Stirring the steaming, liquid vanilla pudding as it warms on the stove is kind of Zen for me. The silver spoon gleams and swirls through currents of milk and cornstarch. I stare, mesmerized.
Liz was bustling around the kitchen, dicing and dashing, mixing the Dijon, OJ, and honey basting sauce, chopping bananas, basting the naked Cornish hens, while I stirred, and stirred, and stirred.
It’s a meditative practice, stirring pudding. Anything can be practice. Cooking is grounding. Recipes provide structure. Food anchors us in detail. Natalie often taught us – if you want to ground your writing, write about food. The closer to your heart, the better.
I kept staring at the steam, lost in memories of all the times Mom would grab one of us kids to stir, and keep the pudding from scorching, while she hurried around the kitchen, trying to pull a meal together for our family of 8. I have a lot of appreciation for all the meals she cooked for us.
When Liz broke into the box of Nabisco “simple goodness” Nilla wafers, she smiled and pointed to the inside of the cardboard. There, printed in both English and Spanish, was the recipe for the Original Nilla Banana Pudding with meringue topping, the one that Mom talked about in her comment on Southern Banana Pudding.
I remember the old style pudding and the time it took to make it. In further research, I discovered that the recipe for original banana pudding with meringue (that’s printed inside our Nilla wafer box) can be found at NabiscoWorld, Original Nilla Banana Pudding.
There’s also a page of Spread Some Holiday Cheer Nilla recipes that includes a Meringue-Topped Southern Banana Pudding that uses the boxed vanilla pudding (not Instant but Cook & Serve) that is in R3’s recipe post — Southern Banana Pudding – A Family Tradition.
Confused? Like I said, there are as many banana pudding recipes as there are families to make them. Each is unique, traditional for that family. It seems to me that as puddings and pies became more packaged and convenient, the recipes were slightly altered to adapt them to the additional speed needed to save time as women became busier and busier outside the home.
That’s my theory. So take your pick; try them all and see which appeals to you. Next time, I want to make the vanilla pudding from scratch, the Original Nilla Banana Pudding with meringue. Just like my Aunt used to make.
I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. A Holiday to count our blessings. To be grateful for what we have. Now it’s time to head off to my writing projects. I’m grateful for the simple gift of time. This day is just for me.
-posted on red Ravine, Friday, November 23rd, 2007
[…] Cooking by the Seat of my Pants wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptMemories, Writing, & Family Recipes November 23, 2007 by QuoinMonkey [IMG Smile, You’re On A Banana Puddin’!, Thanksgiving Day, November 2007, Minneapolis, Minnesota,photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. ]Stirring the steaming, liquid vanilla pudding as it warms on the stove is kind of Zen for me. The silver spoon gleams and swirls through currents of milk and cornstarch. I stare, mesmerized. Liz was bustling around the kitchen, dicing and dashing, mixing the Dijon, OJ, and […]
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ybonesy, this might be my all-time favorite name from the scrawlers – Cooking by the Seat of my Pants! Oh, boy. Does it get any better than that?
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I’ve always found stirring to be a meditative practice, too. I think that’s why I’ve been making so many risottos lately. I stir, my mind clears, and we get a good meal in the end. 🙂
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QM, What a great name for a cookbook! Cooking by the seat of my pants. I can’t tell you how many times I have done just that! Anyhow, that is the happiest banana pudding I have ever seen! Looks yummy! Also, I must say those cornish hens look equally as good! Hope you & Liz enjoyed! D
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Hey, Cookin’ by the Seat of Your Pants, that banana pudding looks scrumptious! Good job, you and Liz! Also looks like you might need to invite a few friends over to help finish it off.
How was your T-day? The cornish hens look like they were roasted to perfection.
We had a great night out with family. At 8:30 it started snowing, so Dee says we got Christmas and Thanksgiving in one. It’s pretty cold here today, snowing on and off. I hope it snows all night and sticks.
