Before the big Bengals game tonight, I just wanted to say thank you for the big subscription bonanza that many of you were a part of last week. Every time I saw a new email address, I was instantly and concurrently gratified and terrified. And to the O.G.s I thank you too, for keeping me thinking and challenging me. And of course, I like you, so I really hope you're all picking up what I’m throwing down. And if you ever see yourself in my musings, again, it’s because I love.
And with that, let me share with you a great post from Tonya Morton over at Juke. She put together a great group of writers talking about food, which is always fun. I contributed and you’ll find my two cents near the end of the post.
After I wrote that entry, I kept thinking about it. The prompt held on, like the memory of a great meal or indigestion, I couldn’t quite tell. And I started to really think about how I still make old-school food and yet try so hard to incorporate new things into our rotation. In Juke, I talk about Chicken Tetrazinni, an old-school church recipe, and a new vegan recipe I loved. I really do love both, and both feed the soul.
But I have a weakness for the nostalgic. And there’s no better example of this than what my mom brought over for dessert last week.
Every year, for the past 43 years, we have dessert at my mom’s and sing happy birthday to her house. No, not at her house, to her house. (We always sing, there’s no getting around that. We also are the kind that sing “Happy Anniversary to you,” and ”Happy Graduation to you” and “For she’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” and “We Hate to See You Go…we hope the hell you never come back, we hate to see you go.”) The house’s birthday is a delightful diversion in January when it’s gray for days and threatening snow.
Nothing better than a family dinner and a dessert that recalls those halcyon bygone days… the 80s. And nothing says the 80s like pudding. That’s Jell-o pudding for you Brits, not pudding as in dessert, though it is dessert, oh never mind.
The dessert is pudding in a cloud. That’s a cloud of Cool whip in a bowl - not just any bowl - mom’s old blue glass cocktail dishes - with a scoop of pudding in the middle. T
So let’s just extol the joys of real, homemade, chocolate pudding, (skip the instant Jell-o when you can) and say that they are equal to that of a perfect hot cocoa or a flourless chocolate cake.
It’s not some Sicilian grandma’s generational recipe for tomato sauce. It’s about as Midwest, middle-class, suburbia as you can get. But put me in a cloud and call me pudding, I just love it.
Who Dey!! Have a great week everyone!
I’ve tasted both and they are great Midwest suburban recipes.
I’ve been making the chicken tetrazzini for people for quite a few years now. I make the big batch and keep one for ourselves. My husband always asks who died or had a baby when he sees me making it. He expresses his sadness if someone’s loved one has passed, but readily admits he likes it so much he’s not sorry that I needed to make it!