How to make pudding

I made a banana cream pie without bananas yesterday because that's how Melissa liked it and it was her birthday. I asked her once why she didn't just call it a banana pudding pie and she said it wasn't banana pudding pie, it was banana cream pie without bananas. Not sure what kind of odd logic she was using. Anyway, I was making the pudding and remembered our good friend Joy.

Joy was at our house for a few days three years ago and I'd made tapioca pudding as a dessert. She enjoyed it and thanked me for the hard work I did to produce it. I replied that it wasn't hard work, exactly, just boring to stand there and stir until it boiled. I explained that to combat the boredom I stir with one hand and hold a good book with the other. She clearly didn't believe me.

"You think I'm joking?" I exclaimed, "I'm serious! I stand there with a whisk in this hand and a book in this hand," motioning with right and left hands, "and stir while I read. The kettle spins as you stir unless you hold it so if you put the tea kettle on the burner behind, your kettle will spin a full circle and then stop when the handle hits the tea kettle."

Joy began to smile.

"And,' I continued, "I speed things up a bit by setting the burner almost to 'high'. That means it cooks faster but I also need to stir faster to keep it from scorching. So I'm stirring like mad with one hand and enjoying my book in the other," demonstrating in the air for her, "until the pudding comes to the boil and I'm finished."

Joy started to laugh.

"Now tapioca is a little different," I went on. "If I cook it too fast, the tapioca doesn't soften as it should and, instead, sinks to the bottom of the dish as it cools in the fridge and congeals in a rubbery mass. So I have to stir a little longer but can go a little slower. That means," I added, tipping Joy over the edge, "that I have to make sure my book has enough pages left for me to read. I don't want to finish the book just as the pudding starts to thicken."

I promise my mother and sisters that I'm ever so much better at this stirring and reading combination now than I was at age ten when I was supposed to be churning butter.

So thank you, Joy, for making me smile first thing yesterday morning.