Baby, where's the fire extinguisher?

I had some extra bananas lying around, and Mom just gave me Day in the Country, Sharing our History, Heritage, and Fabulous Fare Through the Generations from Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church of Madison County, MS. And the Banana Boubon Layer Cake recipe seemed way too good to pass up.

The topping is made of basically a bananas foster, only they're cut crosswise instead of lengthwise. And they're served on top of the cake instead of on top of ice cream.

I've never flambeed anything before in my life... On purpose. And the idea of setting a flame to the pan of bananas and 1 cup of Kentucky bourbon seemed rather ridiculous and silly to me. The photo doesn't do it justice: I had to move the pan to the kitchen sink because the flames made their way up to the vent-a-hood (which was not on), about 3-4 feet above the stove.

But the flames finally died down, leaving a lovely syrup to pour over the top. All's well that ends well, but it was definitely an adventurous day in the kitchen.

In Keeping with the Resolution

Maybe it's not so much the beautiful things in life as the reflections on our center island in the kitchen. I kid about how we just bought a kitchen that happens to have a bedroom off the side of it.

Mike's aunt Nancy gave us this beautiful pitcher for the wedding, and though I've used it here and there for its intended purpose, my favorite use for it is pictured above. That way it remains stationary, and I don't have a heart attack every time somebody other than me picks it up.

I met the neatest person last week - Leslie - who is starting a beautiful flower arrangement business here in Jackson. She mentioned having small flower arranging classes, and I ate that idea up. During our converstaion, she talked about how you can put flowers in things other than vases, and though the above does depict that idea to a certain extent, I'm fascinated about what other containers she had in mind. Sure wish I was that creative.

A Beautiful Mind

2008 was a difficult year for the Stallings and Walt families.

One of our more interesting characters, John Robert, died in late November. I always knew he was a brilliant person, but once he started talking about what he did every day, it was very much over my head.

These two articles about him "dumb it down" only a very little before they get into more depth, and I can no longer keep up.

New York Times

Wikipedia

Biscuits

Two new biscuit ideas:

1. Instead of shortening or butter, I'm using true-blue lard. You can buy it at the Kroger. It smells kind of like bacon, only worse, cold, bacon, but you don't taste it once the biscuits are made, AND it gives them the best texture yet.

2. Fold some sliced olives into the dough before cutting it for some savories that are awfully good with a slice of ham in between.

Resoultion

To find more beauty in everyday life.

Grilled Beef Tenderloin

I found beef tenderloin on sale at the Kroger last week. We ate well this weekend.

Isi Thermo Whip

This past Friday I had a little extra time between appointments, and for some reason the Williams-Sonoma up at the Renaissance was calling my name. Turns out they were having a big-ass 75% off sale - they had just finished the second markdown to get merchandise out of the store, and I was about to benefit from it immensely!

They did have some slate le Creuset on sale, but I couldn't bring myself to cough up that kind of dough. If the pot is still there this afternoon, I might have to buy it for Mike to give me for my birthday. But I digress.

They DID have several Isi Thermo Whips up for grabs at 75% off! I've always been fascinated by this kind of gadget, but I wasn't about to part with that much money. What is an Isi Thermo Whip, you ask? It's only the coolest thing in the kitchen ever!

I'm not sure of all the inner workings; let's just say cartridges are involved. For whipped cream, example, you open it up, pour in cream and whatever other flavorings you desire, close it, use the cartridge holder to insert the cartridge until it hisses, shake it, remove the cartridge and throw it away, put the dust cap over the cartridge holder, screw on your preference of nozzle, and voila! You truly have homemade Reddi Whip. Without the preservatives or energy spent in whipping the hell out of the cream. You can use it any way you might use whipped cream.

And it's awesome for mousses. I have a recipe for chocolate mousse I'm going to try next (the downer of the Thermo Whip is that you have to use up all of the stuff inside before you can open it because all of the contents stay under pressure until used up.), then I figure if I can do chocolate mousse, I bet my butt I can do a key lime too. Or maybe a raspberry. The sky's the limit.

I guess the real beauty of this thingy is that truly, all you do is pour stuff in, play with a couple of doohickeys, and it's done. No fuss, no muss. Very high reward for very little effort.

Photo courtesy http://www.easywhip.com/isi-thermo-whipped-cream-dispenser.html