If I were to slit the mister's wrists - not something I would intentionally do no matter WHAT I say, he would surely bleed red and gray - the colors of the Confederacy...he is a good-ol'-Southern-boy at heart and as such he loves grits and gumbo and sweet-tea and banana pudding with Vanilla wafers...just like the kind his momma never made but the kind his friends momma's did. Last Saturday we stopped by the grocery store together - usually I never take him in the store with me because he constantly throws things we don't need into the basket and the bill is always twice as high! But, there we were - walking up and down the aisles, him tossing in cereal like he was shooting hoops for the NBA and me doing my best to remove them without being seen...then he spots the Vanilla Wafers and begins to whine about banana pudding and how I never make it...so we struck a deal, I would make him banana pudding and he would stop throwing things into the basket.
Turning to one of my all-time favorite "Southern" cookbooks - The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook by Jane and Michael Stern, I found the Banana Pudding recipe I was looking for. The Blue Willow Inn is a real place, in Social Circle, Georgia and the rumor is Margaret Mitchell was inspired by The Blue Willow Inn when she wrote about Tara, her fictional majestic southern mansion in Gone With The Wind. This cookbook is a great read, even if you don't cook - it has fascinating anecdotes about the restaurant and the early days of Social Circle. Isn't that an odd name for a town?!
Margaret Mitchell stayed at the Blue Willow Inn and while there, she met Redd Upshaw who was from a nearby town. The two had a "passionate courtship" and were later married. But the marriage was short-lived and ended in a very nasty divorce. Redd, apparently, was a cad and was not really the "marrying kind." Many think that Redd was the inspiration for the character of Rhett Butler...because he really didn't give a damn about Margaret, The Blue Willow Inn and presumably Banana Pudding.
Banana Pudding - Adapted from The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook by Jane and Michael Stern
6 tablespoons flour
8 tablespoons sugar
dash of salt
2 eggs, beaten
4 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vanilla Wafer cookies
4 to 5 bananas, sliced
Whipped cream for topping
In a saucepan combine the flour, sugar, salt and eggs. Add the milk a little at a time, stirring until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Cool thoroughly (place a piece of plastic wrap over top of pudding and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.) Line the bottom of a casserole dish or a trifle dish with vanilla wafers (I used mini-wafers) then the bananas then the custard. Repeat until the dish is about 2/3's full, ending with the custard. Top with the whipped cream. Refrigerate any leftovers. Makes 8 to 10 servings.
"Marriage is not merely sharing the fettucini, but sharing the burden of finding the fettucini restaurant in the first place." Calvin Trillin
