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If you've been keeping up with this blog you may have picked up on my obsession with banana in baked goods. In the past year it's become my flavour of choice in banana chiffon cake, banana pancakes, banana walnut cookies, banana bread and banana cake. Well, I stumbled across another banana dessert I couldn't resist trying, Magnolia Bakery's Banana Pudding. I had a baking disappointment years ago trying Magnolia Bakery's Cupcake recipe I found online but I just couldn't resist trying another one and giving it a go.
I know the title of this recipe indicates it's a pudding, but it's so much more than that. I see it as an icebox cake and when assembling it reminds me of making a tirimisu. The flavour - well it rivals tirimisu (which is one of my favourite desserts!). No kidding, this is a piece of heaven brought down to earth in the form of a sweet, creamy, rich delight! All the accolades I read about this recipe online weren't in any exaggeration, it's truly to die for!
Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups ice cold water
1 (3.4 oz) package Jell-O instant vanilla pudding mix
3 cups whipping cream
1 (12-oz) box Nilla Wafers
4 cups sliced ripe bananas
In a small bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the sweetened condensed milk and water until well combined, about 1 minute. Add the pudding mix and beat well, about 2 minutes more. Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight before continuing. It is very important for the pudding mixture to set.
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the pudding mixture into the whipped cream until well blended and no streaks of pudding remain.
To assemble the dessert, select a large, wide bowl with a 4-5-quart capacity. Arrange one-third of the wafers to cover the bottom of the bowl, overlapping if necessary, then one-third of the bananas and one-third of the pudding. Repeat the layering twice more, garnishing with additional wafers or wafer crumbs on the top layer of the pudding. Cover tightly first with parchment paper and then with plastic wrap. Allow to chill in the refrigerator for 4 - 8 hours or even overnight.
I really enjoyed making this and even more eating it. I'll have to remember this one in a few years for Owen.
We both are unanimous about this recipe for Warm Spinach Salad with Poached Eggs. It's absolutely fantastic! I could probably eat this once a week and never tire of it. It is restaurant quality, very quick and very easy. I'm still glowing from how well received this was by Nuno. He even complimented me on my bacon frying skills. I made one minor adjustment to this recipe, which was to pour off half the bacon fat. This recipe is quite high in fat if you were to use all the leftover rendered fat. I left about a tablespoon of fat behind and it was the perfect amount for the dressing. Super tasty.
I'm totally geeking out on a huge sense of pride over successfully poaching eggs! I tried years ago and ended up with a disaster of murky egg white water and a floating yolk. Ever since then I've stuck to a contraption with egg moulds that steam your eggs into what look like poached eggs. I don't know if you've seen anyone on TV poach an egg in water before but even if you are successful the whites sometimes appear scraggly. But this recipe gave illustrated instructions on how to poach and I totally nailed them! Not one straggly edge - just poaching perfection. I forgot to time them, and I don't know how, but they were even perfectly done to my and Nuno's taste with a runny yolk. So good.
Here is Owen at five and a half months. He is now sitting up for a few moments without any assistance, playing on his own more, smiling all the time and bearing quite a bit of weight on his legs when held up.
I sometimes wonder what Owen will like when he's older. Both Nuno and I have a lot of family who appreciate comics, so I'm thinking he has a genetic predisposition to reading them. Believe it or not it was my insistence that we be sure to pick up Owen's first comic on Free Comic Day this past Saturday. Although we were in Toronto and could have chosen from so many rad comic stores, we ended up going to downtown St. Catharines for the comic. This Mostly Comics store were a bunch of cheapskates. They only allowed us one comic! So Nuno grabbed Iron Man since the movie is coming out soon so it will be a good benchmark of the times.
But we can count on Aunt Katie to pull through, she arrived back in Niagara with a bag of children's comics from a much cooler comic store on the Danforth.
Nuno read him his comic and he actually stayed interested through the whole thing. Yep, we've got a comic nerd on our hands!
My sister Katie's birthday was this past week and it was a great excuse to do some more baking from Everyday Food. Back when I did a bit of shopping at Antipasto's Di Roma I stumbled upon instant espresso powder. It's not the easiest thing to find in supermarkets so I immediately picked up a jar remembering that the Hazelnut Espresso Cookies recipe specifically called for it and advised not to substitute instant coffee in it's place. Well, since buying it I've been making myself some instant espresso when I need a boost - meaning I'm depleting my supply quickly. The Hazelnut Espresso Cookies needed to be baked... Fast!