I’m cooking posole tonight. I’m always interested in what folks prepare the day after Thanksgiving. We had leftover turkey for lunch, but dinner is something completely different.
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QM
Who decided on the smiley face? Sure looks good.
Does Liz remember the recipe for “Chicken L’Orange” that her Nana sent me? I still have the card in my recipe box. At the end is her comment, “Liz really liked it!” (Sent after Liz’s visit to CA.) It is probably similar to what you had on the Cornish game hens.
My contribution to yesterday’s meal was Grandma Caroline’s Green Salad. (OLD family recipe,) and a Cranberry Sauce that had orange juice and a whole jar of Orange Marmalade cooked with the fresh berries!
Coincidentally, today, I wrote all morning about food; an article on coming full circle, as far as beginning as an agricultural based economy, where everyone had a garden, then getting dependent on supermarkets and convenience foods, back to the realization that “fresh is best,” and the current boom of healthier eating and farmers’ markets, etc.
Am enjoying leftovers today, hope you are too.
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Robin, good way to put it: stir, clear mind, good meal!
alittediddy, the happy banana pudding was DELICIOUS. You know what I’ve discovered is that I really like it when the pudding is still warm. It’s so good that way. So I tend to overeat it the first day it’s made when it’s fresh and warm. I know R3 likes it the second day, after it’s chilled and the flavor’s gone through it more. Either way, yum.
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ybonesy, I’ve only had posole when I’ve been in New Mexico. Is that a family tradition for you? Maybe you should start publishing some of your traditional recipes, too. What was it you made for me when I was there in July? It was delicious and something I can’t get authentically in this part of the country.
The day after Thanksgiving, Liz had to work. So I mostly spent the day writing and taking some down time. I didn’t cook at all! We went to a movie in Uptown with friends last night (something I love to do Thanksgiving weekend). And today, we are going to heat up leftovers in the oven. It’s a lazy day at home.
But we are going to get our winter clothes down from the attic. Brrrr. I’m glad you all had snow for Thanksgiving. For me, it makes it really feel like the Holidays.
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Marylin, that’s a really sweet comment from Liz’s Nana on the Chicken L’Orange. It reminds me of how much past generations of women showed their love for family by preparing foods they liked. I’ll have to ask Liz if she remembers it. The Cornish game hens were delicious with the basting glaze.
You know, I think Liz made that cranberry sauce for me once and it was to die for. I’ll have to ask her to make it again. So a couple of questions for you, what is Grandma Caroline’s Green Salad? Is it a salad, salad? Or is it kind of Jello thing? Is it a recipe you can share?
The other question, are you going to be publishing your article on food somewhere? Is there some place we’ll be able to read it?
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QM
Grandma’s Green Salad
1 large box of Lime Jello
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
1 14-15 oz. can crushed pineapple, including juice
Take the cream cheese out of the fridge, so it begins to soften. Prepare the jello, using 1 less cup of water than the recipe calls for. Chill it until it begins to thicken, but don’t let it solidify, or you’ll have a mess!
Since I only have one mixer, I whip the cream and place it in a small bowl. Then I cut the cream cheese in small chunks and place them in the mixer bowl and beat it well. When the jello is a thick syrupy consistency, I add it to the cream cheese and mix until they are homogenized! (You’ll have to scrape down the sides of the bowl several times.) Next, the pineapple is mixed in and then the whipped cream, both at the slowest speed. Refrigerate until firm. Enjoy!
I’m going to submit my article to the “San Diego City Works Press.” Saw a tiny ad in the Sept./Oct. issue of Poets& Writers Magazine, requesting submissions.
I’ll be glad to email it to you, as well.
Enjoyed your comments on cooking, especially the thinking time one has while stirring. (After all, you have to occupy your thoughts with something, as stirring doesn’t actually require intellectual concentration, unless, of course, the recipe called for 197 stirs to the left-reverse-now give ‘er 163 stirs to the right! tee-hee)
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QuoinMonkey,
I had to chuckle when I saw this photo of pudding and Nilla Wafers. I thought of your aversion to the Mid-Western cereal dessert bar…Special K flakes or Rice Krispies held together with melted marshmallows or peanut butter and corn syrup.
