Friday, December 11, 2015

2015 Christmas Card Letter

Merry Christmas, everyone!

It's that holly jolly time of year when I take a minute (or two or twenty...) to reflect on the year and the coming holiday season.  Last Christmas was our first as a family of four, and aside from being completely overwhelmed and exhausted, it was wonderful.  Emma started crawling on Christmas Eve after posing with a carrot and realizing her sister had a plate of cookies (talk about motivation!).  Annalyn was finally starting to understand some of the magic and joy of the season, and made it so special for all of us.




Saturday, December 5, 2015

Banoffee Pudding

Remember this crazy delicious banoffee pie that I made (and then made again about 823,304,329 times...)?  Well, when we had an abundance of ripe bananas, I decided to make banana pudding. You know, the traditional wafer cookie, banana slices, and pudding all layered together in a pretty trifle bowl.  Then I added cinnamon to the cream before I whipped it, because well, who doesn't like a little cinnamon with everything banana (really? Just me?).  That one little change instantly reminded us of my cinnamon whipped cream topped banoffee pie.  So I did what any self-respecting cook would do - I made another batch and tweaked it some more until this recipe was born.  Instead of plain sweetened condensed milk, I used dulce de leche (or in my case, boiled sweetened condensed milk for about 2 hours until it made dulce de leche).  Again, I added some cinnamon to the cream and layered in some mini chocolate chips.  It was heavenly.  Go ahead, try it - here's how Mama makes it:

Banoffee Pudding


Ingredients:
- 1 large package instant vanilla pudding (about 2/3 c. mix)
- 1 1/2 c. water
- 1 (14 oz) can dulce de leche* 
- 3 c. heaving whipping cream
- 1 t. cinnamon
- 1 box vanilla wafers
- 5 ripe bananas, sliced
- 1/3 c. mini chocolate chips
*(or sweetened condensed milk, boiled in the can for 2-2.5 hours)