Split Level Pudding - Tuesdays with Dorie

Tonight is a night for pudding.

Pudding was one of the things we "made" as kids. Sure, it came out of a square box and you just added milk, but it was "cooking" to us kids.

Now that I'm grown up, I make it from scratch.

But, today, I just wish I could be a kid again.

Because then my friend, Lisa would live 5 houses down the street and we would play all the time. Sleep overs. Picking pill bugs in the garden. Forming clubs...complete with membership cards in the backyard clubhouse.

Lisa and I went to separate colleges and would lose touch for stretches of time over the years. Last May, I called her dad and got her phone number in Minnesota. As it has always been in our lives, we picked up like we just saw each other last week. I wished her happy birthday, and she was filled with news! She was in school getting her Master's degree, her four kids were healthy and happy, and she was engaged to a her college friend. After an uneventful one date in college, they reconnected after all these years.

Then, after a few emails and our usual promises of keeping in touch again, time just flew by...

Today, I learned that she has Stage 2 breast cancer. She's had surgery and will start chemo in seven days.

I'm in shock and sad. And guilty that I didn't know sooner and worked harder to keep in touch. Sometimes, I know more about people in my "blogging" world than someone I've known since the 2nd grade.

Grown up stuff like breast cancer can suck it. Today, I need pudding and to think about my friend Lisa and memories of us riding our bikes to school and walking to Winchell's donuts. My friend Lisa is a fighter and she'll be wearing a pink survivor shirt soon enough. I know she is surrounded by a wonderful family and community of friends. And she will always have a friend here in Los Angeles.

Oh yeah, that nice guy from college? He married her as soon as he found out. So congratulations Lisa and Jason on your recent nuptials...and kick this cancer in the butt.

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Garrett of Flavor of Vanilla picked Split Level Pudding, pages 384- 385 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I only made 1/4 of the recipe. I used milk chocolate for the ganache and it came out a bit hard (my 1/4 measurements may have been off too). I made the vanilla pudding using just a whisk and skipped the food processor. I sifted the cornstarch and salt mixture instead of food processing it. The small amount was fine with a whisk, but if I make the full recipe, I'm going for the food processor. It only too a few minutes for the pudding to thicken.

It was good and just what I needed today. - mary