Banana Pudding Pie

Where do i begin with my  love for  Banana Pudding Pie?Banana Pudding has been my husband's favorite dessert growing up ,which i didn't know until i made it and then found out ! I love just the pudding minus the wafers.Then my friend took me to this diner here in the town and introduced me to to this AMAZING dessert,Banana Icebox pie.Yes the place where Banana Pudding married the pie.Since then i have googled to come close to the taste and have failed miserably.In fact in my previous attempt,i had to throw the whole thing.yes the ENTIRE dish because it NEVER set.I even tried to freeze it in order to let it set,in vain.

I thought may be i should just stick with Banana Pudding.I can handle that...However,not giving up on my quest, googling around,i found  this little pearl of pudding wisdom,you got to stir the pudding until it gets thick like 'Mayonnaise',before you put it in a pie to set.Hmmmm....how did i miss that little detail?I guess i never understood when it says,stir until its thick.How thick?Visual please.I know not everyone need that but i do...i followed this  Banana Pudding Recipe  and tweaked just a little.

• I was too lazy to make a pie shell by myself and didn't had one ready made as i tend to do the thing from scratch,which ends up  being not happening at times.
• I do not like soggy Vanilla Wafers  in my pudding.
• I loved the crumble topping idea, as in recipe but too lazy to go that extra step of sprinkling the crumble while i am about to  eat.Isn't it getting the plate and cutting  the pie, work enough?
• So i made the crust using Nilla Wafers,i had 2 box each 3.5 oz each of wafers,so LOT more then what it says in recipe,added extra 2 Tbl spoon butter for the crust.My pie dish was bigger too and i kinda flattened the crust to the rim as you can see in the picture.
• I also didn't add banana liqueur as you could have guessed.

Small tip :Make sure,you wet the pan completely with cold water before you add your milk and egg mixture to thicken .It prevents the milk from scorching the surface. Of course do not take a break from stirring until it thickens.No its not my tip,someone else's,i just applied it !

I let it set overnight..couple of hours would have been fine but it was late night to begin with.Day after served with Whip cream.Hubby loved it,so i would call it a complete success finally.

Orecchiette with Swedish Meatballs

I have heard the glory of IKEA Swedish meatballs time and again  but not being a red meat eater,i could never taste one.Also i am kinda picky about meatballs.Yes i would like an Asian inspired meatballs 'may' be but its not something i get excited about eating.Googling around,i finally decided to give this Swedish Meatballs recipe a try for dinner.


I had to  customize it a little for my family and improvise it with what i had in my pantry.
I used ground chicken.I do not know how much pound it was,a small pack of whatever size comes in my grocery store.


Also rest of the ingredient were eyeballed.(Yeah i am averse to measurement,if you haven't guessed it yet) . I did add pinch of mustard in mine.I used only half of onions and 2 slices of bread soaked in milk for the amount of chicken i had .I also forgot to brown the onion in butter,so i just added it raw,finely chopped.I didn't had stock in hand,so i used plain water..i know it all sounds sorta gibberish,since i am not giving for how much chicken i used.It made,i would say 2 dozen,ping pong ball size meatballs i think...numbers and size are my wise guesses..i wasn't counting..I froze half for later.

Swedish Meatballs

I don't usually get anxious about cooking but this one i wasn't sure how its gonna turn out to be..i didn't had a backup plan...we live too far for pizza delivary too !Verdict was in dinner time.My husband LOVED it.Loved the sauce,loved the meatballs !Successfully added for future remake.
I served it with Orecchiette since we couldn't find  Lingonberry jelly as its traditionally served with :-)


Orecchiette with Veggies
Nothing unusual here,just get whatever brand of Orecchiette ,you get.This time i got 'Rao's brand from my local grocery store and it looked and tasted  so much more homemade then factory made,not that i don't like other..Orecchiette in Italian means "little ears".Look closely,don't they look like little ears.
As far as preparation goes,I sauted some chopped  onions,aspargus  in olive oil.Added some Oil soaked Sun drid tomatos and tossed the boiled pasta to it.Season with salt,pepper to your taste.
You can obiviousely add veggies of your choice.My other fav veggies for  pasta is Broccoli, Zucchini, Artichokes, Cherry tomatos!And i am not too lazy,i blend Artichokes and Sun dried  tomatoes in blender and then toss it  with pasta and other veggies.

Orecchiette tossed in veggies

                                                                Up close and personal !

Foodie Journey

I created this blog little over 2 years ago and it existed in utter futility, breathed internet air for nothing...Years rolled and many things  happened,like pinterest :-) .Encouraged by some other friends,i decided to put an end  my  long time procrastination, i started,what i call Project 365(366 for this year for all you picky ).I decided that i will take picture everyday of whatever it is.1 or 2 or many..
So today when my darling husband suggested ,taking pics of the food would help him select what  he would like for dinner.Yes to answer the age old profound question "Whats for dinner?", which i face every evening . And thats when i had an epiphany,may be i should revive this fruitlessly breathing,merely existing blog which i created years ago and turned it into a foodie journal.Listing food which i make on regular basis and we can look back  for future menu planning.I am too lazy to do menu planning or stick with it,if i do indeed plan one.I thought may be i should just write somewhere what i made and look back to it over the period of time to get some idea...so there it goes..Bon Appetit !