Taamar wrote:
"Hey, Taamar, I've got a cooking question for you!"
Taamar – via email wrote:
Here's a real basic recipe:
Day-old bread, about 3 cups cubed
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Break bread or cube into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread. If desired, sprinkle with raisins.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.
Look familiar? I never properly thanked you. I guess now is a good time.
My mother was at the “end of life” stage of cancer receiving hospice care in my home. She had lost her sense of taste. Sweets were the only thing that she could distinguish. There are many sweets in the world but she wanted bread pudding. “None of that store bought crap.” Do you know how many hits Google returns on “bread pudding recipe”?
Khross suggested I ask you for a recipe. You quickly replied to my request with the recipe above. I whipped it up. She declared it “the best bread pudding I’ve ever had”. This would be the only thing I could get Mom to eat before she slipped into what would be the last week of her life.
This is a priceless recipe. Mom was from a generation of Texas women that did not think you reached womanhood until you had a recipe published in the church cookbook. It was funny to hear her talking to her best friend telling her about the bread pudding recipe that the “nice lady from the internet sent to us”. Naturally, the recipe goes to her best friend as "Taamar’s Bread Pudding".
I thank you now from the bottom of my heart. When you sent that recipe, I was beyond tired. Recipe trust… sight unseen.
Every time I scooped up that tiny portion she could stomach for the day, you were my hero.