Southern Comfort: Banana Pudding (experimental style)

Oh 'Nanner Puddin', how do I love thee!

The problem is most of the time a banana pudding recipe is for a big 9x13 pan.  Who eats that much banana pudding on the regular?  It won't keep that long in the fridge, because the bananas start to turn black really quick.  I'm sorry, that's just nasty looking, and it doesn't taste right, either.

So what do you do?

Backtrack a few.  You know when you buy bananas, there's often that one lonely nanner that just doesn't get eaten?  It sits on the counter, getting darker, mushier, and more forlorn looking every day until eventually you just toss the thing, because it's not fit to eat anymore?  Maybe you don't, but I do.  Every time I buy bananas.  I think that what happens is B leaves it for me, and I leave it for him, so in the end it doesn't get eaten by anyone.   I'm something of a saver (in case you haven't noticed), and I hate to see anything wasted, so I started putting those lonely bananas in the freezer figuring I'd decide on something to do with them later.

I went to Wal-mart the other day, and I was significantly under my allotted food budget, and they had one of those trap displays.  You know the ones where they have all the name brand expensive ingredients for a dish on one display?  Well, this one was banana pudding.  They had the pricey evaporated milks, vanilla wafers, bananas and stuff all in one spot in the produce section.

Light bulb!

Thanksgiving - and a few related recipes

First, just a small aside about the holidays.  I am not a fan of holidays.  No, really, I'm not.  They're too much headache, too much stress, too much running around in circles, and not enough down time, enjoying family and friends, and reconnecting with loved ones.  Thanksgiving is my hands down favorite holiday all year.  They've tried really hard to commercialize it with Black Friday, but the holiday itself is still today what I remember it from being a little kid.  FOOD!!!  Lots and lots of good food shared with good friends and close family.  No greeting cards, no presents, no mandatory decorations, just the good stuff.  

This year was the first year I've really done a lot of cooking for Thanksgiving.  Until this year, the only things I'd made at Thanksgiving were pumpkin pie and pumpkin mousse.  This year, on the other hand, I did a turkey, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, buttermilk pie, banana cream pie, pumpkin pie, and sweet potato casserole.  My neighbor made puppy chow, dressing, corn, green bean casserole, and a spaghetti squash, and another friend brought a chocolate pudding cake that was (still is actually, half of the cake is still on my table) excellent!

 Fin cleaning up after our puppy chow adventure.  Who knew that chocolate, peanut butter, powdered sugar, and chex would be quite so awesome?  Messily fabulous lol!

 The turkey!!!   This turkey turned out so good.  I was really happily surprised.  Turkey is usually so dry and bland.  I'd much rather have a goose or a duck.  Even better would be a venison roast.  But, cram a pound of sausage mixed with minced onion, bread crumbs, and spices under the skin (not in the cavity), and wrap that booger with bacon.  It'll be a juicy bird.  Yes, I know, your arteries are hardening just looking at it.  But it's only once a year!

I also discovered that I can make my own powdered sugar.  The only thing I needed powdered sugar for was whipped cream.  I don't like CoolWhip.  The stuff is an abomination.  To make your own whipped cream you just need:
whipping cream
powdered sugar
vanilla

Use about half as much cream as you want volume of whipped cream, and make sure you use a bowl that is bigger than the amount of whipped cream you hope to have.  Turn on your mixer and watch the cream grow!  Put in however much powdered sugar gets the whipped cream as sweet as you want it, and add a dash of vanilla.  Add the sugar and vanilla while you're whipping the cream.  Ta-da!  Easy peasy.

To make your own powdered sugar, just put it in the blender, food processor, spice grinder, coffee mill, whatever you have that has spinning blades.  1c sugar = 1c powdered sugar.  You can even grind it to your own specifications.

B was excited, lol.  Everyone was excited.  Fin and I were cooking for two straight days.

 After we finished eating, the midgets got turned lose in the yard.  It was close to 80 degrees that day, so we just ate outside.

 Fin is being sad panda because she was so excited to eat, we were all so hungry, she ate less than half her plate and was stuffed.

It's hard to tell, but the expression n B's face is overstuffed misery.  Pup was slightly less miserable, and the kids were just pinging from sugar and disrupted schedules.


It was fun, and I am definitely going to be looking forward to next year, though Fin and I have agreed that we will try to scale the food down some.  We made way too much for our small gathering.
I've already started my turkey carcass boiling for 10 day Turkey Soup, and have a container of leftovers in the freezer that is ear marked for said soup.

10 Day Turkey Soup takes ... you guessed it:  10 days.

This is going to sound gross, but I promise it isn't.  Take the carcass and break it up so it fits in your largest soup pot.  Pour in any leftover stock, drippings, etc., and then cover the carcass with water.  Bring it to a rapid boil for at least 10 minutes, then reduce to a simmer.  Cover and let it simmer all day.  Turn it off before you go to bed.  In the morning, bring the water level back up if necessary, and repeat.  No, I didn't forget to tell you to put it in the fridge.  Who has room for a stock pot in their fridge for 10 days?  Every morning, when you bring it back to a boil for 10 minutes, you're pasteurizing it.  Repeat this for 9 days.  Before you turn the heat back on on day 10, sift out any bones, skin, etc. that might still be solid.  Add in the leftovers that haven't been eaten.  Everything.  Dressing, turkey, veggies, mashed potatoes, (I don't recommend adding sweet potato casserole), even cranberry sauce or jelly.  Bring it to a nice boil, turn it down and let it simmer all day.  Really watch it today (stirring, checking water levels), because the starches sometimes settle to the bottom and want to burn.

And now you have 10 Day Turkey Soup.  Or, if you don't want to throw all the leftovers in, you can freeze the stock in batches.  It's wonderfully rich and flavorful.

Leftover Love - Reinventing Chicken Legs

I had four chicken legs leftover from the other nights dinner.  I had lots of roasted tomatoes left, too.

What else is in here?  I've got some carrots in the veggie drawer that have been there a while.  They're only just starting to get a little wiggly.  I've got some fresh asparagus that probably needs to get used for something before long, otherwise it won't be quite so fresh anymore.  I've got half a bag of pasta floating around.  Some frozen lima beans.  The nearly ever present bell peppers that I throw in almost everything for flavor and vegetable content, and good lord have I got cheese.  That's something that I've decided is more necessary in this house than just about anything else, cheese is.  It goes on and in everything.  Pup eats his weight in cheese, and B isn't far behind him.

I used shredded cheese, sour cream, parmesan  cheese, and some heavy whipping cream.  I pulled the meat off the chicken legs, then I boiled all the vegetables in a pot of salted water.  The carrots and bell peppers went in first, simmering until the carrots were crisp tender, then the lima beans and asparagus went in.  I only boiled them for about a minute so as not to cook the asparagus to mush.  I strained them out, but kept the water.  I cooked the noodles in the same water, to imbue some of the veggies' flavor to the noodles.  While that was going on, I cooked a couple slices of bacon to crumble up into bacon bits.  With a bit of bacon grease, I sauteed some minced garlic, added the veggies and chicken.  Once that was all warmed, I tossed in the cheeses and creams.  I reheated the roasted tomatoes in the oven, and just served them along side the pasta dish.