puddin num num

i am rediscovering my love of pudding. not that that love ever necessarily left, but i am having a great time refamiliarizing myself with the delights of the warm, tasty treat. and i'm not talking about bullshit bill cosby jell-o nonsense... this is yummy, from scratch, buying the tapioca pearls and stirring for 30 minutes intense pudding making. i am even deviating from my normal chocolate-laden diet to delve into some of the forgotten favorites. butterscotch pudding made my tuesday night dinner and wednesday morning breakfast unforgettable. who knew the delicious butterscotchiness came from brown sugar and butter? not this pudding-slamming fool. it's like when i discovered that cumin is the key to chili. MINDBLOWING.

this evening: tapioca. i still remember the first time i had tapioca pudding in high school. i believe it was my sophomore year and i was absolutely devastated that it took fifteen years for that lumpy, bumpy, scrumptious delight to skip across my palate. turns out that the cooking process for tapioca pudding is a bit more arduous than you might think. i prepared myself for tonight's pudding feast by purchasing tapioca yesterday, but made the grievous and unforgivable mistake of buying the "quick cook" tapioca. I obviously had to fix that mistake by buying the for-real pearls today. after soaking the little pearls for 60 minutes in yummy soy milk, they were barely boiled up with vanilla and sugar and so much stirring over 30 minutes and indeed. i've got myself some homemade tapioca pudding. the caviar of gelatinous treats. every little ball of tappy goo an explosion of happy-time yummy flavor in my mouth. AND IT'S WARM. unbelievable.