It is – It was delicious

Bread Pudding

3 cups slightly stale bread pieces, pinched up

(Don’t use fresh-it gets gummy instead of creamy. Trust me, there’s a difference.)

2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease or butter an 8 or 9” square pan.

Pinch bread pieces up in buttered dish.

Whisk milk and egg together.

Add sugar, vanilla and salt. Mix well.

Pour over bread and push bread down into liquid.

Let sit and soak about 5-10 minutes, pushing bread down a couple more times.

Bake 30-40 minutes until center is set (i.e. it doesn’t jiggle like thighs after eating this)

Top with sugar sauce, chocolate sauce, or any sauce you like.

Before baking, you can add in chocolate or butterscotch or peanut butter chips. Or fruit. Or candy pieces. Or broccoli. (Just kidding, don’t use broccoli).

The story behind the recipe

It was a way to make use of less than fresh bread. And also a way to provide a sweet treat to her children.

My mom’s mom, Josie Ward, was a great cook. One of the greatest, to hear my mom and aunt and uncles tell it. And I believe it to be true due to the fact that though her home and kitchen were humble, folks conveniently stopped by regularly at mealtimes. They knew she would feed them. And they knew it would be good. 

She was a sharecropper’s wife and mother to 8 kids. My grandfather Carrell was an honest man, and good – most of the time. He truly would give someone the shirt off his back or hand his last few dollars to one of his children if they needed it. But he also  liked to drink; and would spend what little money they had on moonshine whiskey.

They sharecropped in Scott County, Arkansas and picked cotton all over Arkansas and Oklahoma just to make enough to start again the next year. There was never enough to get ahead. But they always ate well thanks to the large garden they had and to the 8 kids who helped tend that garden and pick the cotton.

Josie knew how to make something out of nothing. She could take the most basic ingredients and work miracles. Ordinary ingredients like sugar and flour and PET (evaporated) milk became extraordinary in her skilled hands. She’d add in butter she’d churned, eggs she’d gathered, and fruit she’d canned and scrape together a delicious diversion from everyday life for her children. She did this after a long day of housework, working in the garden, or working in the field, and most days all three. She did this because life was hard for all of them. And while she couldn’t protect her children totally from Carrell’s temper or give them much materially, she could love them unconditionally and lift their moods with good food.

One dessert she made combined stale bread, milk, eggs or oil, sugar and a little vanilla flavoring. It was an old time recipe handed down by her mom. It was making sure nothing went to waste. It was comfort and love and warmth. It was delicious.