Sometimes a scent or a taste brings you back to some other time and place. Have you ever had one of those moments, where the lick of an icy popsicle transports you to childhood summers, playing outside by the little inflatable pool? I have those moments all the time. I also have a crazy-good memory (trust me, I know what you wore on this day in 1995), so my memories play out in a little more detail than some.
Amanda, for instance, hardly remembers what she did yesterday. I guess I'm here to keep the story of our childhood alive. We regularly have conversations that start with me saying "remember that time, I was probably 6, you were 8…you were wearing….we were eating those…and then I said… do you remember?" She rarely does. I wonder if she remembers that time we begged our parents for candy, we must have been at a Mexican grocery or something, and the only options were those spoons with tamarind goo on them, or weird little tamarind baby-bottles. That's what I got, and it ended up being super spicy. I cried. I mean, I was kind of a cry-baby, but still. Who makes spicy candy look like a baby-bottle!? That's just crazy. To this day, I remember how it tasted. That was probably about 22 years ago.
For some reason, this chocolate pudding is one of those things that brings back a flood of memories for me. The recipe was published in the February 2009 issue of Gourmet. That Valentine's day, Evan came over to my old one-room garden level apartment. We made an unbelievable amount of sushi together, and ate it in the living room, watching Nip Tuck. I think we watched like 2 full seasons that day. Then—even though we were so full of homemade sushi we could barely move—we ate the entire bowl of pudding, with whipped cream and strawberries. I was wearing a red shirt. Like I said, I remember details.
I guess there are probably other amazing chocolate pudding recipes out there, but I just keep coming back to this one. And every time, it makes me think of Valentine's day. And Evan. I love that. I love him. And chocolate pudding.
