Friday, February 27, 2009

What Did You Have For Dessert Today?

We've been out of town and on the road a lot. One of our many meals away from home was at IKEA. As we were eating I mentioned to everyone in our party that many people's meals and desserts end up on Flickr's public files and on blogs. There are even IKEA food fan groups on Flickr and the Internet!

It sparked an interesting conversation about the merits of this whole phenomenon of sharing photos of our food on the web with friends and complete strangers alike.
My husband immediately grabbed the camera and took these photos of our desserts for my own blog.

Just as Twitter asks you to share with the entire world, 'What are you doing?", these food groups show and tell the entire world with "What are you eating?"

So here's what was on our dessert plates that day:
Chocolate Cake -- This is our son's preferred Ikea Chocolate Cake with thick layers of cake and mousse. Despite being a certified chocoholic, he does not like their other chocolate cake which is thick, all cake and no mousse.

Blueberry Tart -- You have to love blueberries, the thin layer of fruit is very powerful. It is a special, hard-to-find treat for blueberry lovers though.

Almond Cake -- Light and tasty with a layer of butter cream and sprinkled with almond slivers on top. Also available frozen in their take-home foods department. The nuts are ground medium fine and incorporate right into the cake dough where it is almost hard to tell where the almonds start and the dough begins.

It wasn't available the day my husband was photographing, but also look for their delicious Princess Cake. It's green! All that green is marzipan. And their Apple Cake with layers upon layers of thinly sliced apples.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Mardi Gras Bananas Foster Dessert Recipe

It's Mardi Gras time or Fat Tuesday. Time to party before fasting for Lent. Louisiana takes it's French tradition seriously with parade and lots of food.

Kathy at The Empty Nest and I went to a Cajun festival and let the good times roll or "Laissez les bons temps rouler" as they say. Complete with French Quarter decorations and great music like Lisa Haley, one of Kathy's all-time favorites, there was also plenty of shrimp, crawfish, and even alligator to eat while we were irresistibly tapping our toes to the beat.

My son loves to learn to cook, so we attended the cooking demonstration and learned to cook one finger-licking-good Cajun Shrimp Boil and a great Bananas Foster.

Our teacher, Chef Melissa Miller had been a part of Chef Emeril Lagasse' restaurant team in Louisiana before returning to her home in Southern California.

This is the super easy and fast Bananas Foster recipe she shared with all of us for dessert.

BANANAS FOSTER

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
8 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced lengthwise
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup banana liqueur
9 ounces dark rum

She melted the butter in a skillet, (you could also use a chafing dish), then added the brown sugar. Stir until it melts. Then in went the bananas to saute for about 3 minutes on each side. She sprinkled cinnamon and poured the alcohol over the bananas. Once the alcohol is warm (you can't light cold alcohol), carefully light it with a match or lighter. Gently tilt the flaming sauce to baste the bananas until the flames die out when all the alcohol has burned off. Serve hot immediately, over ice cream.

Yum! You'll enjoy!


Bananas Foster photo uploaded to Flickr public files by Alex and Sonja