Not Yo Mama's Banana Puddin'

Here's a recipe I made a while back to tide you over until my holiday entries. This would be a great, easy recipe to take to your next holiday party.

This is Paula Deen's Not Yo Mama's Banana Puddin'. I first saw Paula make this on tv a few years ago, and I was appalled. Paula Deen is supposed to be the queen of Southern cuisine, and here she was making a Southern dessert staple -banana pudding - with packaged vanilla pudding mix, shortbread cookies instead of Nilla wafers, and cream cheese? I'd grown up on my Mema's recipe, the traditional one, which contains a homemade custard pudding cooked on the stove. I turned my little nose up at this recipe and refused to make it, until my good friend Sarah (yes, the same Sarah that I baked the chocolate cake for) convinced me otherwise. I decided to give it a shot. And, boy, was Sarah right on! Traditional or not, this stuff is amazingly delicious! Even if you don't care all that much for bananas, you'll love this banana pudding.

Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding
recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Ingredients

• 2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies (you may want to get three, I felt I ran out of cookies)
• 6 to 8 bananas, sliced
• 2 cups milk
• 1 5oz box instant French vanilla pudding mix
• 1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
  
• 1 140z can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 12 oz container Cool Whip, or equal amount homemade whipped cream

Directions

Line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Spicy Chili with Cornbread Waffles

First off, I've got to apologize for that pathetic little photo up there. The truth is, this recipe didn't last long enough for me to take a picture, so this is Foodnetwork.com's tiny stock photo. I made this last night as a treat for Mr. JY and me. I haven't been cooking much lately since we've been busy, busy bees working on our new house, and Mr. JY had a long meeting yesterday and got home late. I thought he might want some nice comfort food. This recipe was a huge hit. Ladies, if you want your man to fall in love with you all over again, whip up this easy chili and waffles and you'll have him wrapped around your little finger. The chili was spicy but not too spicy; the little bits of corn provided a sweet burst of flavor that echoed the cornbread waffle. The addition of sour cream and cheese made it downright sinful and oh, so comforting after a long autumn work day.

This recipe is from Paula Deen (of course). Anything so sinfully delicious and comforting would be. I don't make her recipes all too often since they are so dangerous, but you could easily slim this down if you wanted to by omitting the waffles (heaven forbid), using fat free or lowfat sour cream to garnish, omitting the cheese.... but why on earth would you want to?

The recipe on Food Network's website is here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/cornmeal-waffles-with-spicy-chili-recipe/index.html

You might notice I changed the name of the recipe on my blog and switched the order around. That's simply because I think the chili is the true star of this recipe and I think it's a little counter-intuitive to list the waffle recipe first. I made the waffles while the chili was simmering, so it makes sense to me to just go ahead and make the chili first, and then make the waffles. But to each her own, I suppose. Paula does, after all, have her own shows, restaurants, and megabucks cooking empire and I just have this little food blog here no one reads, so why would you listen to me?

Anyway, here's the recipe. :)

Paula Deen's Spicy Chili with Cornbread Waffles

Spicy Chili Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground chuck
1 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper

2 (15-ounce) cans ranch-style beans (Note: I could not find these at Target, so I just used 2 15oz cans of seasoned pinto beans and it turned out just fine.)

1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (15-ounce) can niblet corn, drained

1 (10-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles

In a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, brown ground chuck, until beef is crumbly. Stir in onion, bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Stir in beans, tomato sauce, corn, diced tomatoes, and green chiles. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally. Yield: 10 to 12 servings

While the chili is simmering, make your waffles. Now, if you don't have a waffle maker, you could certainly just make corn pancakes in a skillet. Or cornbread muffins. But trust me, if you DO own a waffle maker (and this recipe might just be grounds to go out and buy one if you don't) you are gonna want to make these waffles.

Before I list Paula's recipe for the waffles, I have a confession to make........

I cheated.

I used Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix to make the waffles. I know, I know. But it really saved me time. And I have an obsession with Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix. It makes the best sweet cornbread. Until I taste homemade that's better, I won't back down from that. So, if you need to save some time, use the Jiffy box. It's okay. No one will know. Just follow the directions on the box.

But for you pretentious people that would like to make it homemade, here's the recipe:

Cornmeal Waffles Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs

Preheat waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions.
In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add milk, oil, and eggs; stirring until smooth. Pour batter onto hot waffle iron and bake in batches. Set aside and keep warm.

Serve waffles topped with heaping spoonfuls of Spicy Chili. Garnish with shredded Cheddar, sour cream and chopped fresh cilantro (unless you hate cilantro like I do, then by all means leave it out).

Trust me when I say you have got to try this recipe. As Paula would say, it's truly "out of this world"!