What's in a Recipe

Spying delicious-looking peaches in every grocery story from Costco to the Fresh Market in July and August, was a bonus for meal preparation. Who doesn't need fresh fruit in their diet? I bought five pounds planning to have some for eating and some to make my mother's fabulous desert - Peach Pudding. (Which has little to do with what southerners and English people think as pudding.) It had been at least four years since we'd cooked one. In fact, we'd not eaten it since my mother was around to make it for us.

She loved cooking it, but hated grocery shopping. Since it was her specialty, I'd locate delectable full-flavored peaches and deliver them to her doorstep along with a box of vanilla wafers. They had to be name brand. Store brand was not acceptable. She claimed they didn't have the flavor or the snap that Nillas had. About two hours later, Mom would drive up our driveway and call for someone to bring potholders and help bring in a piping hot Peach Pudding.

Sometimes, the famous Peach Pudding was a Sunday afternoon delight served on the patio still warm with vanilla ice cream. But we often had its baking timed for desert after steaks on the grill, or fried chicken.

After having nearly two months of good intentions, I finally vowed that I'd purchase peaches for the recipe. I knew I would have to guard them from my sons in order to have enough fruit. So, last Saturday, I was in Costco, my favorite shopping place. There were beautiful peaches stacked in front of the refrigerated area. Knowing they were the last fresh peaches of summer, at least the last ones from South Carolina (notated on the box), I grabbed a box with a dozen peaches that were ripe and ready to eat and left the store determined to go straight home and make a Peach Pudding.

I opened the box of Nillas and layered them onto the bottom of a glass dish. Then I stood at the sink peeling and slicing over three cups of fruit. All the while, I thought back to my childhood and how my mom made the dessert often. Dad had three peach trees in our yard. Then we'd go to my Uncle James's house and bring home peaches and vegetables from his farm. The summer I was twelve, we brought home so many peaches that we ate them for breakfast with pancakes or sliced on top of cereal every morning for a week. Then we had them sliced with a sprinkle of sugar for snacks and over pound cake with whipped cream. Mom cooked four Peach Puddings, made a few peach pies, and we had enough to make peach preserves.

After completing the layers of wafer and fruit; I assembled the ingredients and popped the pudding into the oven. Just the smell of it cooking took me back to the family meals with Mom. She said the recipe was older than she was. Born in 1915, I imagined that the recipe came into my family through my grandmother's people over a hundred years ago. I wondered what they used for wafers and made a mental note to look up how vanilla wafers came to be.   

As the aroma reach others in the house, there was a parade through the kitchen checking to see what was cooking. Needless to say, we could not wait for it to cool. We spooned it into bowls and put scoops of ice cream on top --melting instantly.

It might have been the best Peach Pudding I have ever tasted. Every second of the making was filled with memories. Now I know why great southern cooks hand down recipes through generations. It's not about the secrets of good cooking, it's the memories that come everyday it's cooked.

Here's the recipe for my mother's dessert

Margaret's Peach Pudding

(preheat oven 350 degrees)

2-3 dozen vanilla wafers (depends on size of dish)

3 - 31/2 cups sliced fresh peaches

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup sugar

Arrange the cookies and peaches in layers in a baking dish. (I use glass so the finished desert can be served warm and will look attractive.) End with a cookie layer. Put the butter, milk, and sugar in a pot. Heat on medium stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Pour the hot mixture over the wafers and peaches. Place in the oven and bake one hour.

Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.            

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