Comfort Food = Dessert

Hey all:

So, it's finally winter here in the big smoke and although I knew it was inevitable that it was coming eventually, I still can't help but miss the nice fall weather we were having. In any case...to help me cope with the yuckiness outside, I have been craving some comfort foods (I had a yummy steak & mushroom pie last night with mashed potatoes and I don't even like mashed potatoes!)- I also like me some yummy desserts like custard and pudding and cake (but I am not making a whole cake just for me!)- yes, I know desserts are not healthy, but every once in a while, they are necessary! I had a huge hankering for Chocolate pudding (and whipped cream!) so off to the grocery I went. The only recipe I know for chocolate pudding is: open box, pour contents into a bowl, add milk, mix it up, wait for it to set, enjoy...well, let me tell you that's all fine and dandy, but do you know what's in that box? Nope,neither do I as I couldn't pronounce half the stuff in it!:( That made me sad...when I went to the dairy aisle to pick up a carton of whipping cream (because at least I can make custard from scratch!), for kicks I looked at the ingredient list on that - fully expecting to see: MILK or CREAM and that's it - well, was I EVER surprised to see that MILK or CREAM is NOT the only ingredient in whipping cream!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY! I was really surprised! It had a bunch of stuff that I couldn't pronounce! Something as 'wholesome' as pudding with whipped cream was actually some factory produced fake food! So sad!

Well my friends, I am happy to report that I have a solution for the pudding thing at least! I was flipping through a pretty book of organic cakes and saw an easy recipe for CHOCOLATE PUDDING tucked in the back! OMG! AND - it is SO EASY. Why oh why do we need to buy 'instant' pudding, when it's pretty close to being 'instant' all by itself?

This is what goes into real choclate pudding:

Cocoa powder
Sugar
Corn starch
Milk
and a bit of vanilla

it took all of 10 minutes to make and then it needs to cool, but whatevs.
Why oh why does 'instant' pudding have all that crap in it??? My recipe for chocolate pudding has nary a digliceride, nor any phosphates, nor any artificial colour, nor even any salt!!!!!!! Oh yeah - and it tastes SOOOOO GOOD!
Instead of whipped cream I had to settle for frothed milk (sad, but there's way less fat anyway!) and it did the trick! I still can't believe that there is 'other crap' in whipping cream!

To celebrate, I should make some custard too! (pretty much the same ingredients as the pudding, except remove the cocoa powder and replace it with egg yolks and throw in some butter at the end!)


Chocolate pudding = not the sexiest thing to photograph!