Family Traditions

I know I have said this many times but I love being in the kitchen!  It is a room that I have learned many lessons in and I have so many happy memories that were made in the kitchen.  I have two wonderful women that I can thank for my love of cooking; my mom and my grandma Hoffman. 

My grandma was an amazing woman who was always in the kitchen.  Today would have been her 90th birthday but sadly she passed away almost eight years ago after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.  I was pretty young when she started forgetting things but I still have plenty of wonderful memories of my grandma.  Almost all of my memories of her are in the kitchen.  She was an amazing cook who passed on her love of cooking to my mom and to me as well.  I remember going to visit my grandparents around this time of year every summer and helping my grandpa pick raspberries.  I usually ate almost everything I picked but grandpa always ended up with enough for grandma to make the most delicious raspberry torte ever.  I still miss grandma a lot but being in the kitchen makes me feel a little bit closer to her and making the foods that she used to cook makes me proud to carry on this family tradition.

The Best Ever Raspberry Torte

crust
25 graham crackers (crushed)
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar

filling
1 cup milk
1 lb marshmallows (since marshmallows come in 10 oz bags, I just use two full bags so it's a little bit fluffier when it's finished)
1 pint whipped cream
1 quart raspberries

For the crust, crush graham crackers (I cheat and use a food processor), add the sugar and melted butter and pulse until combined. (I used chocolate graham crackers because it's all I had on hand but it's originally done with standard graham crackers)

Once it's all combined, reserve 1/4 cup for the topping and press the rest into the bottom of a 9x13 cake pan.

For the filling: melt the marshmallows and milk in a large bowl.  I use the microwave and let it go for a minute at a time.

It takes about three minutes, you are looking for the marshmallows to be mostly melted but it's ok for there to still be a few chunks of marshmallow left.  I let this cool for a few minutes and then fold in the whipped cream (I cheat here too and use Cool Whip instead of whipping cream from scratch).

Once the whipped cream is added, fold in the raspberries (I usually use a little more than a quart of berries).  I'm not too gentle here because having some of the berries smashed gives the torte a nice pink color. 

When it's all mixed up, pour it over the crust.  Cover and refrigerate overnight so it can set up to a nice fluffy consistency.