Someone's In The Kitchen With Momma: Seven Bananas Pudding

Chapter 1: BiLo 



Sometimes her list would require six, but usually, scrawled in blue Bic ink beside 'bananas' was a (7) in parentheses; a week’s supply of potassium until the next shopping day rolled around.



I try to remember now who did her shopping before it became our job. Likely an array of her extended network of family and friends, for though she didn't drive, Aunt Nellie June was well-known, and well-liked.

She needn't go out, we came to her. And truly, it was our pleasure to help; to just be in her orbit. 

So it was, back when we were not just kinfolk but also neighbors, I would take the list she had made after consulting the weekly circular, along with her envelope of carefully counted money, to the Bi-Lo on the corner, and do her weekly shopping. 

Her list was quite specific, calculated for maximum savings and minimal waste.

Seventy years in one primary location had worn a groove in her routine.



Amongst a rotation of seasonal produce and various household products, every week her list included the same fare: 

• Whole milk (PET brand only) 


• One pack of hot dogs (Oscar Myer or Carolina Pride) 


• Cool Whip (the plastic container to be recycled as food storage) 


• Pepsi (an anomaly in Coca-Cola's dixieland domain, but she was a woman confident in her choices)


• Butter pecan or cherry vanilla ice cream (as much for her neighbors as for herself, but she did have a sweet tooth or three ) 


• Bananas (6 or 7) 

I still count bananas in the store, or tell my children how many to get when I ask them to walk back to Produce for things I inevitably remember I've forgotten (but only after crossing at least 2/3 the length of the store)



I always get (6) or (7), not less or more.

Chapter 2: Rodger, that!



Mary Rodgers was the graceful wife of Roger.

That's right, Roger Rodgers.



Mary and Roger served in the church I grew up in for many, many years.



Mr. Rodgers owned an old fashioned barber shop in town, complete with barber pole out front and Mayberry atmosphere inside.



Mrs. Rodgers was gifted in the art of hospitality and often opened her home to our family.



One of my favorite dishes Mrs. Mary served was a thick and creamy banana pudding unlike any found in the Corningware dishes of the other saintly church ladies or served at our myriad local BBQ restaurants.

I was too young to decipher her recipe back then, but the development of my own "kitchen presence" as a young bride coincided with the rise of Google, Food Network and Paula Deen.



I may have never learned the recipe's secret  if not for the ability to cross-reference keywords against a database of tried and true Southern recipes; those iconic Chessmen cookies my Rosetta Stone.  

Chapter 3: Let's Go Krogering 



I am the sum of all my parts, as I believe we all are.

I have been shaped by different environments, exposures and experiences.

I am grateful for them all.



I am thankful for Aunt Nellie June and Mrs. Mary Rodgers as well as a host of other influential souls.

I am thankful for the time they shared with me, the space they created for me in their homes and kitchens and the recipes for life they left for me to follow.



Tonight, as I prepared for the Freewheeling Widows to drop by, I realized banana pudding would be agreeable to all.

In this way, these two precious ladies who've gone-on-to-Glory were welcome in my kitchen as I got ready for two precious ladies who are still going-along-with-me.



I went Krogering to count bananas and gather the following supplies:

• 1 Quart of Heavy Whipping Cream (the secret ingredient, shhh!)  


• One large box of instant vanilla pudding


• One large box of instant banana cream pudding 


• One tub of Cool Whip or can of whipped cream 


• Chessmen Cookies and/or 


• Nilla Wafers (for the purists) 


• Bananas (6 or 7)

Chapter 4: Redeeming The Spotty Ones

I mashed up two leftover bananas that were too far gone for cereal but not yet brown enough for banana bread then added the pudding mix and heavy whipping cream.

I think bananas go spotty like they do to teach us about redemption, if we're inclined to learn.



I included both kinds of cookies because when I am faced with a decision where one person may be disappointed, I become paralyzed with indecision. As a result, I have developed a coping mechanism called 'overcompensation'. When I am in a hurry and can't make up my mind, I jump straight over 'either/or' to 'both and all'



Someday, it will sink in that I really cannot please all the people, all the time and should therefore just pick one already...but, until then, double cookies!

