Merry Christmas!!!

Here's my cookie tray for this year:

Vegan Turtles - Turtles, turtles...rah rah rah! I will post this recipe shortly...yummy!

Gingerbread Bears - Same recipe Tracy uses, except my icing didn't turn out as crunchy.

Chocolate Coconut Clusters - Did I blog about these before? Good! I made them vegan (obviously) and only boiled the mixture for a couple of minutes.

Cranberry Crumble Bars - Not too sweet!

Incredibly Non-Butter Shortbread Cookies - Delish! I added a little lemon juice to my icing and it tasted really good! Recipe is below!

1 cup Earth Balance, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 tsp Kingsmill egg replacer

2 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. With electric mixer, beat Earth Balance until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in granulated and icing sugars and then beat in egg replacer, water and vanilla.
2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; gradually stir into buttery mixture. Transfer dough to work surface; kneed lightly until it forms a ball.
3. Divide dough in half; shape each into disc. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 1 hour or for up to 2 days. Once disc at a time, roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Using cookie cutters, cut out shapes and place them on parchment paper lined baking sheets.
4. Bake in centre of preheated 375 F oven for 10 - 12 minutes or until light golden on bottom and edges. Let cool for 3 minutes on baking sheets; transfer to wire racks to cool. Makes 3 dozen cookies. Ice as desired.

Merry Christmas from Ashley! Happy New Year Everyone!

Sarah: 1, Soggy Carrot Cake: 0

I never thought that this day would come. I, Sarah the Vegan, have conquered my inability to make a serveable carrot cake.


I have owned VwaV for a couple years, and passed by the Ginger-Macadamia-Coconut-Carrot Cake recipe several times. But visions of carrot cake past kept haunting me. I even wrote back then that PPKers reassured me to try this recipe. But fear held me back.


Finally, I got the gumption to give it a go. And wow. Amazing. So good that I'm making it again this weekend for the stepdad's b-day. This time, I'm so bold to try and make it a layer cake! And this recipe must be foolproof since I used walnuts instead of the maca nuts and omitted the crystallized ginger. I will likely make it blindfolded since I'm now a carrot cake expert ;)




Even though I've tackled the fear of soggy carrot cakes, there's no way I'm going to face my fear of spiders.

Coldbusters

Princess came home from school complaining that she wasn't feeling well. Wanting to stop her cold in its tracks, I figured soup was in order. A small head of savoy cabbage had caught Pete's eye at the grocery store earlier in the day, so it became the main ingredient in the soup. Here's a vegan nod to the infamous Chicken Soup remedy.




Ch-egan Cabbage Soup

1 onion, chopped
1 tblsp olive oil
1 large carrot, chopped into small pieces
1 new potato, cut into small cubes
5 cups of water, divided
3 tblsp vegan no-chicken broth powder
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
3 cups savoy cabbage, chopped finely
2 Gardein vegan “chicken breasts”, cut into small strips or Yves Chick'n Tenders, chopped
2 tsp sugar

Saute onion in olive oil until translucent. Add carrot and potato, broth powder and 1 cup of water. Braise for 5 mins. Add tomatoes, remaining water, salt, thyme and bay leaf. Simmer for 20 mins. Add cabbage, "chick'n" strips and sugar and cook until cabbage is soft. Remove bay leaf and serve.

And guess what? After a small bowl of soup, she was bouncing off the couch again.

Moo-Wah-Ha-Ha-Ha (Evil Sound)

It's coming up on that spooky time of year! Trick or treat...these look like scary, dismembered fingers, but are instead tasty Bloody Finger Cookies courtesy of Yeah, That "Vegan" Sh*t. I meant to make these last year, but I think I only remembered them on November 1st :(

I whipped up the dough while the little one played with a toy - briefly. I stuck the dough in the fridge, as per the instructions and waited for my opportunity to shape them into creepy fingers. The stars must have been aligned, because Ash decided to take a much-needed nap and actually remained sleeping in her crib for a half hour. In that time, I did some creative shaping - I thought they were going to look like crap but they actually came out looking alot like fingers!

I couldn't decide which pics to post so I have a shot right out of the oven, then a few with blood dripping out. I'm taking some to my mom's group Halloween get-together tomorrow, then Kyle is going to take some to work. Nothing like spreading some vegan cheer!

Soup n' Such

So much to blog about, but truly, so little time...


