Bill Would Forgive Me!

I know, I know.
I have been a very bad blogger.
A bad foodie.An inadequet representative of good food and passionate eating.But there is good news.
I have a back log of recipes WITH photos for you all. But the photos are still on my camera.
It's been a rough month for food and fun.

But when in doubt I always look to the AJC.
Yeah, haven't gotten the September Bon Appetit, although it looks delicious!
So today's foodsation that caught my eye was of all things, Bill Cosby Inspired!

Yes, the Pudding Pop!
No, this is not a joke. Yes, I am serious. Recently, and by recent I'm talking about two years now, I have had a love affair with pudding. It has become my ice cream substitute in times of dire money woes. A box of instant pudding with 4 servings costs about $1.00 plus the milk, Ben & Jerry's close to $5.00 a pint, and Coldstone $7.00 a pint.
Around 100 calories a serving and nearly no fat, depending on the flavor and the milk you use, pudding has been making grown men smile and laugh, mostly at Bill, since the Victorian Era! Powdered wigs and pudding?
Then a man named Peter Cooper patented an easier way to make the purified powdered stuff in 1845! From there house wives began making multi-colored and flavored molded creations to be the envy of all the neighbors. Having the best Jell-O mold at the house warming was like having he best garden in town, or the best lawn on the block. This is a 165 year-old tradition of wiggly jiggly treats sitting in the fridge until company comes over.Aren't you glad Betty Crocker, who isn't real, came up with at home cake mixes?
The frozen stuff didn't come later till around 1930, you know, when freezers were popular.

In 1936 pudding became the milk induced family member of Jell-O starting with Vanilla (of course), tapioca, coconut, pistachio, butterscotch, egg custard (cousin to ice cream), flan (really?) and rice pudding.The 50's, 60's & 70's were good to pudding. New flavors were created and the undeniable, no-bake cheesecake was available in a box! 1971 dawned an even more user friendly option to the already stupid-proof concoction, PRE-Packaged Jell-Os and puddings. No more pretty glasses with dainty spoons, now we had the toss and go lunch bag additions that end up in the landfills taking up space instead of in the dish washer for reuse.1976 was when Mr. Cosby was asked to be the official spokesperson for pudding, and pops, and he stayed with the company for almost 30 years!Unfortunately, a travesty was committed to Jell-O during his tenure, the dreaded artificial sweetener! I'm not going to say the stuff causes cancer, but I will say that the stuff tastes like it should!But for those of you with no self control and a sugar issue, by all means, use the sugar free stuff, just don't make me eat it!

Today the box sales on Jell-O products are in the millions somewhere, and you can find a Jell-O products in just about every home. There websites dedicated to the Jell-icious creations that you can make at home. Jellophile You can even find the Jell-O flavors in your neighborhood! Jell-O Finder

My current sensation is White Chocolate Pudding. You might think this stuff would taste like watered down cocoa butter, but I use Silk Almond Milk (sweetened Vanilla flavor) and the smooth stuff turns into some truly sweet stuff. I sometimes end up licking the bowl before it even makes it to the fridge to set. I thought they were discontinuing the flavor one day and bought about ten boxes when I found it, only to find out that they aren't discontinuing it. Nor is it seasonal. So I now have enough boxes of pudding to last me till the end of the year, at the very least.

Pudding's new clothes.
I have a box of the instant stuff in my cabinet, waiting for a rainy weekend where I'm sitting at my sewing machine lusting for a chocolate fix. The have the prepackaged stuff, but I feel it lacks a certain home-made quality that I think Jell-O was intended for. But I do know that when frozen, this stuff has 31 Baskin Robbins on the run. Go try their World Class Chocolate and tell me it doesn't remind you of creamy frozen pudding.

So please, take a minute, find a flavor, and have a Jell-O pudding!

As for the Title of this blog, I think Bill would forgive my tardiness!