And I thought, “Wait a minute! Wait a minute!” I think this dessert you’re photographing is on equal footing with rice krispy squares.
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Marylin, thanks so much for the Green Salad Recipe. I wonder if I can nudge Liz to make it for me for the Christmas Holiday? 8) It reminds me of a similar Jell-O salad in our family. You know, when I was growing up, Mom made some kind of dessert almost every night to go with a full meat and potatoes dinner. It’s hard to imagine that today.
Let us know what happens with the “San Diego City Works Press.” Poets and Writers is a great place to look for submission requests. Liz got me a subscription in the Spring and I’m behind on my reading.
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Sinclair! Oh, no, no, no, no! Not EVEN close. Those Rice Krispie treats are just NO comparison to homemade Southern Banana Pudding! Nice try though. 8)
But, let me then say, I’m a writer at heart. And love to research. So for those who do love the Krazy Krispie treats, here’s a link to the original recipe at K-E-DOUBLE L-O-DOUBLE-GOOD, Kellogg’s best to you!
Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies Treats® Original (LINK)
And here’s a link to some of the history of the first treats that begins: It was in 1939 when Mary Barber and the staff at the Kellogg’s home economics department created the now-famous recipe.
It’s at:
Ode To A Classic Recipe on Childhood Is Calling (LINK)
You can listen to Snap, Crackle, Pop there, too!
You know, I have to ask Mom if she made them for us before we moved up North. I do remember her making them for my siblings. But I sure don’t remember them as a close family treat the way they are in the Midwest. I mean, they are HUGE here in the country’s Heartland.
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Give in to it, QM! It’s obvious you’re fighting, fighting, fighting what you want to eat. Go the limit, get the peanut butter variety topped with chocolate! You can still have your Southern pudding, though it may begin to pale.
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LOL. 8)
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OK, I just have to say, being as how I’m neither a Southerner nor a Midwesterner, that I can see the similarities between Rice Krispy Treats and Banana Nilla Wafer Pudding. They’re both recipes generated by food manufacturers, they both enhance the plain version of the product, and they both come on the back or inside of boxes.
Now, that’s not to say they are equally tasty. I happen to like both, although I did buy a mealy Rice Krispy Treat for Dee at the play Our Town a couple of Friday nights ago. (I guess they didn’t use real Marshmallows and opted instead for that fake stuff in the jar.)
Anyhoo, just thought an objective party should weigh in. Ritz Apple Pie anyone? 8)
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Oh, great discussion. ybonesy, I love your 3 talking points. They add a little credibility to Sinclair’s pale accusations. 8)
So let me reconsider:
1) both generated by food manufacturers
2) both enhance the plain version of the product
3) both come on the back or inside of boxes
I’m trying to think of other similarities. Let me ponder this a little more.
4) both Rice Krispies and Nilla wafers go good with bananas?
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YB actually I think vanilla waffers got the recipe from us when they found out we used them in banana pudding. YOu can also make it with graham crackers. Although I can’t see where they get crackers , they are more like large cookies.
Did you know whoopies can be make with almost any cake receipes. Just drop by spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and put almost any kind of frosting between them when they are done.
Also QM I did make jello deserts a lot. One like Marylin’s. We also make Watergate Salad, Angel Salad. There are so many variations with jello and almost as many names for like salads.
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That was suppose to be Whoopie Pies !!
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Mom, I didn’t know Whoopie Pies could be made with any cake recipe. That’s a great idea. You know how I love the batter in the Fruit Cake, but not the fruit? Maybe I could make Fruit Cake Batter Whoopie Pies! 8) Also, I like your theory that Nilla wafers got the recipe from us. Because I bet banana pudding is a lot older than Nilla wafers.