As Tracy mentioned in her post, it's gotten so cold that soup is an ideal meal. I pulled out Nava Atlas' Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons and made a Creamy Golden Potato Squash Soup. It was so silky and smooth! One thing this recipe made me realize is to not use the crumbled bay leaves that came with my spice set - there's a reason why recipes always say to remove the whole bay leaf before serving (obviously not possible with the bits I have)...those things do not soften up and result in little irritating pieces with every bite.



Another delicious soup was courtesy of one of Sarah Kramer's books - Auntie Bonnie's Black Bean Soup. Delicious! The addition of vinegar was genius! It offered the perfect amount of tang! I was also impressed with how easy it was to put this together.



And still on the whole fall theme...time for pumpkin scones! Some pie pumpkins grew on their own in our garden thanks to our compost pile (I guess some of last year`s pie pumpkins' seeds germinated!), so I roasted them up and made Pumpkin Scones!



Fall also means Thanksgiving. I'm so late in posting my feast, and the pic is of my plate of leftovers! I'm terrible! But I was more concerned with eating my meal than taking a pic of it while the little girl was happy! I made Dreena Burton's Rosemary Tofu Balls into cutlets (I thought they were too spicy but everyone seemed to like them!), and served them with maple-ginger winter squash, mashed potatoes, stuffing and veggies.



And finally, it was little Ash's baptism. We had a big shindig at my mom's after the ceremony, which initially had me a little stressed since I wanted to make lots of food (including a dessert) but would have no time. I decided to outsource the dessert and proceeded to try and find somewhere that could make some kind of vegan cake. I searched on the web for places in Ottawa, but had no luck - one bakery told me they could do vegan, but to expect it to taste 'dry and bland' (what???) and to make a small cake for the few vegans at the party and do a non-vegan cake for everyone else. I knew there had to be a better option out there! Thank goodness one of the moms in my mom's group sent me a link to Lil' Cakes. They were able to do all sorts of vegan cupcakes for me!


I was indifferent about the whole ceremony, but super excited for the five dozen cupcakes that were waiting for us! There was vanilla with buttercream, vanilla with raspberry mousse filling, chocolate with chocolate mousse, pumpkin chocolate chip and gingerbread with lemon buttercream. Best of all, they were absolutely beautiful AND delicious! I think I might need to establish a weekly standing order for cupcakes...

Putting it All Together

I had a bunch of random thoughts regarding dinner last night. One - it's fall, I'm craving soup. Two - I want to come home from swimming and have dinner immediately because all of us will be cold and hungry. Three - I have a 4 lb bag of chana dal in the cupboard. Four - It has to be something healthy because I'm trying to lose a couple of pounds to make running easier. After scouring the interwebs to find the perfect recipe, I gave up and morphed some of the better ones into one to suit the ingredients that I had and the level of blandness that was required (after making one rather surprisingly volcanic Tofu Vindaloo this week, I had to redeem myself). The results were tasty, very healthy and made enough for the whole street (or to freeze for future quick Friday night meals).

Pardon the photo, but I was halfway through my bowl before I realized I might want a pic.



Golden Crockpot Split Chickpea Soup

2 tblsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 celery ribs, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 lb chana dal (split chickpeas), rinsed
4 cups veggie broth (I used a 1L asceptic package that I bought on sale for $1.99)
4 cups water
2/3 cup Thai red rice (could substitute brown rice)
sea salt and pepper to taste

THE NIGHT BEFORE
Chop the veggies

THE MORNING OF
Saute the onions in olive oil until soft. Add the other veggies and saute for a few minutes. Add to the crockpot along with the dal. Add the veggie broth and water. Turn on low and cook for around four hours.

AT LUNCH/WHENEVER YOU CAN
Add the rice. Cook for another 2-4 hours. Add more water if it looks thick. I ended up adding more 2 cups.

AT DINNER
Stir and serve. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Every Course is Covered!

I think I've made enough new things when put altogether would serve as a 10-course meal!

I was feeling a little under the weather, but Vcon's Chickpea Noodle Soup hit the spot! I think it was so dark since I didn't have any light miso. Cool thing about this soup - it turns into a noodle casserole the next day!

This looks like next day's Chickpea Noodle Soup, but is actually some spaghetti recipe from an old copy of VT. It said to roast the spaghetti first in the oven before adding it to broth to cook, as it would give it a nutty taste. I didn't notice any difference and was annoyed at the time it took to do that extra step. It's served with some delicious potatoes from our garden that Kyle cooked up.

