Point for pie!

"I've got steaks and baked potatoes and sour cream and chives and salad and fresh baked pie. I would have made a pot roast - I make a terrific pot roast - but I didn't know whether you ever had pot roast, whether you like pot roast. Anyway, there wasn't time 'cause it really should be made the day before. You can't go yet! You gotta stay for supper, that's all there is to it."

"What kind of pie?"
--The Way We Were

I've never seen The Way We Were, just a trailer during the special features of The Natural, but it included this quote, which I have never forgotten. I love pie! I have pie for my birthday instead of cake. Sometimes I force my sister Monica to have pie for her birthday, too, even though she doesn't like pie so much. I always have a strawberry pie and either a peach pie or a homemade banana cream pudding pie. I do not like banana cream pie from restaurants or stores (I feel the opposite about pumpkin pie) but luckily homemade banana cream pudding pie is very easy to make.

Jell-o (R) used to make a No-Bake Banana Cream Pudding Pie mix but stopped in 1997. I've been meaning to write them a letter expressing my disappointment in that turn of events but I've never got around to it. (I've also been meaning to write a letter to Mariah Carey, suggesting that she wear more clothes. I need to get my priorities in order.) Since Jell-o doesn't make the mix anymore, I had to come up with a just-as-easy, if-not-easier alternative.

Banana Cream Pudding Pie
1 large box of banana cream pudding mix
Suggested milk amount on the pudding mix, less 1/4 - 1/2 cup (this will make the pudding thicker and therefore easier to set)
Whipped cream
Graham cracker pie crust
1 or 2 bananas

The Jell-o mix included graham cracker crumbs to make your own crust but, really, it's probably easier just to get the crust ready made. If you do prefer to make your own, melt 6 tablespoons of butter and mix with 1-2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs and 1/4 cup sugar then press against the bottom and then the sides of a pie tin.

Start by mixing the pudding mix and milk and set aside to thicken. Slice one banana and set on the bottom of pie crust. Pour 3/4 of the pudding on top of the sliced bananas. If you decide to use two bananas, you can slice the second one and place on top of the pudding layer or the next layer, which is the whipped cream layer. Mix the whipped cream (however much you'd like to use) with the leftover pudding and then pour over the pudding layer. Cover with the plastic lid that came with the pie crust and refrigerate for at least an hour.

This is guaranteed all-around joy, unless you're feeding my friend Jina who doesn't like bananas for some reason.

Next time: Banoffee!