Grandma Lolly's Banana Pudding

This afternoon my husband, Baby Cakes in case you didn't know, informed me that he committed me to making a desert for a work luncheon he is attending… Tomorrow! Now I know I made it seem as if this bothered me but in all honesty, as anyone who loves to cook knows, I was actually excited. I love making food for people and making food for guys is so much easier. So knowing I would have to run to the grocery store on my way home this evening I put quite a bit of thought into what to make that would travel well and pare with fried catfish. I was clueless. Then I thought about when I used to waitress at a local café during lunch and remembered that the biggest dessert seller with all the men eating during lunch was banana pudding. Here’s goes nothing.

Growing up, and even now, I cannot recall a single Jones family get together that does not have a huge bowl of this dessert adorning the buffet. Now I don’t know if this is my Grandmas original recipe or if everyone’s Grandma makes it this way but for me this is her recipe. I’ve had it a million different ways and this is my all-time favorite.


Grandma Lolly’s Banana Pudding
recipe from Grandma herself

2 small boxes instant banana pudding
3 cups cold water
2 14 ounce cans sweetened condensed milk
1 large tub whipped topping
2 boxes nilla wafer cookies
6-8 bananas, sliced
1 regular tub whipped topping

In a large bowl whisk together the instant pudding, water, condensed milk and whipped topping until well combined. Set aside.

Place a single layer of cookies into the bottom of serving dish; you’ll need a large dish or two dishes as this makes a large quantity.

Top the cookies with a single layer of the bananas, about 1-2 sliced bananas.

Spread about half of the pudding mixture over the bananas and spread evenly.

Repeat with another cookie, banana and pudding layer. (You’ll have 2 layers of each at this point.)

Spread another layer of sliced banana and a single layer of cookies over the top.

At this point you can either top with more whipped cream or opt out and that’s it.


You know I opted for more whipped cream.


I want to ad that the blue bowl of pudding is not the total amount that it made. In fact it made this bowl, for Baby Cakes and I, and a large salad bowl full for Baby Cakes to take with him tomorrow. It makes alot.

I honestly beleive that this is as good as if not better than Paula Deen's Not Yo Momma's Banana Pudding. Make it and judge for yourself.

I hope you like it. I hope the guys tomorrow like it. We'll see when Baby Cakes brings the bowl home tomorrow evening.

XOXO,

Drunken Pork Chops

You might notice that this is my second time posting this recipe and if not then this is where you can find the original post. Either way, whether you notice or not, the first time I made this I attempted to make it a slow cooker recipe and all it resulted in was a really thin sauced pulled pork dish, it was good enough but who wants just edible or good enough for dinner? Not me. I knew that there had to be something to this because I have seen it reposted so many times in the food blog world. I was determined and boy am I glad that I was.

This version is wonderful; flavorful and slightly sweet. The pork chops are tender and the sauce could stand up to any other sauce/gravy I have ever had. Baby Cakes didn’t re-season even a bite and I don’t think I took a breath even between bites. Yum-Oh. I do believe I found my next companies coming for dinner recipe. It’s that good.

I will never again try to adapt this to a slow-cooker recipe, not after trying it the original way. That was just insulting.


Drunken Pork Chops
recipe from Newlyweds

5-6 pork chops
salt and pepper, to taste
1 bottle of beer, amber cider
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup ketchup
extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch
¼ cup water

Measure the extra virgin olive oil into skillet over medium high heat.

Season the pork chops with salt and pepper on both sides and cook until brown on both sides.

While the pork chops are browning, combine the beer, ketchup, and brown sugar in a bowl. Pour the sauce mixture over the pork chops and simmer for 40-45 minutes.
Remove the pork chops and set aside for a moment.

To thicken the sauce, combine the cornstarch and water stirring to combine. Slowly stir this mixture into the boiling sauce, whisking out any lumps. Simmer until you’ve reached the desired thickness.

Put the pork chops back into the thickened sauce and flip to coat.
Serve this over mashed potatoes or rice.


I had seconds. There were no leftovers. We are pigs. We are pigs eating pig. How could I help myself, make it, try it, you’ll see. Then you’ll understand.

Oink, oink,

Comfort Casserole

I’m back! I took a bit longer than I anticipated but I have good reasons. It seems like life has been throwing me curveballs, not in Baby Cakes and my personal life mind you, but some of my dear friends life’s have been taking turns and I have been immersed in trying to support them during their trials. I recently read somewhere that when you are overloaded with things on your to do list simply start cutting things from that list so I chose to cut the blog until things calmed down (honestly I chose to cut cooking in general, bad move, my waistline is paying for it). However, because my daily to do list hasn't seemed to lessen any I have chosen to cut some other things and get back to our regularly scheduled programming, basically forcing my own hand to calm my life down. I’m ready for boring again, I’m begging for boring again. That being said I can’t promise to do multiple posts a week, as is my norm, but I will be blogging at least once or twice a week. It’s my therapy. Seriously.

To get back in the scheme of things I decided to cook a scrumptious supper. I didn’t plan on cooking so I searched through my recipe box and found this recipe and oh.my.goodness it was good. I could and would eat this every day. Baby Cakes gave this one all 10 digits and I am inclined to agree.


Comfort Casserole
recipe from Hun… What’s for Dinner

1 lb. cooked ground beef
medium onion, chopped
6 oz. package noodles, cooked according to directions and drained
16 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
16 oz. can cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 package frozen mixed vegetables, cooked and drained
2 cups pepper jack cheese, shredded
2 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Brown the beef with the chopped onion until cooked through and drain. Mix the soups with the sour cream then stir in the beef. Set aside.

Boil the pasta according to package directions tossing in the frozen vegetables for the last 5 minutes of boiling. Drain the pasta and vegetables and mix into the soup and meat mixture along with the cheese. Stir in the parsley, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Pour into a 9 X 13 casserole dish, top with a bit more cheese and cover with foil.

Bake 350 degrees for 25 minutes, remove foil from dish and bake 5-10 minutes more or until cheese is melted.


I think the best past about this recipe that it is so versatile, any ground meat, pasta or vegetable combination would work for this dish. I’ll admit that the boiling, cooking and chopping all before ever baking is a bit time consuming but I promise it is so worth it. I know I say this all the time but this one really is going into regular rotation.



(I actually typed this post up last week but when I went to attach the photos I couldn't find my camera! Then last night when searching for my keys in the bottom of my purse I found it, thing is I actually took everything out of my purse twice when looking for it last week. Perhaps divine intervention? God knew I needed one more week to recharge and I have to say it was wonderful. Baby Cakes and I had a peaceful week of early dinners and plenty of couch time. Finally, back to normal. The only negative is that I actually cooked 3 new recipe during the week of lost camera but hey it gives me a reason to cook them again.)

Home again, home again, jiggidy, jigg,