Cherry Parfait

Here's something that takes a whole whoppin'.... ten MINUTES to put together!

That is,...  IF you already have a few things on hand,... like milk, instant pudding mix, a can of pie filling (or, maybe two cans of Solo filling), whipping cream (or whipped topping), and, in this case, ...cherries.

If you don't blend the pudding and the whipped cream/topping  'silly', you'll still have some swirls of different shades showing up, like this...

Yield:  6 servings

INGREDIENTS:

1 small package (3.9 oz.) INSTANT chocolate pudding mix.
2 cups cold milk.
1 can (21 ounces) cherry pie filling, divided.
2 cups whipped cream (or whipped topping), divided.
6 maraschino cherries (those with stems would probably be prettiest).

DIRECTIONS:

• In a bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes.  Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set.
• Stir in ONLY  1 cup pie filling; 
• Gently fold in ONLY 1 cup of the whipped cream or whipped topping.
• Spoon HALF of the combined pudding mixture into six tall glasses or cups*.  (See my * and picture down at the bottom.)
• Top with remaining pie filling, pudding mixture and a dollop of whipped topping.
• Garnish with cherries, if desired.

Note:  I will be trying this with some other pudding/fruit 'combinations', but I'm not sure what those will be or how it will turn out.  Maybe, it'll end up being a FLOP, huh?!?  (Heck!, I've eaten 'flops' in the past-- some were pretty good!)  If any of you readers have ideas for other 'combinations', post a comment.  I'd appreciate it.

*  The recipe said to use 6 'tall' glasses.  Since there is too much variation in the interpretation of 'tall', I will  be moving from 'tall' to 'small' in the future.  In fact, I will use my small dessert cups next time... like the empty one that's in the picture below.

This recipe is adapted from my 2006 edition of Taste of Home Annual Recipes and it may have been submitted by Barbara Rudolph of Sevierville, Tennessee.   Thank you, Barbara!