For several days now, an overstock of aging yellow bananas has been collecting on my red kitchen table. Loaves of banana bread are my traditional use of such excess, but this time I decided to make something I haven't made in ages, something simple, reminiscent of home (any one's home), and something that requires crafting: Banana Cream Pie. Is it healthy because it's low in calories and fat? No. It's healthy because it's made with the barest bones of natural, some local, ingredients. It's healthy because when you eat it, it should soothe your worries for just a moment.
The crust is half whole-wheat, half organic white, made flaky with homemade Snowville Creamery butter, coarse natural sea salt, and Tennessee whiskey. Inside it's layered with buttery yellow vanilla pudding, creamy and whipped together with Snowville Creamery dairy, organic cane sugar, cornstarch, deeply orange local free-range egg yolks, pure vanilla extract, local raw honey and a pad of butter for richness. Sandwiched between the layers of custard are slices of bananas, constructed just the way my Mom taught me. It's topped off with homemade Snowville whipped cream, sweetened with local raw honey and a few grains of sea salt. This is the purest, most simple banana cream pie, an heirloom, soul food for certain.
I hope for a joyous, productive new year for everyone. I'll be toting this pie with me to a party tonight to help ring in 2012 and my newly impassioned focus on pure and simple, old and honored, sweet and succulent. Salute.
