S'Mores Ice Cream for National S'Mores Day

So BAMBI says to me the other day "Wednesday is National S'mores day - we should do something to celebrate!" If you haven't figured out yet, this girl has a serious chocolate thing going on.

I wasn't sure, but I checked it out. Turns out she is right - today is National S'mores Day and you are welcome to celebrate along with us! We decided that since this summer has been really kind of extra hot and sticky we would try to keep things cool, so we decided on making a S'mores sundae!

We started with vanilla ice cream - because it is the perfect platform for building most sundaes. Then we got out our s'mores ingredients, marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers.

I put some graham crackers in a small plastic bag and broke them up until I had some crumbs, but some larger bits as well. I also kept out some larger quarters of cracker to use as a topper for the sundae. Then I chopped up some large marshmallows - which is trickier than it sounds. The outsides of marshmallows are easy to handle, but their insides can get really sticky really quickly. One trick when cutting something that can get really sticky is to coat the knife you are using in something like non-stick cooking spray or vegetable oil to keep the sticky stuff from sticking to your knife.

After that it was a matter of adding the marshmallow to the ice cream and then sprinkling on some chocolate chips.

These sundaes turned out great - and were a super-tasty to celebrate National S'mores Day. How you celebrate today! Did you go off the beaten path like we did, or did you stay to the tried and true method of toasting marshmallows and making the sandwich yourself? Let me know in the comments below or on Facebook!

Baking Banana Bread with BAMBI

Hello!

This evening, BAMBI and I decided that we would spend some time together in the kitchen baking. She has recently liked being able to take muffins to work with her in the morning, and we had baked some of my banana bread last week and it worked out rather well. So well in fact that our nearly 2 year old has taken to requesting "bee-ahh bed peez" which in his lingo means "banana bread please". 

Molasses and white sugar subbing in for brown sugar

One thing that I realized, a little too late, is that we were out of the required brown sugar. However, this DUDE doesn't panic. I knew that I had some molasses up in the cabinet, and armed with the knowledge that brown sugar is simply white sugar with molasses added (or remaining - depending on the quality you purchase) that is what I did. I measured almost all of the required amount of brown sugar, and then filled the rest of the vessel with molasses. Trust me - you would not notice the difference in the final product. The one thing about adding the molasses this way is that if you really like that molasses flavor, then you can just "accidentally" go a little overboard with the molasses here. 

First let's get the recipe out there:

• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick) - softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs - beaten
• 2-3 mashed overripe bananas

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and if you're using a loaf pan grease it up. In one bowl cream the butter and sugar together. Mix in the eggs and smashed bananas and combine thoroughly. In a separate bowl add the flour, salt, and baking soda and combine. In stages combine the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix together. 

Let me pause here to show you a picture of BAMBI mixing the bread at this point:

Do you see it yet? Wait, let me zoom in a little bit...

Are you with me on this? Not yet? Let's go in one more time...

Yes. She mixed with a spoon...in the stand mixer bowl...with the mixer sitting right there.  Poor ignored mixer. DUDE will find a way to use you soon. I promise you will get to do the pizza dough on Friday. BTW I actually bought the stand mixer FOR HER because we didn't get one as a wedding gift and she was the one who - at that time - liked to do the baking. Figures, right? 

In any case, this is the point at which you want to stop and consider additions. Chopped walnuts go in great, so would any number of other tree nuts, as long as they are small or chopped small. Mini chocolate chips also make a nice addition. BAMBI put some in because she claims to have found some article about how eating chocolate in the mornings helps to stave off the cravings later in the day. I think that's probably a bunch of hooey and she just wanted to find a reason to eat chocolate for breakfast. 

Either way this is when you start moving the batter into the cooking vessel. We placed the batter into lined muffin tins, but mini loaves work well, as does a full loaf. I will say that the more bananas you use the heavier the bread cooks and sets into whatever you cook it in, so if you are using more or larger bananas I would suggest smaller cooking units. 

Let's also discuss cooking times. 

Whole loaves will take about an hour to cook at 350 degrees. I have not cooked mini loaves with this recipe yet, but I would estimate they would take about 25-30 minutes to cook. Muffins take 13-15 minutes to finish. 

Let me just finish up by saying that this recipe is a great way to use up those last few bananas that no one wants to eat because they got too brown, or you can buy the bananas specifically for the purpose of mashing them up and making bread. Either way you go about it, it is definitely worth it. 

Finished muffins cooling off

Succulent Squash Pasta Toss

I must once again thank my friend Leni for the influx of magazines. Recently BAMBI came home with 4 or 5 different magazines, and then proceeded to methodically start looking through them for recipes she wanted me to make for her. I am not sure how many she has earmarked for me, but I am sure that it will take me quite a few weeks to get through everything. I don't think I can manage a new recipe every day, and I also still need to produce meals that my kids will eat. Today's dinner recipe came from the July issue of "Cooking Light" magazine.

