Mini Rant

So, confession time…

There is something that my children do that never fails to heartily annoy me. It usually starts with some kind of discussion about how there is ‘no food in the house’. Mind you, I am an avid coupon shopper/stockpiler, and I’m pretty sure in the event of a nuclear disaster, I can feed my family a minimum of 3 months with what I have on hand. But apparently all of that food is just not ‘right’ for the recent grad, at least. And now that O1 is staying with us for a few months until she gets a new place, I find her going through cabinets and sighing in disappointment from time to time as well.

Anyway, I digress…

So, the discussion continues with me asking what they would like me to pick up for them the next time I’m at the grocery store. Several weeks ago, the unanimous answer given by both of them was ‘bananas’.

Me, I’m not much of a banana fan. But the girls have always seemed to like them. So being the dutiful mother I am, I naturally picked up a bunch for them and brought them home.

Where they sat.

And sat.

And sat.

{irritated Mommy face}

So there I was with, quite literally, a bunch of bananas that were going brown and soft. And since I had been unhappy with the last banana bread recipe I auditioned, I started hunting around for recipes on the net. I was pretty open to anything, but I knew I wanted them to have butter and buttermilk in them.

I finally ran across a recipe on Two Peas and their Pod and rather than retyping it here, I’m just going to post the link.

‘Cuz I didn’t do a damn thing to change it. And it was really, really good.

I won’t tell you that it made my eyes roll back in the back of my head or anything. I mean, come on. It’s BANANA BREAD. But it was moist and flavorful.

And gone almost immediately.

Problem solved.

Buttermilk Banana Bread (from Two Peas and their Pod).

Goin' Bananas

As planned, I put together a curry for G & C in celebration of G’s birthday. I’m not going to share the recipe here because I’d still like to tweak it a bit. In essence, though, I made a chicken curry with rice and served it with a tray of condiments, which allowed everyone to pick and choose which toppings they liked. It’s a good way to experiment with combos.

Condiments included:

Candied ginger
Chopped cashews
Bacon
Chopped hard-boiled egg
Toasted coconut
Chopped banana
Mango Chutney (recipe coming soon)
Golden raisins (sultanas)

I wanted a dessert that would compliment the meal and kind of winged this one. I knew I wanted to use bananas since I bought some to serve as condiments for the curry. And, since I had opened a can of condensed milk for the Honey Walnut Shrimp, I decided to use the remainder of it to make a dulce de leche, which amounted to putting the condensed milk in a double boiler and cooking it for about an hour until it began to caramelize. Of course, hard on the heels of making this I totally spaced it and also made the spiced apple caramel from Thanksgiving.

What can I say? SHORT attention span.

I also figured I’d throw in a chocolate sauce and made Alton Brown’s version (see link below).

So, when it all came together it looked something like this…

Phyllo Wrapped Bananas

4 firm, but ripe bananas
12 sheets phyllo dough, thawed
½ stick butter, melted
5 tsp sugar
4 tsp cinnamon

Dulce de leche (or other caramel), heated
Cocoa Syrup (recipe here)

Spicy Caramel Apple Sauce (recipe here)

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl (this is an approximate measurement - make more if needed depending on how generous you want to be).

Preheat oven to 375º.  On a work surface, lay out one sheet of the phyllo.  Using a pastry brush, brush with a light coat of the melted butter.  Sprinkle with about 1 tsp of the sugar/cinnamon mixture.  Lay another sheet of the phyllo evenly on top of the first sheet.  Coat it with more butter and then sprinkle with another tsp of cinnamon sugar.  Repeat with the final layer.  Place one peeled banana at the end of your stacked sheets.  Roll the phyllo over the banana and tuck under the loose ends.  Place on a cookie sheet.

Repeat with other bananas.  Coat with more melted butter.  Sprinkle more cinnamon sugar on top of the rolled bananas if desired.
Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until the phyllo is golden brown.
To assemble:  'Paint a small portion of dulce de leche on the bottom of the plate.  Place a baked banana over the top and drizzle with spiced caramel and cocoa syrup.  Sprinkle with toasted almonds and powdered sugar.

Enjoy!