This is a Fat Free Zone!

aaaaaaahahahaha.........NOT! Well here in Texas, at my house it's not. Jennifer, the Minnesotian, is skinny from shivering all winter. Here in Texas, winter last about 27 minutes and then we head right into summer. But enough about the weather. It's Texas........need I say more?

I want to talk about banana pudding. Not the banana pudding you make from a box, but the real McCoy. My husband loves banana pudding. The kind his grandmother used to make. I have literally been trying to find a recipe like his grandmother's for many, many, many months. Last night I finally found it. It wasn't a written recipe.......it was a video and actually showed you how to make the stuff. Unfortunately he was talking so fast I only got part of the ingredients and then I dashed into the kitchen and started making it. There is one part where you stand in front of your hot stove and for 10 minutes you whisk until you think you're going to whisk your #$&) arm off. That's when I realized I must have done something wrong so I poured the whole thing down the sink. Ran back to the bedroom to watch the video again and realized I was doing it correctly. #&$)$#& $)($*$#!

The banana pudding that the guy was making included a meringue topping. HELLO! It's banana pudding. In Texas you don't put meringue on anything else you'll be hung from somebody's Mesquite tree. I ran back into the kitchen and started over. I'm going to all this trouble to make banana pudding that I don't even know if anyone will eat. Maybe the dog will like it.

Well, I finished it, popped it in the fridge and took it out a coupla hours later and fed it to my husband and all he did was moan and groan. I took that as a thumbs up. I tried it and I started moaning and groaning too!! It is A W E S O M E!

It's so great I wanna share the recipe with you guys (minus the meringue topping).

Things you'll be a needin:

2 Cups Whole Milk

2 Tbsp. butter

1 Cup of Sugar

2 Egg yolks

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. Vanilla (or more if you want)

1/3 Cup Flour

4 Banana's, cut up

Vanilla Wafers

In a 9 x 13 casserole dish, cover the bottom with vanilla wafers and then cut up your banana's and place them evenly over the top of the vanilla wafers.

In a metal saute pan, over medium heat (maybe a tad higher), melt the 2 tbsp's. butter. Add milk, 2 egg yolks, 1 cup sugar and 1/3 cup flour. Whisk until it reaches a pudding stage. About 10 minutes. When thick and creamy, remove from heat and add 1 tsp. vanilla; whisk until fully "incorporated" (I LOVE that word). Pour mixture over vanilla wafers and banana's and put in the fridge until pudding has set and is cool.

At this point, (before you put the pudding in the fridge) if you live anywhere north of Texas, you can make the meringue if'n you want to. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In an electric mixer, place the 2 egg whites and 1/3 cup of sugar. Beat on high until stiff peaks form. When done, take meringue and spread over pudding and kinda of splat (WOW! a new word!) the top of it to form peaks so it's purty. Place the casserole dish in the oven and brown the meringue. DON'T PUT IN THE OVEN AND WALK OFF. Trust me, you'll be sorry. Nobody's gonna get the warm fuzzies if you serve them a big heaping bowl of banana pudding with black #$&! all over it. Remove as soon as it's turned a golden brown.

Fix yourself and anyone else that's there a bowl and moan and groan and drowned yourself in heavenly bliss.

BON APPETITE!!!

~Blessings~

Sandi