Friday, February 21, 2014

Party prep and banana splits.

We are hosting one of our favorite families tomorrow night...my kids are always so excited to spend time with Tristan, Jordan and Natalia, they can not wait.

So tonight I prepped a fancy dessert, biting my nails the whole time.
For one I have never had, much less made, panna cotta but the "Skinny" recipe looked so good I just had to try it.
Two- 'Vanilla bean panna cotta with strawberries'...the damn vanilla beans...of which I needed 2, were TWELVE DOLLARS each WTF?!?! Jason said when he saw them at the store he almost told me he couldn't find any and to pick something else LOL.
Third I had no back up dessert, this was do or die...karate yes or squish like grape.

Before I get to the dessert, check this out. I have no idea how this ice cube froze with this little horn but the nerd in me thought it was kinda cool.

Oh and new age parents, for the love of ice everywhere explain how ice was made in the olden time...you know in a tray like we did before you pressed a button and your fancy schmancy fridge plopped out frozen water. I may be a tad jealous that I don't own such a fridge, but more importantly I have had to explain to more than 1 person, 15 and older, what the heck this primitive process was all about. Really?! Am I that old? No way, can't believe that. So parents in case of a fridge malfunction, please teach your young about the old fashioned way of freezing water LOL. In the words of my old friend Dennis Miller...that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. I loved that guys show...wish it was still on.
















OK the "Skinny" Vanilla bean panna cotta with strawberries...you will need:
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups fat free milk
1 vanilla bean, split open
2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin (Knox)
1 1/2 cups half and half cream
5 tbsp sugar
Pinch salt
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
1 1/2 tsp sugar

Directions
Place the fat free milk in a medium heavy saucepan with the seeds from the vanilla bean. Sprinkle the gelatin over the milk and let it stand for 10 minutes to soften the gelatin grains.
In the meantime, prepare an ice bath in a large plastic bowl.

After 10 minutes have passed, heat the saucepan and stir over medium heat just until the gelatin dissolves but the milk does not boil, about 3 minutes. Add the half & half cream, 5 tbsp sugar and salt. Whisk well and and leave until the mixture is hot, but do not let it come to a boil, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat, then transfer the liquid into a clean, metal medium-sized bowl. Place the bowl in the ice bath to cool for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the mixture begins to thicken.

Divide the mixture evenly, about 1/2 cup each between 6 small dessert bowls or glass parfait glasses, then cover each with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 6 hours or overnight.

1 hour before serving, combine remaining sugar and halved strawberries in a medium bowl, tossing to coat. Cover and chill, tossing strawberries occasionally. Drain strawberries before serving. When ready to eat, spoon the fresh strawberries over the panna cotta and serve.
1 serving is 158 calories and 7 grams of fat.

Hope it turns out!

Since I spent a half hour on a dessert I couldn't eat I needed something yummy. I grew up poor, I hated it of course...felt there was so much other kids got to do and have that I did not. Like a good ol' Dairy Queen banana split. You ever see Eddie Murphy's stand up 'Raw' well that whole bit in there about the Mcdonald's burger vs. Momma's burger...yeah that's about it LOL. So when we were lucky enough to have a banana split dessert we got the homemade version instead of DQ. I didn't appreciate it at all at the time...now, this is where it's at, and the only banana split I will eat! Tonight we introduced our kiddos to Momma's banana split, they LOVED it!

Our recent guests...Jericho has gotten into the habit of coming in to sleep with us at 4am a few times a week for the last couple of weeks, and last night Haddie got scared by something around 5am. Let them be little, right...well we need a bigger bed to do that I think LOL. Good thing Jason had to get up for work when Hayden took his spot.

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