National Raisin Day

Raisins. You either you love them or hate them. What I find interesting is that there are people who love grapes and wine but can’t stand raisins. It’s similar to those who will pour a cup of ketchup onto their fries but will get sick to their stomach if they see a tomato on their burger. I get it. It’s all about the texture and the look of the food items. Let’s face it, the site of a raisin is not the most attractive and the texture is…well…squishy.

According to Nationaldaycalendar.com, the very first National Raisin day was celebrated in 1909. Every April 30th since then, the nation celebrates National Raisin Day. Raisins are grapes that have dried naturally by sunlight or have been mechanically dehydrated. Nationaldaycalendar.com also claims that most of the raisins in the world are produced in California. I am reminded of those TV commercials featuring the Gladys Knight & The Pips song, “ I Heard it Thru the Grapevine”, sung by the California Raisins (circa 1986-87). It’s pop culture and influential marketing at it’s best! The California Raisins actually made a food (raisins) into something cool! When my kids were growing up and they wanted something sweet to eat, I would give them a box of raisins and tell them they were “Nature’s Candy”. Sigh. If only that cool raisin marketing campaign was still going on OR my kids didn’t have to grow up and want the other candy.

After I witnessed the hockey players devour raisin cookies at our team pizza party, I asked my friend Lisa for her recipe. She got the recipe from her friend Doris, who makes fabulous baked goods. Lisa didn’t have a name for the recipe so we named it. Here it is directly from Lisa:

Fabulous Doris Raisin Cookies

2/3 C Butter

1/2 C white sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1 Egg

1t Vanilla

1/2 t Baking Soda

1 1/2 C All Purpose Flour

1 C Raisins 

Mix butter (cream it first until light and fluff then add in sugars)+ Sugars, add egg & vanilla.  Add dry ingredients and then raisins.  Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake @ 375 for about 8-10 minutes until they are lightly browned on the edges.  Remove the pan from the oven and let the cookies cool for about 2min on the pan before moving them to the cooling rack.  Enjoy! 

Speaking of cookies, coincidentally, National Oatmeal Cookie Day is on the same day - April 30th. As far as combinations with raisins go, oatmeal and raisins are hands down the best. Add both ingredients to a lot of butter, sugar, etc and the result is a delicious oatmeal raisin cookie! No wonder these two national days are celebrated on the same day.

I had a recipe for gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookies so I made some during the lull of the NFL Draft this weekend.

These may look good but I will say, they’re just ok. The oatmeal raisin cookie recipe that has been featured on the Quaker Oats oatmeal packaging since the early 1900’s is still the best out there. Obviously, that recipe isn’t gluten-free!

I froze two dozen GF oatmeal raisin cookies because I plan to drop some off as thoughtful pinches to my non-gluten-eating-cookie-lovers on April 30th. Fingers crossed that these friends of mine fall into the group of people who love raisins as opposed to the ones who hate them.

This plastic container, which previously held fresh pineapple chunks, can hold 1/2 a dozen cookies. Add a bow and it becomes a raisin pinch!

Another combination with raisins that I like (and miss) are raisins and chocolate. Back in the days when I was able to eat chocolate - I would eat chocolate covered raisins by the handfuls and would have a hard time stopping. My son prefers the milk chocolate version of these Raisinets while my daughter loves dark chocolate. I taught my kids to dump their boxes of Raisinets into their popcorn for that nice salty/sweet combo at the movie theatre.

The packaging says it contains WHOLE fruit so these are good for us, right? My son was supposed to eat his box of milk chocolate covered raisins on movie night but he just couldn’t wait. Hence, it didn’t make it into the picture.

I also love raisins in carrot cake, bran muffins, cinnamon toast, trail mix, as “ants” on a log, covered in yogurt and in my mom’s egg dish. This egg dish that my mom makes is a crowd pleaser for the Filipino family members in my house. It doesn’t sound like it would taste good but it does. The fancy name for this dish is called Tortang Giniling which translates to Filipino Beef Omelette. However, we nicknamed it, “Lola’s Eggs”. It includes ground beef, lots of pieces of fried potatoes and surprisingly, raisins! This ground beef base is then covered with a thin egg omelette which is prepared separately. {Side Note: My mom makes a special version for my vegetarian daughter omitting the ground beef.} We cut this dish like we would cut a pie and serve it that way too. As with most Filipino dishes, we serve this egg dish with white rice. Most of us, even my mom, uses ketchup as the condiment to bring all the flavors together. My daughter and I add Tabasco Sauce too. I wish I had a picture of this dish so that you could see what it looks like. When I Googled it, even though there were so many variations, I couldn’t find my mom’s version. I’ll take a picture of it next time!

To me, it’s fascinating that they celebrated the first National Raisin Day so long ago. This week, in researching raisins, it made me happy to see so many wonderful recipes with raisins as an ingredient on Pinterest. It reassured me; I don’t think raisins will ever become an obsolete ingredient any time soon.

Pinches,

Barb