Seems completely healthy and reasonable, no?

I'm sure Cookie Monster approves. 

I layered everything lasagna style and almost alphabetically: "cookies-bananas-pudding-whipped cream-repeat" then chilled the whole thing until the Freewheelers arrived.



We ate tiny glazed Ham on Hawaiian sandwiches and watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium before I scooped banana pudding into the Atlanta Braves helmet bowls I'd picked up on Kroger's clearance aisle - for only thirty-five cents each!



Southern Grocery Shopping Rule #1 : The hurry is never too big to bypass clearance. You never know, what you need may be on those shelves. What you don't know you need is probably there, too. 





Chapter 5: Time and Togetherness 



From Bi-Lo to Kroger, there have been many good-byes that came as a surprise.



I'd go back, pay closer attention,  and take more notes if life weren't so insistent about this forward staccato marching we do.



We are allowed only to glance back, not turn back, so we plan for the future ever crossing new horizons.

Tucked in our pockets of memory, or transcribed on a notepad in shaky blue Bic ink, we bring with us instructions from time, left behind.



My freewheelin' gals took leftover sandwiches and pudding home with them, because I'm still learning to cook for just a few.



They also took a little bit of Aunt Nellie June, Mrs. Mary Rodgers and a piece of my heart, too.



We're getting together for Chinese take-out and a Dolly Parton movie soon, because time and togetherness are key ingredients to a life, well-recalled.

"Your life is an occasion, rise to it." 

                                            ~Magorium

little kite

East coast girl with your sun tanned skin

Salt in your hair, kissed by the wind

You're wild and free to live and let be

Strings let go you'll soar and sink low

Follow the river away from the sea 

Float the Savannah, back home to me.

I once wiped the tears of a young girl's eyes 

Real life is tested by whether we cry.

Feel and allow it, for though there is pain 

A life without contrast is one built in vain.

Salt and fresh water, shadow and light 

Opposing angles build houses upright

I sit in my own house, thinking of you, 

little kite tattered, lost in the blue

I bottle my question and fling it to sea: 

Were sandcastles and kite flying only for me?

EPCOT

There's just something special about Walt Disney's Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. It is my favorite park for several reasons, and it seems to me one of the most fitting monuments to the man behind Mickey Mouse.

At its inception, Walt said of EPCOT:

 "EPCOT will be an experimental prototype community of tomorrow that will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise."

Ingenuity. Imagination. America. 

I think that's all of it in a nutshell. 

Walking through the park makes me nostalgic. Not only for past visits and childhood adventures, but also for the strong broth of a certain philosophy, spooned to me steadily from the time I could sit up, and mixed in my bottles before that. 

The basic recipe includes (but is not limited to):

• Whimsy


• Curiosity


• Music


• Creativity


• Exploration


• Fun


• Can-Do


• Optimism


• Service


• Kindness


• Wonder


• Learning


• Talking Animals


• Hats & Props & Seersucker Pants

Simmer over the gentle warmth of a heart aglow. Serve generously and without discrimination.



 Long before there was a search engine and megladon corporation, my siblings and I were privy to the fact that googol is a number- one with one hundred zeros. The loud thumping in our attic was not a fan but tiny little Indians holding a pow-wow. We lived in a world of honker birds and sing-a-longs. We were entrusted with glue sticks and spangles, given complete creative control over the construction paper pile. Life was punny and word play was encouraged. Pennies were wishes for personal computers. Stale bread became duck food. We made sleds from box tops; thrust ourselves down hills without any snow. We enjoyed a balanced diet of wisecracks and wisdom. We knew..still know..the joys of ice cream.



 Has she jumped track? Perhaps. I do tend to do that sometimes.



 The point is that there are good things in life, dreams do come true, we should reach for the stars and never give up.



In the theme park of Positive Mindset, the only admission fee is choosing to walk in.



I'm not saying that every day was Disney growing up, but it was close enough, in hindsight. I am saying that we were given a map to that silver-lined place called joyfulness, for which I'm grateful.

