Selective Serotonin Pudding Instructions, or How to Make Homemade Chocolate Pudding

Okay, so it's not selective, and what do we really know about all that anyway? But this pudding makes me happy.

This pudding is not sweet. It is not for sweet-tooth types; it is for chocoloate lovers.

Here's what you do.

Mix the following ingredients, dry, in a medium-small cooking pot:

3 heaping (and I mean heaping!) tablespoons of unsweetened bakers' cocoa

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup corn starch (Don't have any cornstarch? Hike yourself over to the grocery baking aisle or the food co-op bins, and get you some.)

1/8 teaspoon salt

Mix up those dry ingredients with a whisk or a fork.

Measure out 2 3/4 cups milk and set aside.

In a separate cup, measure out 2 tablespoons butter and a teaspoon or so of vanilla extract. Set aside.

Warm a burner to medium heat, put the pot with dry ingredients on the stove, add the milk, and stir and stir and stir with a big metal spoon. Keep stirring for about 10 minutes, until you see the mixture start to boil. It should be thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Keep stirring and let it boil for a few seconds longer.

Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla mixture. Stir it all up. Let it sit a few minutes.

Eat and be happy.