Banana Pudding

Yesterday was Easter. I had a request for Easter Dinner at Kelly's house. She wanted Sweet Potato Fluff and Banana Pudding. I haven't had (or made, for that matter) Banana Pudding in like, forever! Every time I make it, I think of my Mom and Mimi. It is a comfort food for me. I like mine warm while others prefer it cold. (it weeps a little when it's cold - that's not "a-pealing to Banana Man")

The last time I remember Mimi making it, as clearly as a wee tyke can remember, I was sitting on her kitchen table along side a huge green bowl. I don't remember exactly the order of events, just that she was making Banana Pudding and I got front row seat.

Mom made it for us as well. I don't recall a written recipe, not that that surprises me. There weren't very many recipes written down. Most of the "good stuff" was stored in her head.

Of course when I got married I made it for my family. I had to use the recipe on the Vanilla Wafer box. It was for the good old fashioned way. Cooked custard, layered with bananas and vanilla wafers, topped with meringue and it tasted like the pudding I was fond of. For all I know, this could have been where Mom and Mimi got their recipe!

I didn't write the recipe from the box down. Why should I? It was there, on the box, every time I needed to make my favorite dessert! But, as with all good things, box recipes change. Lost forever it seemed was the recipe for good ol' fashioned Banana Pudding! All I could seem to find were recipes for instant pudding with bananas, instant banana pudding, instant pudding with bananas and wafers and cool whip. I couldn't bring myself to make either one of them. It took me forever to come up with a recipe that was fitting to be called "Banana Pudding". I knew that homemade vanilla pudding used only the yolks of eggs. That left the whites for me to use for the meringue. The only thing I had to do was find a good home made vanilla pudding recipe. Thank goodness for Mom's old "Better Homes and Garden" recipe book. It wasn't really all that complicated, finding a recipe for pudding, I mean - I just made it that way for myself. Common sense should have stepped in, but I think I was liking the challenge of it! At any rate, I wrote this one down for posterity's sake. . . . maybe some youngin' will want it some day!

I guess, as the world is eating healthier these days, this could be adapted as well. It's not one of those things that would lose much flavor if you used fat free milk and fat free wafers.

Heaven under Meringue!