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Date Collected

Fall 11-24-2018

Place item was collected

Logan, Utah

Informant

Tara Wall

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Tara Wall is the mother of five children and lives in Heber City. Her whole family is heavily involved in the community theatre, Timpanogos Valley Theatre, and loves working with the community. Her side of the family doesn’t do too much cooking, but she married into a family that loves sharing warm, home-made recipes and plenty of sweets. She homes foster animals and works closely with the Heber animal shelter. Everyone at TVT calls her “Mama Wall.”

Context

I met with Tara one weekend when I was home from school for a weekend. We got on the topic of Folklore and some of my collection project ideas. While I was talking about one particular question I planned to ask to informants: “are there any funny/horror stories you could share regarding this recipe?” she stopped me in a fit of giggles. “Oh, I’ve got one you could use,” she said. A few days later, I caught her on Facebook at the same time I was and asked if I could call and ask her a few questions. I set up my speaker and IPad to record and take notes of the conversation.

Text

Great Grandma Nielsen, hardworking, petite little Grandma. (This is the relative that Jessica {Tara’s daughter} inherited all her petite-ness from, lol) She's been a farmer her entire life. Grew up in a tiny Idaho town, retired to Payson. Never eats sugar. No desserts. Ever. Has always said it upsets her stomach. BUT one time for her daughter's birthday she decides to make a special dessert. Her daughter is Dora May, Mark's {Tara’s husband} mom. Dora may is probably turning about 50ish. So Grandma Nielsen is a grown adult, just never made desserts before. Dora May gives her a favorite recipe, a raspberry cream cheese bar, made with vanilla pudding, cream cheese, raspberry jello etc. GG Nielsen doesn't have vanilla pudding, but she does have pistachio pudding! So she substitutes that. And she doesn't have cream cheese, but she does have Velveeta cheese! So she substitutes that. So she serves a pistachio pudding layered dessert with Velveeta cheese and raspberries. She honestly had no idea. Dora May said she was speechless and had to eat every bite, knowing that her mom had gone to the trouble of actually making her a dessert. It’s one of our favorite family stories.

Dora May loves to cook to this day, she’s 80 now, and is fantastic at it. She would make the best desserts. I came from a diabetic family, so literally, the only time we would have candy was on Christmas morning. Of all of Dora May’s recipes, I still favor the raspberry bars. I make it about once a year on Easter, when you can pick your own raspberries. I never dared to change it. Dora May would somehow know that I made even the slightest change to the recipe and would hunt me down. I love how creamy and delicious it is. I associate it, and sometimes make it to remember fun and happy family gatherings.

Raspberry Bars

1 ½ Cups graham cracker crumbs

6 Tbsp butter, melted

2 Tbsp sugar

8 oz Cream cheese

½ Cup powdered sugar

3.3 oz Vanilla pudding

1 Cup milk

1 Tsp lemon zest

12 oz fresh raspberries

Combine crumbs, butter, and sugar until well blended. Press onto baking pan and refrigerate while preparing the filling. Combine cream cheese and powdered sugar with a mixer until well blended. Add pudding, milk, and lemon zest. Beat for 2 minutes. Layer raspberries on crust, then pour mixture on top. Best if you use freshly picked raspberries.

Texture

She would pause here and there to clear her throat or cough, then would continue where she left off. Some comments were followed by a slight sigh or giggle, short pause, and the continuation of her thought. Two times during the conversation, she would ask an off-topic question and make conversation of that for a few minutes. She was especially fascinated by a book she had recently finished, one that pertained to folklore: Enchantment by Orson Scott Card.

Course

ENGL 2210

Instructor

Lynne S. McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2018

Theme

G1: Holidays

EAD Number

1.3.1.20

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