Fruity Frog Eye Salad

"My Grandma makes frog eye salad for many of our family get-togethers.  I recently made her recipe for the first time for a birthday barbecue and I used fruit-flavored mini marshmallows to add a little bit of color and extra fruitiness.  It turned out so yummy and was a hit at the party!"   

Pasta

1 cup Acini di Pepe pasta (from 12 ounce package)*

1 Tablespoon vegetable or canola oil

1/8 teaspoon salt

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add pasta, oil and salt.  Cook for 12 minutes.  Drain and cool.

Fruit

1 (15 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained and juice reserved

1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained and juice reserved

1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks or tidbits, drained and juice reserved

Drain the fruit well, reserving the juice, which will be used in the custard (recipe follows).

Custard

2 cups of juice, reserved from fruit in above step

2/3 cup sugar

4 Tablespoons flour

2 eggs

pinch of salt

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

In a saucepan, whisk together fruit juice, sugar, flour, eggs and salt.  Bring to a boil and cook until thickened.  Remove from the heat and stir in lemon juice.  Set aside to cool.

To Assemble Salad:

In a large bowl, combine pasta and fruit.  Add custard and stir until well combined.  REFRIGERATE OVERNIGHT. 

Right before serving, stir in the following:

1 (8 ounce) container Cool Whip, thawed

3 cups vanilla or fruit-flavored miniature marshmallows

Mix well and serve.  Refrigerate any leftovers.

*TIP:  Acini di Pepe is a very small round pasta that can usually be found on the top shelf on the pasta aisle of your grocery store.