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QM my fruit cake batter is the original pound cake receipe. A half pound of eggs (6 ), a half pound of butter, a half pound of sugar(1 1/8 cups)(I use Domino, some sugars have fillers in them and aren’t as sweet), a half pound of plain flour (2 cups), a pinch of baking powder(almost a teaspoon), Vanillla(1 or 2 teaspoons)
Cream butter until light and fluffy, add sugar, a little at a time,and cream real good, then add egg yolks 1 at a time and beat good. Add flour and baking powder(pre sifted)beat until smooth. I add alternating with egg yolks. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, then fold into batter. Then fold in vanilla.
Bake at 300 degrees until a straw comes out clean(about 2 hrs). Sometimes I add almond or lemon flavor if I want that taste. Aunt Cassie used the old way of measuring ,etc.
For the Fruit Cake I double the pound cake recipe, omit the baking powder,add a pound of fruit for each pound of mix( I like mostly pecans(1 1/4 lbs), candied cherries(1 1/2 lbs),candied pineapple(1 1/4 lbs), a little candied mixed fruit(1 lb), raisens (1/2lb)soaked in brandy or wine. And put a tablespoon of vanilla, almond , and lemon flavorings in. Cut up fruit in small pieces ,flour fruit with extra flour. Add fruits you like. mix fruits with batter and put into two greased and floured fruit cake pans.
Bake at 275 degrees until done as with pound cake This will make 2 nice fruit cakes
I think I remembered everything !!
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Sounds way better than the stuff that comes in a tin. That I never developed a taste for, although I would eat one of Amelia’s fruit cakes anyday. Fruity for fruit cake…
Back to the question of which came first, the Southern Nilla Wafer banana pudding or the Nabisco Nilla Wafer banana pudding? I am certain that if our friend leslie were here, she would enlighten us with the answer. (leslie…..)
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BTW, what is a whoopie pie? Is it like a moon pie?
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Mom/Amelia,
I hope you’ll be coming to the Midwest someday to make all these comfort food treats. You can throw in some tried-and-true Southern dishes for good measure. We won’t mind.
ybonesy, Thanks for bringing your objective viewpoint. Though the tension is still thick between Special K bars vs. Nilla Pudding Surprise, I believe QM and I have moved closer to center. Any disparaging comments about Twizzlers at this juncture would be most unfortunate in negotiation talks.
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Mom, my mouth is watering with the pound cake recipe. Thanks for typing all that in here. I’m happy to have it! I LOVE pound cake. I remember those mornings when Grandmama would toast it with butter. And then you’d do the same on a piece of foil on the old broiler under the oven on the stove. Hmmm. I love homemade pound cake.
And you remembered all those recipes off the top of your head? I should mention that you had a fruitcake when I was home a few weeks ago. I always thought it was interesting how you and Grandmama always covered them in a cloth. I always meant to ask why.
By the way, my favorite this time of year is your homemade rocks! Maybe Liz and I will make some rocks this year. I like the little ones that are made in the small muffin pans. Though the big ones are good, too!
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Sinclair, mum’s the word on the Twizzlers. (Oh, boy, I’m not lookin’ for Twizzlin’ family feud here!) And when Amelia comes to the Midwest next, we’ll have a Southern cookfest and invite all of our friends. She’s due for a trip here soon (it’s been a few years).
ybonesy, no Whoopie Pies in New Mexico? They are kind of like two round chocolate cake disks with this light fluffy shortening filling in them. Similar to a kind of homemade Little Debbie type thing. (I’m not explaining them very well!)
Sinclair, did they have Whoope Pies in the Midwest when you were growing up?
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That’s what I thought they were, but we call them Moon Pies.
Sinclair, Sinclair, Sinclair…I thought about bringing up Twizzlers in my comment where I first stepped in to mediate, but then I thought, Nah, that will set off Sinclair for sure. But now I realize that for you, Twizzlers are like the elephant in the room. Or giggling fits, or some such thing where you just can’t NOT mention them. Here, I made it through an entire post, maybe even two, about a Jello product, and not once did I mention HH. And I’m not going to mention it here, either, except by initials. But watch, I bet you go and spill the beans.
