Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
I didn’t eat a lot of school lunch as a child.
My parents preferred to send me off with wholesome, healthy brown bag options like PB&J on wheat or, after they separated, sardines on a kaiser roll – my father’s misguided, but well-intentioned concept of what a middle schooler might want to consume midday.
As a result, some aspects of the paid cafeteria lunch took on a rather mythic quality for me – including those tiny cups of chocolate pudding topped with a perfectly piped dollop of whipped cream.
When I did buy lunch, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that I would win the dessert lottery and end up with chocolate pudding. Sometimes there was vanilla pudding, which was a sad substitute, or, worse yet, canned fruit cocktail swimming in too-sweet syrup.
As an adult, I still have a love for chocolate pudding, though I don’t eat it often. I have tried the “healthy” versions made with silk tofu or even avocado. I find them lacking – because, in the way of Proust’s madeleine, it takes that exact texture and taste of canned (or instant?) pudding, mixed with commercially made whipped cream to transport me back to my grade-school days.
Interestingly, “pudding” means something different if you’re on the other side of the pond. It is used as a broad catch-all phrase for dessert (AKA “afters”), but also could be a variety of both sweet and/or savory dishes, including Yorkshire pudding (buttery and entirely delicious) and Black pudding (made from pig’s blood, not for me).
In the UK puddings are generally boiled or steamed, but here in the US, pudding is usually a cream or milk-based concoction that is sweet, smooth, and thickened with either eggs (traditional and known as custard) or cornstarch and/or flour.
The cornstarch substitute reportedly came compliments of Alfred Bird, an English chemist whose wife loved custard but had an egg allergy. In 1837, he started selling his cornstarch-based Bird’s Custard Powder, which remains a staple in the UK today.
Sweet puddings as we know them today started out life as custards, which date back at least to the Middle Ages. One of the first recipes for chocolate pudding appeared The Home Cookbook, published in Toronto, Canada, in 1877, though this one relied on eggs. Thee starch-thickened versions started popping up in cookbooks in the early 1900s.
The first boxed chocolate pudding was reportedly created by the My-T-Fine company, which is now Jel Sert (a combination of “jelly” and “desert”), in 1918. The company is still in operation and offers a variety of pudding flavors – from lemon and pumpkin to Tiramisu. Of course, these days, Jell-O (Kraft Heinz) is dominating the instant pudding market, accounting for about 45 percent of retail sales. Meanwhile, Conagra foods (Snack Pack) is a significant player in the single-serve/ready-to-eat pudding market.
Making pudding from scratch is actually fairly easy and very satisfying. If you have a few minutes to spare – literally 10 to 15 minutes on the stovetop, and an additional two hours of non-work time while the pudding chills in the fridge – consider celebrating National Chocolate Pudding Day by whipping up a batch. I bet you’ll be surprised by the results.
It will be overcast today, with high temperatures struggling to get out of the 70s.
In the headlines…
The US government yesterday formally waived oil sanctions on Iran for two months — allowing for up to $10 billion in revenue as nuclear talks continued with Iranian officials in Switzerland.
Vice President JD Vance is playing the increasingly tricky role as the frontman in the U.S. negotiations with Iran, as President Trump repeatedly creates disruptions in his path.
Israel’s government is reportedly concerned the US is effectively legitimizing Iran’s influence in Lebanon and eroding Israel’s freedom of operation there through new understandings reached in Switzerland and the MOU signed with Iran last week.
Iran is taking steps to cement its control over the Strait of Hormuz and to generate revenue from the waterway through new entities and procedures, experts say.
The Trump administration has been struggling to demonstrate evidence of widespread voter fraud with just months to go before midterms and as President Trump insists the nation’s elections are “rigged,” according to a review of cases by NBC News.
The Supreme Court yesterday reinstated a murder conviction in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
The justices, by a 6-3 vote, granted an appeal from New York prosecutors who had urged them to undo a federal appeals court decision that overturned the verdict. The three liberal justices dissented.
The Department of Justice is suing New York over a law set to take effect this week that would bar federal agents from wearing masks, opening them up to “harassment, tracking, intimidation, and assaults.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul yesterday launched an effort to explore whether Lake Placid and New York City could team up to host a future Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Hochul said an exploratory committee, over the next year, will evaluate whether it would be feasible for the state to host the games with events in New York City and Lake Placid, looking at cost, existing venues, and whether there’s community support.
