This is the first of a series of blog posts I plan on writing over the course of the next few months. My mamaw loved to cook, and she would clip recipes from the newspapers or copy them from her friends. Her recipe book is one of the items that I have already laid claim on (sorry, sisters), and it is closely guarded by its current owner, my mama. I went through it in my late teens, sitting under her watchful eye, copying the recipes that I really loved. Her handwriting of recipes I copied on the copier brings tears to my eyes–the slanted purposeful writing of an aging woman.
Once we had the assignment in writing class to write about a place. We were instructed to draw on our senses, the sounds, smells, the way it looked, etc. I wrote my paper on my Mamaw’s Kitchen. I have so many memories of being there, watching her cook, seldom getting to cook myself, and eating with her at the table. I remember Mamaw letting me help layer the wafers and the bananas in her clear glass bowl. Later she would cook the pudding on the stove, and then pour it hot and thick over the prepared bowl. It was so hard to wait for the banana pudding to be cold, but it was well worth the wait!
Mama says this was a clue that Mamaw’s memory was failing: she didn’t remember the recipe. It was never written down either, but Mama and I tried to recreate it a couple years ago with smashing success.
Mamaw’s Banana Pudding
1 box of Vanilla Wafers
1 bunch of bananas
Can of evaporated milk
1/2 cup white sugar (maybe a little less–with the bananas and cookies, this is sweet!)
1 egg, well beaten
2 TBSP all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla
- In a medium sized bowl, begin to layer the vanilla wafers and bananas.
- In a sauce pan, add the remaining ingredients except the vanilla.
- On low heat, continually stir the pudding. Make sure you break the lumps of flour up, so that your pudding doesn’t become lumpy. Stir until it begins to thicken.
- Remove from the heat, and stir in the vanilla.
- Pour the hot pudding evenly over the bowl of prepared vanilla wafers and bananas.
- Cool on the counter-top before covering with plastic wrap and cooling further in the fridge.
- Enjoy with the people you love!
Banana pudding is delicious even a day or two old–if it lasts that long!
The Art of Living 
Thanks for posting this, I’m going to try to make this again. I made it once before to great success (in pre-pre-married life), and once to resounding failure. We’ll see if 15 years and more patience has paid off. Also, I can’t think of anyone who would appreciate the recipe book more than you, nor can I think of anyone she would prefer to have it than you. Anyone who has written about (or remembers in such great detail!) Mammaw’s kitchen surely deserves her recipe book!