So the first step in baking these cookies was to roast the hazelnuts and then remove the skins. Seems simple enough, but what a task it was! Two cups of hazelnuts made for at least 80 nuts in total and my fingers were numb attempting to remove all the skins. Owen wasn't particularly patient with the process either. Hazelnut skins were flying all over the kitchen and all over me. With the number of times Owen dropped his Sophie the Giraffe on the floor I managed to contaminate Owen and his toys with nuts. I realized that this would be the time to find out if Owen had a nut allergy. Luckily he's fine, so for now there isn't any worry about that. Long, arduous, painful and messy. All I could think was that I love my sister and all this hassle was going to be worth it in the end.
The eventual making of the cookies was very simple and straight forward. I loved the aroma of the addition of the espresso powder into the cookie batter. And with all the stress I had on Friday attempting to complete these cookies with a fussy baby and uncooperative pug, I felt I deserved lots of spoonfuls of cookie batter for snacking.
The first batch was a complete over done write-off. I managed to bake the cookies on the wrong rack resulting in burnt bottoms. As well as accidentally leaving them in a minute too long while I tried to find something to entertain Owen in order to remove them from the oven. With so much at stake for the final batch, I corrected my mistakes and nailed the second batch.
Owen had to be a part of the photo of the cookies since every single shot had him grabbing for them (or wire rack, I can't tell which was more interesting to him).
I have a weakness for all cookies. I don't think there is a flavour combination I don't enjoy so I'm biased when it comes to them. However, the whole ordeal of prepping the hazelnuts is not worth it for these cookies. I actually don't understand what is so great about this recipe that it needed to be included in this cook book. Martha has a strictly cookies book so I believe this recipe would have been great in there. These cookies are very adult in nature and being a coffee addict and cookie monster, you'd think I'd be pumping up Hazelnut Espresso Cookies. They are delicious but I won't be baking them again anytime soon unless I'm feeling particularly masochistic.
Here is last night's Tilapia with Arugula and Tomatoes and Baked Polenta Fries.
I managed to knock off two recipes for this meal. When I chose to make the tilapia dish it was perfect because I had to use up the rest of the arugula and tomatoes in the fridge before they went bad and the rest of the ingredients were in my pantry & freezer. Inspired by the Italian ingredients in this dish I wanted something else to make this meal more substantial so I decided on baked polenta fries. I like how these two dishes went together, but I won't make this again. The only thing I liked about the meal was the way the fish was seasoned and cooked. Arugula and tomatoes were not all that great and quite bitter. The polenta fries were just not worth it. They get stuck in your teeth as you eat them which annoyed me. I did enjoy working with polenta though. The texture was really cool and I'll definitely try and find a new recipe which will give me a chance to cook again with polenta.
A couple nights ago we had Quick Navy Bean Stew for dinner.
Like the previous recipe, this looks healthy and it is! High protein and low fat. I really enjoyed it and I think this will be my go-to detox meal if I find myself having a string of days indulging in too much alcohol and desserts.
Yesterday I gave Farafalle with Arugula and White Beans a try. I've really been looking forward to this recipe in particular because I love every single ingredient and couldn't wait to taste them together.
This recipe took very little prep. It was basically opening boxes, cans and containers and assembling in sequence. This was great because I was holding Owen and dealing with car insurance over the phone all while making dinner, so to have my head not focused on dinner and still have it turn out was a feat onto itself.
When Nuno saw what was for dinner he said, "Looks healthy." And I have to make it clear, this recipe is not healthy. Half a stick of butter goes into this recipe, so that's not a picture of health. But it tasted fantastic. I think this recipe would only be pleasant for people who enjoy the flavours of cannellini beans, arugula and walnuts. Otherwise, forget it because there isn't any parmesan or tomato sauce to disguise the flavour.
A coworker of Nuno's gave us their old Jolly Jumper. My mother always swore by them because of how happily occupied my sister and I were in one, so I was pleased to be given this item. Owen has very few hand-me-downs since we don't have many people in our lives with children. I actually like it that way because Owen's been able to get the newest and safest of everything. But this item, I'm just not sure how safe it is. We decided if he's supervised we might as well give it a go. We set it up in the kitchen door frame this morning and, wow, Owen loves it! It's given him a new type of mobility he's never experienced and he's so happy to be upright.