Speaking of Kyle cooking, here is his delicious salad!

Salad:
Shaved Carrots (garden)
Honey cherry tomatoes (garden)
Beefsteak tomatoes (garden)
Lebanese cucumber (garden)
2 cloves garlic (garden)
Basil (garden)

Dressing:
3 parts olive oil
1/3 part balsamic vinegar
1/3 part lemon juice
Salt-pepper-onion powder

I made VwaV's Gigantoid PB Cookies with a few variations...one of the moms in my mom's group has celiac issues, and the other is severly allergic to nuts! So I made these with soy nut butter (which really doesn't taste like a nut butter at all much to my disappointment) and rice flour. There were OK, but I really do prefer the original recipe and am thankful I don't have any allergies!

Ah, summer...time for Peach 'Custard' Pie! Peaches, sugar, soymilk, flour and nutmeg...delicious! I think I've blogged about this before!

I think this was from VwaV...these Stuffed Peppers were AWESOME! The black bean-quinoa filling is so great and can be eaten as a grain side dish, or a stuffing for squash or anything!

From a recent VT...Peanut Butter Coconut Ice Cream. Of course I added chocolate chips. I think I'll stick with Vcon's Ice Cream recipe since I found this one to be very 'icy' - and I don't mean too cold.


I was watching Ricardo and Friends on the Food Network, and he made this cool sandwich from a loaf of hollowed out round bread. I imitated using layers of pesto, roasted veggies (eggplant, zucchini, peppers and onions), Tofurky slices and VwaV's Tofu Ricotta. I weighed it down and kept it cold. It was delicious!

I was craving something with peanut butter again, so I made up the sauce for the Cold Udon Noodles from VwaV, but added warm noodles, coriander, red pepper, cucumber and cubed tofu that I cooked up. Yummy and easy.

How to make a fast birthday cake - take a graham pie crust, add some softened neopolitan soy ice cream and freeze for 4 hours. Spread some ganache on top and top with nuts, and re-freeze for another 4 hours minimum. Then serve! Just like Baskin Robbins! In this case, I topped with fresh strawberry slices before serving.

Another fast snack - tortilla chips tossed with sugar and cinnamon. The first time I tried it I warmed them in the oven then sprinkled with organic sugar and cinnamon. They were like Beaver Tails that I used to eat as a kid. However, they are easier to make when simply tossed in a bag with a little icing sugar and cinnamon (no photo). This time they were like waffles that we used to get an old southern Ontario amusement park.

Summer Vacation

During the summer months, I’m not very creative in the kitchen. One reason is that I’m not very hungry when I’m warm, and the other is that we are busy spending time outside running, cycling, walking and swimming before being cooped up for the long winter. Because of that, I’ve just made the old standby meals that we eat all the time and therefore have nothing interesting to blog about.

To celebrate the last few weeks of summer, we took a family vacation to Niagara Falls. After googling for vegan restaurants in the area, we concluded that the honeymoon mecca of Ontario really wasn’t a vegan paradise. We brought a lot of snack food with us.

Upon arriving, we drove down the main drag wearily looking at steakhouse after steakhouse. We checked into our hotel then walked by the falls.



Getting back to our room, a rainbow appeared in the mist created by the falling water.



Getting hungrier by the minute and after concluding that Wolfgang Puck’s wasn’t a good choice for us, we noticed a couple of Italian chain restaurants, notably East Side Mario’s and My Cousin Vinnie’s. We have East Side’s at home so tried out My Cousin Vinnie’s. That was a mistake. There weren’t many vegan items. Pete settled on a veggie wrap without feta which was okay but overpriced and I had a spinach salad with mango, red onion with poppyseed dressing. It sounded better than it tasted. There were precious few vegan items for kids, other than pasta with tomato sauce. We left feeling deflated.

Breakfast was included with our room and we didn’t do too badly – there was oatmeal with raisins and almonds, bagels with strawberry jam and fresh fruit. Just bring your own soymilk.

The next night we met my grandparents who live close by for dinner at a local restaurant named Betty’s in Chippewa (8921 Sodom Road). Apparently it started more than 50 years ago as a homemade pie stand and grew to a large restaurant catering to the aging population of the Niagara Region. The restaurant smelled strongly of beef and fish upon entering, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a vegetarian dinner on the menu. It consisted of a plate of penne with seasonal cooked veggies in a balsamic reduction and tasted fresh and homemade. They had the wherewithal to serve parmesan cheese on the side in a sealed container instead of on the meal by default. Pete had a huge slice of vegan peach pie. We were happy and returned to our room satisfied.

