image via vanilla garlic

For me, pudding has always come in one flavor, and that is chocolate. There is something very child-like and innocent about a big tub of chocolate pudding in which you put your face and do not come out until you are licking off a chocolate pudding mustache and your bowl is clean. Which is why I do not bring pudding into this house, and it's always seemed too difficult to make, anyway, with the powder and the box and the stirring and the--what? Pudding doesn't have to come in a box? And the hey? It doesn't have to be chocolate? I am intrigued! And more than a little skeptical.

Vanilla Garlic makes me less skeptical--he's taken your standard pudding recipe (I didn't know! I am amazed!) and infused it with the fresh, lemony crispness of lemongrass. It looks creamy, delicious, and like it tastes just exactly like spring does, only with more calcium. I imagine that if you serve it in tiny tea cups, it would be perfect for a dinner party out on the back patio (if you are lucky enough) or your living room with all the windows thrown open. If you invite me, I promise to keep my face out of your bowl.