Nanny's Banana Pudding

My wife got this recipe from "Nanny" and has been the only one to make it for years. I made some for St Patrick's Day and added green food color to the pudding for a festive look. It still tastes just as good and is really easy to make. (Oh, and Nanny is our daughter's local adopted grandmother since the real ones lived far away. She really, really spoiled them just like a real grandmother.)

Collect up these ingredients to use when constructing the pudding in a 9x13 baking dish. Of course, there will be no baking going on but the clear pyrex dish looks pretty with the cookies showing on the sides.

• 1 package vanilla wafers - The right size holds about 80 cookies. I think the Nabisco Nilla brand tastes better.
• 1 small bowl of Cool Whip - Again I have preferences. I like the "more creamy" kind that says it contains real cream. You could also whip up a cup of whipping cream with some powdered sugar and vanilla.
• Small bag of small marshmallows - Make sure they aren't hard or overly sticky.
• 6 bananas - Get them not green and not brown. If they are too green they aren't as sweet and the brown ones look nasty in the pudding.

Prepare in a large mixing bowl:

• 2 Large pkgs instant vanilla pudding - I use Jello brand as it seems to be more fluffy and has a better taste.
• 5 c Milk - The back of the pudding box says to use 2 1/2 cups for the pie recipe. Using the smaller amount makes it a bit thicker which works well for banana pudding. (You can replace a cup of the milk with cream if you want.)

Stir well together as described on the box for two minutes. (This is the point at which you add the food coloring. Just add some and stir until you like the color.)

Then stir in half of the Cool Whip but don't stir too well so there are white streaks in the pudding.

Now to construct it. You take the large flat baking dish (9x13) and put layers as described below. Note that the top item in the list goes on  the bottom of the dish. Funny that.

•  Vanilla wafers at the bottom. Since it's glass, you put the pretty side of these cookies down (in case anyone looks at the bottom of the dish). I put enough in to completely fill the bottom one cookie thick. Save the broken ones for the inner layer.
• About 1/3 of the pudding. Try to spread it without stirring the cookies around too much. Spread it flat from side to side and corner to corner.
• Vanilla wafer around the sides. Again the pretty side of the cookies goes out. Use whole cookies and just stick them down into the pudding so they stay vertical. and visible through the glass.
• Peel 3 bananas and slice round sections. Spread the banana rounds evenly over the pudding. Press then down gently to seat them in the pudding. (This makes the next pudding layer easier to spread.)
• Another layer of the next 1/3 of the pudding. Be sure no banana is visible and try to minimize air pockets that will allow the bananas to turn brown.
• Spread a layer of marshmallows over the pudding.
• Spread a layer of cookies over the marshmallows pressing down gently to seat the cookie and marshmallow in the pudding.
• Slice up the other 3 bananas and spread those over the cookies.
• Another layer of pudding should use it all up.
• Spread the rest of the Cool Whip on top of the pudding. I like to leave some of the pudding visible around the sides of the dish.
• Add a few marshmallows and some more vanilla wafers on top to make it look nice and give a bit more crunch.

Put in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours to give the cookies time to soften and time for the pudding to set up.