Banana Pudding HEAVEN

Back in my Dominican Republic honeymoon recap, I mentioned that we met a couple that we loved hanging out with. 

The story went like this:
Ian and I spotted them early on and thought they looked like a fun couple.  We also thought they looked Southern (this is really random, but for us it was a cool thing that we potentially already had in common).  We wanted to be their friends.  Yes, sounds cheesy, but it's true.

We were walking up to dinner one night at the sushi restaurant at our resort, and we saw this maybe-Southern-definitely-fun-looking duo sitting outside waiting for their table.  My sly and smart husband projected his voice up a few levels when he was telling me a story about when he lived in Charleston, SC -- totally in earshot of this couple.

Yep, we baited them, and they took it.  (Allie, did you know all of this??)  Allie's new husband Jason immediately spoke up and said "Excuse me, did you just say Charleston?  Are ya'll from that area?" and next thing you know, we were making friends.

Commonalities were quickly found -- we realized that we were both from Charlotte and only live about 10 minutes apart; we both got married on May 28th; we are the same ages (younger gal, older guy); we both had grey and yellow as our wedding colors; we both love the mountains and spend a lot of time in the Blowing Rock/Boone area; the boys both love to golf; the girls both love to cook. 

Well, all of this to tell you about banana pudding.

Allie keeps a great food & recipe blog, Key Ingredients.  She had a recipe for banana pudding that sounded wonderful, and I had a cookout to plan for this past weekend.

I put this together on Thursday evening.  YA'LL.  It was so delicious.

For Christmas, Mom gave me these cute little single-serve dessert cups that I used for serving this to us and our friends.  They are small but just the right size for a dessert that leaves you satisfied but not uncomfortably stuffed.

We have been enjoying this so much, and even our dog Drake loves getting in on the action.  Whenever he hears the trifle bowl come out of the fridge, he makes a mad dash to the kitchen.  Then he stands in front of you while you eat it and pants with his hot breath on your knee.  Finally, we concede and let him lick our bowls clean.  He's crazy about it.

You can find Allie's recipe for the banana pudding here.  I followed it to a tee but just decided to make it in a trifle bowl with three layers.  I know you'll love it! 

PS - Speaking of recipes, my sister Laura, the Reedy River Recessionista, has a great blog post today about  how she made butter using only heavy cream and a mason jar.