Avoid watching captive dolphins perform tricks and black bears being fed marshmallows by zoo patrons at Marineland and get your family fun at the Fallsview Indoor Waterpark, billed as the largest indoor waterpark in North America. We all had a blast. Afterwards, we headed to the Rainforest Cafe for veggie burgers and a great family atmosphere. The giftshop is schlocky but the burgers were supreme, and our server was extremely good with kids.

We travelled along the Niagara Parkway to the botanical gardens and the Butterfly Conservatory. The flowers were stunning. We kept going to the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake which was gorgeously decorated in cascading bouquets and plantings. This is a town of mainly upscale boutiques and galleries, so we only had a tea and walked around.





On the way back, we stopped at a local vineyard and picked up a couple of bottles of Merlot and a roadside fruit stand. The Niagara region is Ontario’s major fruit growing region and we scored a basket of ripe peaches. I was so excited to discover seedless Concord grapes! I love juicy Concords but find the seeds annoying. These babies are pure candy.



For dinner, we decided to check out Taki Japanese Restaurant at 5500 Victoria Ave. It seemed very authentic down to the fake food on display in the entrance. We feasted on miso soup, edamame, veggie sushi, and agedashi tofu (ask for no bonito flakes on it). This is a hidden gem among the tourist traps and the meal cost less than any we had in Niagara Falls.

We had a great time, but have vowed to make our next vacation one where we have a hard time choosing which vegan restaurant to patronize.

Rhubarb Galore!

We have a massive pile of rhubarb growing in our backyard. Kyle picked a pile and I made my annual summery Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Rhubarb Crisp and Rhubarb Cobbler. But I was left with about a cup of chopped rhubarb – the perfect amount to make Upside-Down Rhubarb Cake from Meredith McCarty’s Sweet and Natural cookbook. It’s very caramel-like since the upside-down topping has brown rice syrup, which I actually use now! For years I’ve had BRS stashed in my pantry and I always tended to sub maple syrup for it after having tasted some disgusting Rice Dream frozen dessert. Thank goodness for Isa, as her recipes encouraged me to try rice syrup products again and I’m so glad! Anyways, back to the recipe – good, a little flatter than I expected, but tasty.


Speaking of flat, I used same said rhubarb to make muffins. I used this recipe, but made it two ways. First, I used clabbered soymilk instead of the soy sour cream, producing a rather soggy muffin. Delicious, but very crumbly and sticky. The second time, I actually followed the recipe...a first for me! The muffin was much drier this time, which leads me to believe, according to the Goldilocks legend, that the next time I make this recipe (with a few modifications), it will be perfect!

Summery Stuff

From VT's July/August again I made three recipes. The first was Barbecued Tofu and Grilled Corn Salad. Fabulous! I never managed to get grill marks when using my grill pan but it worked great!

Next up was Roasted Vegetables (no photo). Very basic, but I never put veggies under the broiler like this with such good results. I’ll definitely do this again when making pizzas with roasted veggies. Way better than the sogfest I usually end up with cooking marinated veggies in a wok pan.

Finally, my last recipe from VT was for Mango-Teriyaki Tofu with Brown Jasmine Rice. Delicious! I used leftover salad dressing from the revolting salad I made in the last post. Super easy. Again, great grill marks on the tofu from my grill pan, except after I flipped the tofu, I left it on the grill too long/at too high of a temperature since it went beyond grill marks. I scorched the sauce onto the tofu. Kyle was kind enough to pick it off each slice :(

I then made Rainbow Rice from W Network’s He Said, She Said. I really liked watching Mary Jo Eustace and Ken Kostick in the 90’s on What’s for Dinner, so I was happy to see them pair up again. Poor MJ...I would be bitter too if my hubby left me for Tori Spelling of all people. Anyways, she came up with an interesting recipe for peanut butter in a colourful rice dish that I had to try. Sounds like it’s got everything in it but the kitchen sink. I managed to use a few substitutions (including edamame and corn instead of the peas and omitted the bananas since I will never cook with them again) and it was pretty good and very easy. I’d say it’s a comfort food dish and I liked how it had lots of protein too. I wouldn’t say that this would be a recipe that I’d serve at a fancy dinner since it doesn’t look the greatest.

Oh God...My Child Doesn't Like Veggies!