When I walk thru EPCOT, I feel hopeful. I see technology and new ways that we, as people, are working for the good of mankind; we have not ceased thinking, inventing, and trying to one-up ourselves. We are seeing needs and filling them, we are striving to improve upon our last best invention. We come up with some pretty nifty stuff.



 At Epcot, we're encouraged to push the buttons, try it out, think up some big thinks of our own. I see Walt when I'm there...or at least what I understand to be his thumbprint.  And I see that, despite the bleak headlines, all is not lost in this world... there's plenty to look forward to, much to anticipate.

 At EPCOT, I feel inspired, too.

 "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the small, small world after all"

There are many nationalities in the World Showcase, represented by more than airplane runway lights (long story)... all just steps away from each other - close enough to exchange a smile, try a pastry and appreciate the diversity of our world, without a trip through airport security.  Each of the worlds within the showcase are all so distinct, even those that have been influenced by other countries or cultures. There are different ways of saying things, different ways of seeing things.  So much to explore.  I love it.

We read "Around The World In 80 Days" this school year...and we are currently reading "Innocents Abroad", so it was a pleasure  and a bit of a living lesson to walk (and take boats) 'around the world' in less than 8 hours with the BigKids.

They also have a pretty good example of a geodesic form in one part of the park...if you know where to find it ;)

I  feel relaxed at EPCOT.  Walking around with my small-business-owner-always-at-work-even-when-he's-not husband and our eclectic cast of characters, I know that I can enjoy the day's park visit because of the work he's been doing. Because of the work he will return to in short order. I am reminded that he does all that work for us, for family moments like these and for all the others where we simply have a roof over our heads and enough food to fill each belly. I feel cared for and thankful for all of it..for all of them. For him.

Yes, we must eat by the sweat of our brow, but there is time for sculpted flower gardens too.



Time for exchanging pleasantries and learning something(s) new.



 All of these pleasures are available inside the parks, but on the outside, too.

 Especially outside. 

Every single day.

 The parks are just a reminder to stop and notice every now and again. 

When the Discovery Channel came out with the Boomdeyadah campaign years ago, we adopted it as a sort of school anthem.

 "I love the whole world, and all its sights and sounds..."

It's our home/school philosophy.

It's our life philosophy.

And Epcot provides a wonderful scale model. 

(It's a small, small world- ha.)

Not to mention, it's a lot less crowded than Magic Kingdom most days.

(the slideshow also includes hotel and other trip pics due to shortage of time to sift & sort- disregard red eye and double takes...if you can )

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." ~ Walt Disney

Fourth of July ReCap~ The Food (Part 2)

Of course there were the fried things I told you about earlier.

 (way, way, way earlier at this point)

Then there were these other, mostly pre-packaged fried things that we haven't yet discussed. 

Jalapeno Poppers and Cheese Filled Pretzel bites. 

Appetizing...no? (NO) 

Some 'DIY' corn pup nuggets: 

Before:

Post Oven:

And also, Chili Cheese Oven Fries:

Not to mention some salsa & chips that accompanied us to the shore:

Current Favorite Salsa:

(CHIPS & DIP-the original moveable feast)

And then there were the mini Cherry YumYum pies.

The food with the story attached. (You knew there had to be one, right?)

You see, I always think about MeeMaw Brewer around Independence Day.

Cherry YumYum was one of her signature dishes and one of our last family gatherings with her was a July 4th.

Now, while Aundree was indeed a beloved family member, by the time I joined the family she was  almost completely bats (no offense, MeeMaw... it's okay, we loved you still... Rest In Peace, now)

 One of my favorite memories from that July 4th gathering is the memory of cake tossing in the kitchen ,as slightly fictionalized in this old short story contest entry.  I re-read over it before linking in- and my bad writing form aside, I still laughed all the way through, because the only thing that didn't really happen in that story was MeeMaw thinking it was Thanksgiving.

 ... and that is why I make Cherry YumYum on the Fourth of July. 

 
Cherry YumYum pies are terribly easy to make.

(One block of cream cheese, one container of cool whip, Cherry pie topping)

((Also tasty: substitute Nutella or Chocolate Peanut Butter or Lemon Curd or Pretty Much Anything for pie filling))