridge for an hour and serve.  If you’re impatient or like it that way, you can even eat it while it’s still warm. 

* Serves 4-6 people or just me if I’m really starving.

Hot Fudge Sauce

Great hot fudge recipe my wife got from a lady in Louisiana name Opal Martin.  Great for sundaes, banana splits and almost anything you’d like to put warm hot chocolate fudge on.  It only takes about 5 minutes to make.  This recipe is why I keep a supply of cocoa in the pantry at all times (this and the chocolate skillet cake recipe). I like more of a milk chocolate fudge myself and sometimes add a few tablespoons of evaporated milk when I make it.  Either way is terrific. Saved me many a trip to the grocery store when the missus gets a craving for a hot fudge Sunday.  I keep the leftover sauce in the fridge in some little fruit jars I keep for leftover fudge sauce, sweet and sour sauce, homemade tartar sauce or homemade pimento cheese.You can reheat the sauce for a few seconds in the microwave. It's just lovely stuff.

Ingredients:

•   1 cup sugar
•   1/3 cup cocoa
•   3 tbsp flour
•   1/3 tsp vanilla
•      ¼ tsp salt
•     1 cup boiling water
•     1 tbsp margarine

Directions: 

 

1.     Mix dry ingredients together in a saucepan

2.     Add boiling water while stirring

3.     Cook for 3-4 minutes stirring constantly.

4.     Store in covered jar in the refrigerator

Makes 1½  cups.

 Stores nicely in a mandarin orange fruit jar - just sayin'


(c) 2013 by Tom King