This is one food that is requested from family members for me to bring to holiday get togethers and any other time I can.  It’s my grandmother’s recipe for Banana Pudding, from scratch!  I dislike instant pudding big time and once you’ve had this……you won’t go back!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 heaping  Tbsp. Flour…and I mean heaping!
• 1/2 cup sugar or a little more;)
• 2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• butter
• vanilla
• Vanilla Wafers (save some to crumble for the top)
• Bananas

DIRECTIONS:

In a saucepan, mix flour & sugar then add eggs and mix well.  Start your burner and slowly add milk; a little at a time stirring constantly.  Continue stirring until it has thickened.  After thick, add butter and vanilla to taste.  I would say about 1 Tbsp of butter maybe.  I double this recipe to make a bunch so it’s hard for me to give you accurate measurements.  Not too much vanilla either or it will taste almost chocolatey.  Maybe a 1/4 tsp??  Again, not sure.  Just taste it.

You’ll want to layer your wafer cookies and bananas for a pretty presentation.  I don’t do this though..I throw in a bowl..LOL.  I refrigerate mine over night because I like it VERY cold but you should refrigerate it for a few hours.

Ingredients…..

Here’s all the good stuff cooking in the saucepan……

While you’re cooking the the stuff in the pot, you can slice your bananas and layer your wafers & bananas. Don’t forget to keep stirring your pudding though.

Once your pudding is done, add the butter and vanilla.  Remember, I double my recipe so that’s why there is more in my pudding!

Now that it’s done, you pour into your dish with your wafers and bananas.

This is where the extra wafers come in.  Crush them up and sprinkle on top.

Sprinkle and Viola!

Remember to refrigerate….once nice and cold, sit back and enjoy!!!

Popularity: 1% [?]

First, woohoo, we have a winner for the Kitchenaid Food Mill Gift set!  SEE IF YOU WON!!!  Again, there were sooooo many entries!!  Thanks so much for entering:) 

May 1st officially kick started my 3 month long giveaway!  Every week from May 1st until July 31, I’ll be giving away a prize.  Let me tell you people, you won’t wanna miss this.  I’ve already given away a Cuisinart Food Processor and I currently have a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer giveaway going on right now!

The best way for you to keep track of each weekly giveaway, is to subscribe to my feed via RSS reader or by EMAIL.  If you choose email, you MUST confirm your subscription or you won’t get any updates.   I promise you will receive NO spam!  Only email updates when I make a new post here. 

I’ve made it VERY easy to enter so everyone can win.  What is that you ask?  Do I ship anywhere?  ABSOLUTELY!  I have always made my contests & giveaways eligible to everyone no matter where you live.  If UPS or USPS can deliver there, I’ll mail it there. 

TODAY’S PRIZE is from the ValueMags.com website!  I’m giving away a magazine subscription of YOUR choice with a Wooden Spoon;) to 3 WINNERS!!

I’m giving you YOUR choice of any magazine subscription they offer and let me tell you, they have the best magazines out there!  They have some wonderful cooking/food related magazines like:

• Cooks Illustrated
• Taste of Home (one of my faves:)
• Cooking Light
• Weight Watchers
• Bon Appetit
• and many, many more!

You DON’T have to pick a food/cooking one if you dont want to.  You can choose from any of them including Oprah, Family Circle, People, and more!  Of course, I will be including the ever so famous WOODEN SPOON!  They will be shipped seperately of course but you’ll get them both.  With ValueMags.com, there are never any auto renewals! The live support is awesome too.  I get all my subscriptions from there and I get A LOT!!..LOL. 

HOW TO WIN:

I’ve made it super simple to enter.  You can do one or all.  You get 1 entry for each one you do, with the exception of the banner.  Please try to leave everything you’ve done in ONE comment.  It makes it easier for me to keep up with;)

1. Leave a comment. EDITED: Only ONE comment per person will count!  I seem to have one particular person that thinks he can leave several comments for additional entries.  NOT THE CASE!
2. Blog about this week’s giveaway linking to this prize page OR my home page.
3. Stumble this post.  You must be a member of Stumbleupon.  Don’t lie and say you did because I can track everyone who stumbles.  Besides that’s not fair to the others  who really did stumble.  Don’t know what Stumbleupon is?  Read about stumbling here.
4. Rate & review my blog over at Blogged.com.  Let me know your profile name for verification.

BONUS entry:  Add a banner  to your sidebar for the duration of the giveaways (which is 3mths) and I’ll automatically give you 5 extra entries into each giveaway that you choose to enter!  I MADE FOUR BANNERS THAT YOU CAN CHOOSE FROM.  CLICK HERE!  Remember, if you already have a banner up, just let me know in the comments to remind me.

The Fine Print

Every week, the 4th entry will vary.  Number 1,2, and 3 will always remain the same.   If you choose to blog about it, you must do this for each prize, each week.  Each winner (each week) will be selected randomly.  The winner will have 1 week to claim his or her prize.   You MUST contact me to claim your prize!!

THIS WEEK’S PRIZE GIVEAWAY WILL END ON MAY 23RD, 2008 AT ABOUT 10:00PM CST. 

 Good luck to all who enter!!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Hmmmmm, good!  You can’t beat slush punch:)  Super easy to make and VERY GOOD!!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 1/2 cups white sugar
• 6 cups water
• 2 (3 ounce) packages strawberry flavored gelatin mix
• 1 (46 fluid ounce) can pineapple juice
• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 quart orange juice
• 2 (2 liter) bottles lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage

DIRECTIONS:

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, water, and strawberry flavored gelatin. Boil for 3 minutes. Stir in pineapple juice, lemon juice, and orange juice. Divide mixture in half, and freeze in 2 separate containers.
When ready to serve, place the frozen contents of one container in a punch bowl, and stir in 1 bottle of lemon-lime soda until slushy.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Warmer weather means less hot meals and more cool drinks, sandwhiches, and desserts.  A must have cookbook for the Summer season is Icebox Cakes!  OMG, this cookbook has some super yummy and very cool (literally) dessert recipes.  The Black Forest recipe is to die for!!! 

Some of these desserts would be excellent to serve at parties.  You’ll look like you’re a culinary queen/king!

Popularity: 3% [?]