Frog Eye Salad

Happy Halloween!! My treat for you is that you get TWO posts from me in one day! I posted earlier for the Foodie Pen Pal reveal, in which I told you about the awesome fall package I got from Natalie, who blogs over at Free Range Human. Great fun! While I enjoy pumpkin flavored things over here, I would like for you to enjoy some of this food irony... Frog Eye Salad!

Have you ever heard of this before? I had not until my girlfriend Liz's husband Nate was incredibly generous and made this for a bunch of our work friends during a rainy day movie-athon last year at their house. It's basically a completely delicious dessert made from pasta, Cool whip, pineapple, mandarin oranges and an egg based custard.

It. Is. SOOO. Good.

I wanted to post it for Halloween for y'all since the name and it's appearance kind of remind me of the "Haunted Houses" I used to go through as a kid at church- the ones you go through in the dark and feel creepy things with your hands- you know, with the bowl full of "eyes" made from peeled grapes, and buckets of "guts" made from cold spaghetti. I wouldn't necessarily recommend feeling this dish with your fingers, per say, but you must must must make it immediately and eat it to your heart's content, pretending you're a kid and are mischievous and are eating a Witch's concoction of frog eyes and other frog bits. It's great fun, and did I mention it tastes fabulous?

Can't you just imagine the three witches from Macbeth cooking this up in their cauldron while saying those famous lines... They say eye of Newt and toe of frog, but for our purposes we'll go ahead and reverse those! 

1 WITCH.  Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.

2 WITCH.  Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.

3 WITCH.  Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!

1 WITCH.  Round about the caldron go;

In the poison'd entrails throw.—

Toad, that under cold stone,

Days and nights has thirty-one;

Swelter'd venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!

ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

2 WITCH.  Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

There wasn't much in the way of history on Frog Eye Salad I could find online. I did find on a couple sites that mentioned it's big amongst the Mormon crowd, but it would also make sense to me that it has some roots in the South, since we tend to love making anything with fruit completely unhealthy and sweet and delicious. Ambrosia, Jello pudding, any fruit pie, and strawberry shortcake are a few examples that come to mind when I think of fruit based Southern desserts. I'll give props to the South since that's who I can relate to and say that this recipe fits the category to a T.

I will say that the hardest part in making this dish is the waitinggggggg. It's agonizing. The salad is pretty good the first day you make it, but if you are able to sit on your hands and control yourself until the next day, your taste buds will be handsomely rewarded, because Ohhhhh Lawwwdy is it so much better!

Frog Eye Salad

Recipe from my friend Nate

Recipe as written will fill a disposable 9x12 tin pan.

 1 cup white sugar          

1 tablespoon AP flour  

2.5 teaspoons salt, divided

1 can crushed pineapple (20 ounces), drained with juice reserved

2 cans pineapple chunks, (20 ounces each), drained with juice reserved

2 eggs, lightly beaten   

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 quarts water

1 tablespoon canola oil                     

1 package Acini de Pepe (16 ounces)         

3 cans mandarin oranges  (11 ounces each), drained

1 carton Cool whip (9 ounces)

1 cup mini marshmallows

1 cup shredded coconut

Drain cans of pineapple, reserving 1 3/4 cup of juice total. Anything else may be discarded. In a large saucepan, combine sugar, flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Gradually stir in reserved pineapple juice and eggs.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until thickened.  Add lemon juice.  Cool mixture to room temperature.  In a large pasta pot, bring water, remaining 2 teaspoons salt and oil to boil.  Add Acini de Pepe.  Cook at rolling boil until Acini de Pepe is done.  Meanwhile fold into the egg mixture the oranges, Cool whip, marshmallows and coconut.

Using a very fine mesh strainer, drain pasta and rinse with cold water. Drain again very well.  Combine egg/fruit mixture and Acini de Pepe in a large bowl or one of the pots you already used if it's big enough. Mix lightly but thoroughly.  Refrigerate overnight in airtight container.  Salad may be refrigerated for as long as a week in airtight container.  It also may be frozen, though freezing somewhat alters the texture.