Pistachio Dream

Pistachio is so on trend. Or so my niece tells me. Something about Dubai Chocolate sparking a renaissance of pistachio flavored food items, green and beautiful, filling her social media pages.

I inadvertently had my finger on the pulse of what’s “in” this Easter because I went old school and pulled out my “Nibble of Northlake” a cookbook produced by the sweet church ladies at my childhood place of worship, back in the olden days, otherwise known as the 1990s. Everything old is new again apparently. I wonder if churches still do things like this?

I was just a sprite back then, but I remember the buzz around the sanctuary on Sundays as the cookbook came together. My mother, who donated many recipes, including this one, has a mostly destroyed copy on her shelves. Well loved, food stained, and falling apart at the comb binding. My grandmother gifted me her copy a few years before she went home to be with Jesus, over 30 years old and in pristine condition. Grandma wasn’t that big on baking. Riding motorcycles, meeting up with friends wearing red hats, and being the most straight-forward, loving, generous person I ever knew were more her style. Possibly the only time she ever opened hers was to write this now treasured personal note atop a humorous recipe about baking with children.

Apparently you can make this layered dessert with chocolate or lemon as the centerpiece flavor, at least according to church ladies Chris, Paula and Jerri, but my mom always opted for the pistachio variety. Sometimes when you have a nostalgic food as an adult, it doesn’t live up to the memory, but this dreamy layered pudding was everything I remembered and more. Light and creamy with hints of sweetness and a nutty earthiness to balance it out, it is just divine.