Banana Pudding Recipe

Ingredients:

ü  8 ounce package of cream cheese
ü  14 ounces of can sweetened condensed milk
ü  5 ounce of instant vanilla pudding mix
ü  3 cups of cold milk
ü  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
ü  8ounce of container frozen whipped toppings, thawed          
ü  4 bananas (sliced)
ü  12 ounce package of vanilla wafers

Preparation

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in condensed milk, pudding mix, cold milk, and vanilla extract until smooth. Fold in ½ of the whipped toppings.

I would always lick the batter off the spoon, while sitting at the island. My grandma would put the mixture in the fridge. Then, she would say, “How is school going?” and I would say,” It’s going pretty good”. She would ask if I was still making those good grades. I would tell her my grades for each class, and she would help me by explaining how I could work harder on that subject. She was always the smartest when it comes to school work. Just at that time, my grandpa would walk in and hear the end of the conversation between me and my grandma. Then, he would say, “Chris, back when I went to school they didn’t tell us the importance in an education.” He would also go on and say, “Keep up the good work and you won’t have to join the army like I did.” He would then randomly start telling a war story that had something a little different each time he told it. Yeah, you know Duck Dynasty with Si Robertson? Okay, he and my grandpa would be the best of friends.         

We would grab a couple of 9X13 inch pans and would prepare it by lining the bottoms with vanilla wafers. My grandma would always talk about how crazy my grandpa was and mock him, “When I was in the war we didn’t get blankets.” I would laugh at her jokes even though my grandpa thought she was being serious. Then next step was to lay the fresh cut bananas on the top of the vanilla wafers. The banana slices would slide across the wafers like they were on an ice ring. They would stop sliding when we added the pudding mixture later.

Then for the final part, we would grab the pudding mixture out of the fridge and place it evenly over the vanilla wafers and fresh cut bananas. Then once again put it in the fridge to chill until served. We would then clean up any messes left and go watch TV until the family arrived. My grandma would turn the television on with it instantly being on the news. My grandparents became grumpy because Obama was on the TV. I couldn’t help but laugh; although they were raised in age where that was normal.

Then, the family arrived, and we would all help the rest of the family bring in the variety of foods. We would all gather around and say a prayer.  We would line up and grab our plates, silverware, and napkins. Let the feast now begin! Once everyone gathered all their food we would all sit around and talk. This image also makes me think about Duck Dynasty again when they are all sitting together at the end of the show eating together. Once again, this is my type of family. You would hear all kinds of conversations going on throughout the house. You could hear in the living room (about wrestling) Sam would say something like,” One day I am going to quit watching wrestling because now-a-days it is so fake.” Freddie would reply, “I hear you, I hear you” or “you got that right.” The women would be in the kitchen having a conversation about new recipes they had discovered or what the newest prices of the groceries were. My father and I were the odd one of the family because we were the one who just sat and listened with an occasional “yeah” or “oh”. We both still enjoyed the time with our family. Oh, how great get to togethers are! Next month’s recipe is Christmas Tree Cake.