This Basil Squash and Tomato pasta toss was bright, full of flavor, and easy to make. I was even able to convince my oldest son to help me with some of the prep work on the dish, though I think the big attraction to that was him being allowed to hold one of my sharp knives. I will say that he did a reasonable job cutting up my summer squash for me, and stayed very safe while holding my 6" utility knife. I WAS hoping that by enlisting his help with the cutting of the ingredients I would be able to get him to taste the finished dish. While he did eat most of it, he still stayed well away from pretty much anything that was not pasta.

The thing that really made this dish good - for me - was the parmesan cheese. I normally think of parmesan cheese in something really heavy, like on a big pile of pasta with red sauce, in an alfredo with shrimp, or - perhaps my personal favorite - melted in a mushroom risotto. The thing about all of these dishes is that they are really heavy, wintry dishes. I was expecting a dish with as much parmesan as was called for to be a lot heaver than this was. The sauce was fresh and airy, the cheese added the right amount of umami to the dish, and the rest of the ingredients were light as a feather mixed in with the pasta. I will say that I used a whole box (12 ounces) of rotini pasta - rather than the 8oz that was called for in the recipe, so I used a little bit more cooking liquid and a little bit more parmesan than was in the recipe, but it all worked out well in the end.

Basil squash and tomato pasta toss paired very nicely with a shandy. 

So this was tonight's dinner - keep an eye out for more magazine-inspired dinner menus in the weeks to come. I am sure this meal will not be the last one from this latest batch of magazines. Where do you get your inspiration for new dinners? Blogs? Websites? Email newsletters from recipe sites? Let me know how you find new meals in the comments below or on Facebook!

Hey BAMBI, Gimme S'more!

Hi there! BAMBI here (That's "Bacon Acquiring Mama Bringing It" - hey I needed a cool acronym and quick) The DUDE is allowing me to write a post about a recent day in our home, since it was my idea and I thought it would be fun to be the one to write.

The other day I decided it was time to introduce our 6 year old to a summer and camp classic treat - S'mores! Okay, let's be honest, I was in the mood for the gooey goodness too. So, with honey graham crackers and marshmallows in the cabinet, we set off to the grocery store to purchase some chocolate.

Now, I had recently read an article on NPR's The Salt about how Millennials are idealists when it comes to what they want from food - sustainable, fair trade, organic, etc. - but research showed that it all falls apart around chocolate.

"In a survey of participants ages 18 to 35, millennials reported caring about ethical issues like environmental sustainability and social responsibility in chocolate production. But when choosing chocolate privately, these self-proclaimed ethical shoppers were all chocolate bark and no bite. (Sorry.) Most showed little preference for labels advertising ethical sourcing and instead preferred labels with ingredients they recognized — items like "chocolate" and "butter," rather than "tertiary butylhydroquinone." " 

So, of course now I couldn't just grab the Hershey's milk chocolate bars and be done with it. I had to spend something like 15 minutes in two aisles of the grocery store - (the candy aisle AND the "healthy foods" section - why don't they group all the chocolate bars in one spot? Is this point itself a flaw in the study? Guess I should actually read the full study instead of the news report.) - with a six year old poking at me trying to figure out what's taking me so long to pick a stinking bar of chocolate, as I tried to find the "best" chocolate option to match my ideals. Do you know how hard it is to stick to your ideals on a budget? Also, you have to choose between things like "Rainforest Alliance Certified" OR "Fair Trade" because the available options aren't both. 

On top of all that, the "ethical" chocolate bars are all thick and not the thinner style that works so well on a S'more. Right, S'mores, that's why I was at the store and what you're here for....

So, I came away with these. 

The Dove one is Rainforest Alliance Certified and dark chocolate for me. The milk chocolate Ghirardelli, for my son, is thin and the squares are the perfect size for s'mores, so to heck with the ideals. (See, they were right!)

At home I forgot about ethical food, because I am making S'mores after all. Since we have no means to start a fire in our suburban backyard, I decided to toast up our marshmallows the way we toast up our tortillas - on the gas stove. As a very important safety note, I'll say that I prepped ahead by soaking our toasting sticks in water for a half hour or so, to keep them from catching fire.

Then, we went to it - break the graham crackers in half, place the chocolate, cook up the marshmallow....

Blow out the fire...

Keep toasting until it's just right and then...

YUM!

I was very impressed with 6. He was careful and respectful around the stove. And happy as a clam to make and eat his own S'mores, and a few extra marshmallows besides. I think we'll be doing this again soon!

So, how about you all - how do you make your S'mores? Or is it against your healthy-eating ethics? Share in the comments or on Facebook!