In the past week Owen has shown an interest in petting Hot Tot and my parent's dog Abby. He loves to reach out and touch them and Hot Tot responds happily with kisses. They are so sweet together and seem to enjoy learning about each other and bonding.
Here Tot managed to steal a kiss from Owen. Happy baby + happy doggy = happy parents!
Oh - my - god, this Salami - Olive Pizza is so yummy!
The last pizza I blogged about I had Nuno take care of the dough for me. Working with anything that includes yeast makes me nervous. But I took a chance and made this pizza all on my own and it worked out perfectly!
I didn't understand why this book would include a recipe for ingredients on a regular pizza. I mean, you really can't think much of salami, black olives and arugula. But, holy cow, taste them together and it really is an incredible combination of flavours that work so well together. This is not only a make again, I'd highly recommend this to anyone who is into making homemade pizzas. I love the combo so much I'm going to make a sandwich with the same ingredients only using an olive tapenade instead of sliced black olives. This week there is another upcoming arugula recipe and I can't wait to give it a go.
Eggplant and Mozzarella Melts are an open face eggplant parm sandwich. The breading and baking of the eggplant made for the most delicious eggplant dish I've ever made. They aren't Lina Linguini's deep fried delicious-ness, but way healthier therefore just as great. I'm so happy with the breading results I think I'll try cutting eggplant into fries, bread, bake and serve with marinara sauce. Speaking of the marinara sauce, I went all out for this meal by buying a jar of sauce from Antipastos Di Roma and buying the panini from their adjoining bakery. Well worth it! This one is a keeper and a definite make again.
Here are Chicken and Dumplings.
This is a recipe I'd never have considered making, but since I'm cooking my way through Everyday Food, I gave it a try. I've never tasted a dumpling before or known anyone to make one so it was exciting to try something totally new.
The ingredients that to into dumplings aren't too flashy. They are made up of flour, baking soda, salt, milk and dill and then dropped by tablespoonful into a chicken stew/soup. After leaving them to cook for 20 minutes they plumped right up and absorbed the flavour of the dish. It really was pretty cool. They tasted great too! I think I'll make this again when it's cold and snowy outside.
Here are Mini Turkey Meatloves and Sweet-Potato Pancakes. Certainly a comfort dinner. I never really understood the attraction to meatloaf. I mean, it's a more boring hamburger, right? Well, the only thing that saves it is the topping of sweet chili sauce. I can only justify eating meatloaf if it's made lighter with turkey. Overall it was really enjoyable. The vegetables keep the meat juicy and it really was a quick bake in the oven. The most fun part of making this recipe was squishing the assembled ingredients and forming them into loaves. It was nice to get some use out of my mini loaf pan, but the recipe doesn't require one. They recommend free form loaves.
A side of Sweet Potato Pancakes are a perfect accompaniment. These are basically the same as latkes but using sweet potatoes instead of potatoes. You know what? These are seriously better than sweet potato fries. They would have taken a little bit of time if I used a box grater the way the recipe asked for so I did myself a favour and used the food processor with the shredder blade (which I've never used before). The benefit of quick and pain-free grating outweighed having to clean all the attachments. I just love these and luckily we overbought sweet potatoes so it looks like we will be eating them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Lucky me!
We are entering asparagus season so I had to go ahead and make this Pasta with Goat Cheese and Roasted Asparagus. I never thought I liked asparagus since I grew up eating it boiled, but if you roast it seasoned on a baking sheet or on the grill it's absolutely fantastic. Like all other pasta recipes I've made from EF, this came together quickly. The sauce is a mixture of butter and goat cheese and the chives go very nicely with it. I also added loads of extra pepper to finish because this recipe is made for pepper!
Yesterday Owen turned 5 months old. What a doll he's turning out to be. His swim class was great. It was his first time being in water and he even dunked his head. I'm proud of him, no fussing - just tons of fun. The class is huge, I even reconnected with a couple moms from prenatal yoga class. I hope to get some photos next week and post them.
I know the title of this recipe indicates it's a pudding, but it's so much more than that. I see it as an icebox cake and when assembling it reminds me of making a tirimisu. The flavour - well it rivals tirimisu (which is one of my favourite desserts!). No kidding, this is a piece of heaven brought down to earth in the form of a sweet, creamy, rich delight! All the accolades I read about this recipe online weren't in any exaggeration, it's truly to die for!