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There’s a cake in the oven, and I’m so glad. THis post and the accompanying comments is making me hunnngryyy….
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YB Believe me, the only comparison of whoopie pies to moon pies is the way they are put together. Think of your favorite chocolate cake with your favorite frosting between two layers, that you can hold in your hand like a cookie. Then you would say WHOOPIE !!
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OK, now I must have a Whoopie Pie. First it was the banana pudding, which, by the way, I haven’t yet made. Then it was that green jello stuff, which we call something else, but now I’m forgetting. Mimosa salad? Now whoopie pie.
I may have to break into the peppermint bark that I told the girls they couldn’t have tonight.
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LOL, I’m chuckling at both Mom’s Whoopie!! and ybonesy’s comment to Sinclair at the same time.
yb, this comment you made to Sinclair cracked me up: Here, I made it through an entire post, maybe even two, about a Jello product, and not once did I mention HH. And I’m not going to mention it here, either, except by initials. But watch, I bet you go and spill the beans. And now I can’t remember what HH is.
Oh, BTW, yb, what Mom and I know as Moon Pies are nothing like Whoopie Pies. What we know as Moonpies are hard disks covered with kind of artificial and fake sweetener and filled with crusty marshmallow.
Homemade Whoopie pies on the other hand are indeed, something to WHOOPIE! about. I’ll have to send you the recipe. Mom sent it to me tonight in an email. I smell another food post coming up. 8)
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amuirin, is it time to cut the cake yet?! I’m starving!
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I love the idea of a whoopie post. You can include all thing whoopie!
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p.s., I’m not squealing on what HH are.
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Okay, I’ll let the cat out of the bag. Horse Hooves! I think I have firmly established they are an ingredient in Jello, not the aforementioned red candy.
ybonesy, I can feel your grin miles away. It is not boding well in your role as mediator. Are you and QM winking at each other?
I don’t know about Whoopie Pies in the Midwest. I think Little Debbie has a corner on the market here.
Amelia, get here, will you? Will you make sweet tea? QM talks about it all the time. Sweet tea this. Sweet tea that.
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LOL.
So, Sinclair, what exactly is your position on these childhood recipes (I know we’ve talked about Southern banana pudding, but face it, Southern or otherwise, we all seem to have grown up eating Nilla Wafer banana pudding, Special K treats, Jello/marshmallow salads of some variety, etc.)? You ate them as a kid, yes? Do you eat them still?
Has anyone heard about the Jello pistachio pudding layer dessert? It has a whip cream layer and chopped pistachios on top. I forget what else, but for a few years there when I was just learning to cook, it was my standard contribution to any potluck. I’d get raves.
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If I’ve been to one church basement supper, I’ve been to 10,000. This equates to thousands of Jello salads made with every conceivable fruit and/or vegetable imaginable. They are topped with whipping cream, Miracle Whip, or mayonnaise. I don’t eat Jello any longer unless, of course, I find myself in a church basement for a funeral, harvest festival, or youth night.
I’ve always forgotten about Jello, sort of like how I forget that fishsticks still exist. I hear myself thinking every time, “Jello? Really? They still make this stuff?” Then I take a scoop of green Jello with bananas and whipped cream.
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[…] foods we grew up with connect to memories. And memories connect to family stories. In a comment on Memories, Writing, & Family Recipes, Mom mentioned the delectable Whoopie Pie and my nostrils curled with the scent of little cocoa […]
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[…] Memories, Writing, & Family Recipes […]
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[…] It’s almost Thanksgiving, a time of gratitude for our many blessings. And a time for good food. I walked over to the fridge this morning and under a Morton Salt “When it rains it pours” magnet was this faded recipe card for Chicken L’Orange. Liz’s mother (oliverowl) mailed it to us after a discussion on Memories, Writing & Family Recipes. […]
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[…] -related to post: Memories, Writing, & Family Recipes […]
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