B is for Banana Pudding

and Benny Bear Having a Baby Sister Isn’t Fair

Let me tell you what isn’t fair, cooking all this food for my blog and giving it away.

One of my best friends, Pat, is enjoying the fruits of my labor. Oh, and my co-workers…they are loving participating in my test kitchen.

Oh, and my family.

Back to life not being fair, and don’t I know it, but hey, I’m having a great time cooking and blogging cooking and blogging.

If you are signed up for my blog, be looking in your email box early next week for the Alphabet Mom’s Cooking Companion, 10 Recipes that Will Simplify Your Life.

You are going to love it because these recipes are amazing, easy and most of all, delicious.

A huge favor once you receive it is to spread the word about how much you are loving my blog and please refer your friends to sign up.

If you haven’t signed up yourself, do so now! We are doing some really fun things, like for instance, cooking our way through the alphabet.

And don’t panic if you are just jumping on board, we are just at “B” and I am pretty sure banana pudding is something we all have a good recipe for, right?

But this banana pudding…this one is special, kind of like Benny Bear, Having a Baby Sister Isn’t Fair.

Why is that book special? Because I wrote it about someone who is very special to me, my “baby” brother, Big John.

Big John got his name because, well, if you know him, he’s big…like 6’8 big. And he came here that way at a whopping 10 pounds 9 ounces.

Wait.

He came here as a second grader, right? My mom is the queen as far as I’m concerned, for many reasons, like giving birth to a man-child.

But let me tell you, it was kind of a rocky start for ole Big John and his Big Sister.

How so? My sisters and I were playing school at my grandmother’s house one afternoon and my mom came in and said she had some “very exciting” news to share with us.

Wait.

We started fist pumping and hugging because we thought we were going to Six Flags!

We ran down the hall to sit on the couch, like we were the three blind mice, and my mom says, “I’ve got some very exciting news! Guess what? We are going to have another baby!”

Smiles broadly. Claps her hands.

Wait.

It will suffice to say she was met with three blank stares.

Cindy: “What do you mean WE are going to have another baby? You got a mouse in your pocket? Who is WE?”

Mom: “WE, like our family, silly!”

Cindy: “Who’s idea was this?”

Mom: “Well, I’m not sure it was anybody’s ‘idea’ but WE are definitely having another baby.”

Cindy: “This is the worst thing I have ever heard. I can’t believe you didn’t ask me! What were you thinking?”

Mom: “Well, I thought you’d be excited.”

Cindy: “Excited? My life is ruined. And I can tell you what I’m not going to do…I’m not going to babysit this baby…I’m not going to feed this baby…I’m not going to change this baby’s diaper.”

And then I fell in the floor and started kicking and screaming.

And then my sisters fell in the floor and started kicking and screaming.

And my mom started to cry.

And my grandmother laughed until tears ran down her face.

Didn’t change a thing, though. WE did have another baby…Big John entered the world the following September and boy was I still mad, and had been for 9 whole months.

But something really neat happened, right after my new baby brother made his way into our life, even after I spent 9 months being really mad about the terrible, awful, bad news.

Slowly, begrudgingly, tentatively, I walked over to this newborn baby’s crib and peered over the side. Staring back at me was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen (up until that time, of course).

Wait.

This was totally unexpected; I can’t believe I’m picking this baby up. And I’m holding him; I’m feeding him; I’m dragging his bassinet to my room.

In fact, I began to treat him like he was my own…at my 11-year old self. And from that day…until this very day, I consider him my “first born.”

I even got to pick him out a wife and let him get married…and boy did I do a great job with that one.

And now he has his own family and we are more like best friends and boy does he ever love my cooking.

Especially this banana pudding.

And you will, too. So, let’s get started.

Here’s the stars of the show today, including a wonderful trifecta for this dessert…vanilla pudding, sweetened condensed milk and extra creamy Cool Whip.

You with me?

Let’s start by adding three cups of cold milk to your large box of instant vanilla pudding.

I’m a big fan of whisking in my kitchen, because I don’t like things “clumpy” so whisk the pudding and milk until it’s smooth and let it get soft set. This usually takes about 5 minutes.

While the pudding is firming up, slice your bananas (for today’s recipe, I used 7 bananas) and set aside.

After your pudding is firm, add the can of cream of condensed milk and fold in the Cool Whip. This gives us a nice, smooth, rich pudding.

As a side note, sometimes I will let my pudding get firm and in a separate bowl, I will mix an 8-ounce block of cream cheese and the condensed milk and add it to the pudding.

Because, you know, cream cheese makes the world go round, right?

Now we are ready to start layering. Again, I used my trifle bowl! But sometimes I just use a 9×13 Pyrex dish…depending on who or what occasion I’m making it for.

You will notice the cookies I’m using in this recipe are Pepperidge Farm Chessman Butter Cookies and if you haven’t used them before, they are delicious in banana pudding.

If you are a traditional banana pudding lover, of course feel free to use Vanilla Wafers, but I think you will like this cookie as an alternative…it’s like a sugar cookie meets a shortbread.

And repeat…I actually got four layers in my trifle bowl.

It may be just me, but I would say it turned out marvelous!

Question: What is a favorite banana pudding recipe you might have?