Good Eats: Mimi's Banana Pudding

One of my favorite summertime desserts is my grandmother's banana pudding. Like her fudge is what Christmas tastes like, her banana pudding is what summer tastes like. And it would be rude of me to not share this wonderful warm weather treat with you.

What you'll need: 

2 boxes of Nilla Wafers (I like a lot of wafers.)

5-6 bananas

1 large box of Jell-O vanilla pudding (or 2 little boxes)*

1 can Eagle Brand Milk (I use the fat-free version and it tastes the same.)

16 oz. Cool Whip

3 cups of milk

*This time I used French vanilla because Scott asked for it, and whatever Scott wants, Scott gets — because he's the one who buys the groceries. 

There's no cooking in this. It's mainly an assembly job, but it's a delicious assembly job.

Step one: mix up the pudding and the milk, adding the Eagle Brand milk and half of the Cool Whip to the mixture. This is the pudding component. 

Step two: Take a 4 quart dish and line the bottom with the wafers. I stack them up the side, too, because, like I said, I like the wafers — especially when they've sat in the pudding for a while and get soft. Once you've added the wafers, layer sliced bananas on top. Then pour about half of the pudding over that. 

Repeat step two. Now you have wafers, bananas, pudding, wafers, bananas, pudding. I stick some wafers down the side again. For my dish, this is full. So I add one more layer of wafers, then the rest of the Cool Whip on top. Then I break up a few more wafers and sprinkle them on top. Let this set up in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

I always have pudding and wafers left over, so I make Scott little banana-less banana puddings because he doesn't like bananas. It's because I love him.

There you have it — summer dessert at its finest. Do you have a favorite seasonal sweet? If not, make this and you soon will!