Layered Strawberry Pudding

Ingredients	Quantity
Cleaned hulled halved strawberries	1 ½ cups
Strawberry jelly	1 packet
Vanilla Ice-cream	½ liter
Curds	1 tbsp
Lemon juice	few drops
Water	2 cups
Sugar	1 tbsp
Casserole (preferably transparent)	1 medium

Boil 1 ½ cup water, and half the jelly crystals and sugar. Take off from fire, stir till all crystals dissolve. Cool to room temperature. Rinse casserole with cold water. Pour the prepared jelly and set in freezer to thicken.

Before it sets, drop in the strawberries sprinkling evenly. Leave a few whole and few halves for decorating. Allow jelly to set well.

Boil remaining half cup water, add remaining jelly. While this is being done, beat the vanilla ice-cream with a spoon or beater over a tray of chilled water or ice cubes. When beaten, add boiling jelly and stir.

Add curd, lemon juice and keep stirring in one direction till thick.

Pour over the set jelly and chill in freezer till set.

Decorate with saved strawberries and whipped cream or tutti fruity.

Cranberry-orange Relish

Ingredients	Quantity
Cranberries – raw cane sugar	1 pound
Orange – seeded – but not peeled	3

Grind up coarsely in your meat grinder or food processor the cranberries and oranges. Sweeten to taste with sugar. NOTES: * A fruit relish for holiday dinners -- In Chicago, where I did much of my growing up, there was a company called Indian Trails that made a frozen cranberry relish, and their relish was traditional at my family's Thanksgiving dinner. When I moved to Boston I missed it. So I determined when next I went back to find a package of Indian Trails, read the label carefully, and duplicate the ingredients. Alas, the company had gone bankrupt in my absence and there were no packages anywhere in any reputable store. But I knew about the disreputable stores as well, so I took myself over to 47th Street and sure enough there in the frozen foods section I found a pink-marbled, faintly sticky package of Indian Trails cranberry relish, undoubtedly thawed out and refrozen at least a dozen times.

Eagerly I snatched it up, eagerly I read the mysterious ingredients: cranberries, oranges, sugar. (This was before the days when they would have boasted No preservatives! No artificial ingredients!) I returned to Boston. I tried it: cranberries, oranges, sugar. Based on the original experience with Indian Trails, I assume my home-made version would freeze admirably. One year, in a restless fit, I added a little powdered cinnamon, but that was silly, and I'm ashamed of myself now.

Cake and Jelly Surprise

Ingredients	Quantity
Eggless sponge cake	1
Strawberry jelly	1 packet
Fresh strawberries	10 to 15
Water	2 cups
Wax or thick butter paper	1 strip
Biscuits crumbled	½ cup

Slice the cake in 3 horizontal parts. Take a bowl in which the cake fits perfectly. (use the tin used for baking the cake).

Place the butter paper strip all along the inside border vertically. Let the ends overlap. Place the lower part of the cake into the tin keeping the butter paper strip up and around it.

Boil the water, add jelly crystals, stir and dissolve well. Put half the mixture in the fill to chill. When thickened but not set, beat with a spoon and pour on to the layer of cake in the tin.

Sprinkle a third of the biscuits crumbs on it. Place the centre layer of cake on top.

Put in the chiller for jelly to set. Also place remaining jelly mixture in freezer to thicken save 1 tbsp for top. Repeat as for above. Cover with top layer of cake. Pour the remaining jelly (1 tbsp) over it, spread. Sprinkle remain crumbs, decorated with chopped strawberries. Chill for the topmost layer to set.

To serve very carefully insert a wide spatula under the bottom layer. Hold the butter paper tight around the cake and transfer to a cake plate. Carefully peel off butter paper. Serve immediately with or without

vanilla ice-cream.

Blueberry Baked Indian Pudding

Ingredients	Quantity
Nonstick cooking spray
Blueberries – fresh or frozen or dried blueberries	1 cup
Skim milk	2 cups
Sugar	¼ cup
Cornmeal – white, stone – ground	¼ cup
Egg – lightly beaten	1 large
Grated orange peel	1 tsp
Ground ginger	½ tsp
Ground cinnamon	¼ tsp
Salt	½ tsp
Light molasses	¼ cup
Packed brown sugar	¼ cup

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Spray a 1 1/2-quart baking dish with nonstick spray. Pour blueberries into pan and spread them out evenly.

In a heavy saucepan, mix the milk with the sugar. Place over medium-high heat and stir until milk is simmering; gradually sprinkle in the cornmeal and whisk until smooth.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg, orange peel, ginger, cinnamon, salt, molasses and brown sugar together. Whisk in a small amount of the cornmeal mixture. Return the whole mixture to the saucepan and stir to blend. Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish over the berries. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the pudding comes out clean.