Kurt's Famous Banana Pudding

We sort of inherited Kurt* when we opened Texas Nation in Marble Falls in 2008. In high school, he’d worked for Cecil’s, the seafood restaurant that preceded us in that space. We also hired his girlfriend Amber as a server, for holidays only, as she attended Texas Tech during the school year, and we hired Kurt’s best friend as a dishwasher. They were all solid workers, young and eager and innocent, and for that we felt pretty lucky. We were learning quickly that with the exception of the Horseshoe Bay crowd, the local retailers who catered to them, and a tiny handful of upright citizens, Marble Falls proper was a pretty shady place.

Fast forward a couple years: Texas Nation has been closed a while, and Kurt has managed to land in our kitchen at Manna in Lubbock as a cook. He learns the ropes, gets along well with the staff, then gets dumped by Amber, who’s about to graduate from Tech.

Is this when you went south, Kurt? A broken heart drove you off the edge, to drink? And lie? and . . . ?  Was Amber supposed to be your ticket out?

Smart girl, that Amber with the new college degree. Kurt left Manna, bounced around Lubbock back roads for awhile, and got married after a few years to a really shady lady.  They had a shady baby then got a shady divorce.

Last I heard, Kurt was serving time in prison up north somewhere after that, for assaulting a girlfriend.

But somehow, in better times, he’d made a name for himself on the Lubbock kitchen scene, and this banana pudding was his calling card. It’s a Manna original, of course, but totally worth stealing. And you won’t go to prison for that! We will forever call it Kurt’s Banana Pudding, in honor of the amiable, happy-go-lucky, pre-criminal Kurt that once was.

*Name changed to protect the innocent, which is me, just in case “Kurt” is out of prison and harbors any kind of resentment about this accusation of theft even though it certainly wasn’t me misappropriating his banana pudding recipe.

  Serves 6 - 8.

Whip until fluffy, set aside . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . In a large mixing bowl beat together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Add in, mix well . . . . . . . . . Have ready . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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4 c. heavy cream 1 c. powdered sugar 1 T. banana liqueur 1 t. vanilla 1 can sweetened condensed milk 8 oz. cream cheese, room temp. 2 c. half-n-half  1 large box instant vanilla pudding 2 T. banana liqueur    1 box shortbread cookies, in pieces 3 bananas Banana liqueur Luxardo cherries

Reserve one-third of the whipped cream. Fold the rest into the pudding mix. In individual glasses or one large glass bowl or Pyrex, layer in order from the bottom up: sliced bananas, pudding, cookies, bananas, pudding, cookies, pudding. Let sit for at least 6 hours. To serve: top with piped whipped cream, cherries, and a drizzle of banana liqueur. We stuck a Piroline cookie into ours at the restaurant because we served them in parfait dishes.