Hochul announced the completion of the 100-mile Smart Path Connect transmission project, a major grid upgrade expected to deliver over $438 million in annual savings to consumers.
Hochul is heading into today’s primary election unopposed on the Democratic ballot, after potential challengers either declined to run or ended their campaigns.
Incumbent Democrats in the Assembly are facing an onslaught of primary challenges from progressives – but Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is giving official monetary support to only a handful heading into primary day.
New York’s congressional primaries today will be a key test of strength for the left-wing movement challenging the Democratic Party’s establishment.
Those races, as well as a handful of Democratic House primaries in Maryland and one in Utah, are the latest proving ground in the battle between the different wings in the Democratic Party this year.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani crisscrossed the campaign trail this past weekend on behalf of his slate of progressive congressional candidates after low early voting turnout raised alarm within the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Turnout was low and the electorate was much older than it was last year when the mayoral race between Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo fueled heavy early voting.
Mamdani wouldn’t distance himself from a handpicked NY-13 House candidate, Darializa Avila Chevalier, who now says she is against deporting anyone — even if they committed heinous crimes.
According to disclosures filed with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, Mamdani still owns land in Uganda. New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams owned cryptocurrency. And New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin is still rich.
Mamdani defended his use of the word “monsters” to describe AIPAC at a rally Friday for progressive candidates, as some of his Jewish supporters expressed concern that the term may connote an antisemitic trope.
A coffee shop flamed pro-Israel Rep. Dan Goldman for buying a cup of java at its Brooklyn location and issued him a refund, declaring it doesn’t serve “genocide enablers.”
Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general overseeing the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said in a post on X that her office was investigating the incident.
A spokesman for Goldman Friday yanked a phony artificial intelligence-created video that purported to show congressional primary opponent Brad Lander dancing alongside Mamdani on a float at the Knicks ticker-tape parade.
Virtually every candidate is, in some way, being boosted by outside spending. And virtually every candidate is simultaneously denouncing the role of dark money in politics, with the identities of the super PACs’ donors often shielded until after the election.
The Knicks ran up the score on New York City’s transit system after the team won the NBA Finals earlier this month.
As the school year winds down, NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels’ top priorities for the future of the city’s public schools are coming into focus.
The Mamdani administration is reportedly eyeing potential replacements for scandal-plagued Samuels, with former DOE Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter back in the mix.
An investigation launched by the city’s police watchdog into alleged anti-cop rhetoric among some of its investigators has sparked controversy among City Council members.
Stricken kin of the teen tourist fatally tossed from a Central Park horse carriage demanded that the city ban the industry — saying anything less suggests his death was just “a temporary inconvenience.’’
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development has vowed to go after negligent landlords, but it’s wrestling with a huge backlog of complaints.
Cuomo, the former governor of New York and a New York City mayoral candidate in 2025, will co-chair a joint venture between the owner of the New York Stock Exchange and the crypto exchange OKX, the two companies announced.
The Brooklyn Public Library is releasing a limited-edition library card in honor of Bedford-Stuyvesant native Jay-Z.
Students at a graduation ceremony for Bard College’s high schools repeatedly booed the college’s outgoing president, who announced his retirement after it was revealed he had a much closer relationship with Jeffrey Epstein than previously known.
A lawsuit seeking to invalidate Thomas J. Kenny’s independent “No Kings” ballot line ended last week when the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the case with prejudice, just days before he was due in court to explain why the challenge should move forward.
A Rosendale man who served as treasurer of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Employee Association has been charged with stealing nearly $100,000 from the organization’s bank account, according to New York State Police.
The state Gaming Commission is scrutinizing racetrack fire safety after a June 16 fire killed 17 horses at a barn used by trainers for the nearby Saratoga Harness Track.
A public memorial on June 28 is planned for the 17 horses killed in a barn fire at Saratoga Casino’s harness track, according to the Saratoga Harness Horseperson’s Association.
The Albany Med Health System is exploring a potential partnership with Ellis Medicine.
Chief City Auditor Sam Fein and Joe Bonilla, co-founder of the PR firm Relentless Awareness, are behind a website that surfaced over the Juneteenth weekend proposing intercity buses be moved to an underground deck at the Empire State Plaza Concourse.
State Police said they pulled duffel bags stuffed with marijuana from a vehicle troopers pulled over last week on the Northway.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