I was all excited to make my own baby food (easiest recipes to follow ever!). After trip to the local organic market, I have a nice freezer stash of carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes and green beans. On Monday, I was excited to test out my 'creations' now that Ash is six months old. The verdict? So far, carrots are not a hit. This was the first veggie we tried after rice and oats, and Ash responded by spitting out the carrots (compared to scarfing down the grains) and making lovely gagging sounds. I hope this is not a sign that she doesn't like veggies, as despite feeling nauseous, I ate every veggie under the sun while preggo in an effort to expose the little one to many flavours.

I hope tomorrow's attempt at butternut squash goes better than carrots did!

Back to VT Again...

This week's meal plan included a few recipes from the July/August 2008 issue of VT. First, I tried the Thai Basil Curry Vegetables. Not sure if I should have even referenced the ‘Thai’ part, since I left out the Thai green chile paste – it sounded too spicy for this girl and I didn’t feel like buying a bottle for one tablespoon worth just for it to sit in my fridge unused until I throw it out (this is always the case for me for hoisin sauce and taco sauce). Anyways, back to the recipe...it was great! I was pleasantly surprised how quickly it all came together. For added protein, I added some Yves Chick’n Tenders, but I think chickpeas would have been great too (I needed more than the 2g of protein identified in the recipe).

I then made Chinese Broccoli with Black Bean Sauce and Garlic (no photo...ate it too quickly!). Even though I mentioned that I wouldn’t purchase a sauce just for a recipe’s tablespoon-worth, I bought this sauce since I planned on adding more than the 1 ½ tablespoons worth plus I have the intention of using the rest of the sauce with tofu or a stir fry in the future. After making this recipe, I learned that Black Bean Sauce is VERY salty. I poured it into this recipe thinking that my addition of cubed firm tofu would soak it up. I think I drank 10 glasses of water after eating this. The salty leftovers made a nice wrap filling along with some tomatoes (to help dilute the salt!).

Next, I made Fresh Tomato Farfalle – the recipe called for 2 lb of tomatoes, and since Kyle only picked up 2 tomatoes, it was obvious that I had to hit up the grocery store for more to do this recipe up right. I did consider forgetting the ‘Fresh’ part of the recipe and instead using canned diced tomatoes. It would have been WAAAYY easier. It tasted OK, but instead inspired me to create a guacamole-style pasta.

Vile recipe alert...Chilled Tofu Salad with Ginger, Green Onions, Asparagus and Sesame. Well, there are no surprises as to what’s in this salad, but lemme tell you, do not make it. Yes, it was my prettiest pic yet and yes, it looked like something from a fancy restaurant, but it was disgusting. I have no idea what I was thinking eating plain silken tofu. I much prefer it pureed in a sweet dessert.

Easy Recipe Alert!

A nice twist on the quesadilla front...sweet Strawberry Chocolate Quesadillas! I pulled this from a Moosewood Restaurant cookbook (Moosewood Celebrates or something like that). Made it for the weekly mom’s group get-together. Sweet, sinful and messy. A great way to use up seasonal strawberries! OK, next post will actually be something nutritious and meal-like...

Happy (Belated) Canada Day!

I'm a little slow in posting this...

After looking for a quick, cool dessert contribution to this year’s family Canada Day celebration, I decided I would re-make the Key Lime Pie. But something told me it wasn’t very festive to serve something green on Canada Day, where something with red or white would be more appropriate. Enter Kyle’s great idea – to modify the recipe (I’m a pro at that!) and use strawberries instead. Now I think the tang of lime with the strawberries would have been a little too much, so I cut out the lime juice and rind (which Kyle found quite bitter anyways) as well as the agave nectar (instead of the originally called for honey), and instead added ½ cup vanilla Almond Breeze and a drop of almond extract. I then arranged sliced strawberries on top in an attempt to replicate our national symbol – the maple leaf. Pretty! And yummy! Although my next project will be to substitute the vanilla pudding mix and find another stabilizer.

I hope my dentist isn't reading this...

I know I had dissed this recipe in the past, but my sweet tooth was craving this cool, summery treat. And besides, I found a new brand of tofu cream cheese that didn’t have any hydrogenated products in it. I made a delicious Key Lime Pie. I devoured two pieces the night I made it.


The next night, I was watching Jon & Kate Plus 8. I love that show because geez, if they can raise that many kids while maintaining some sort of sanity, it gives me hope that I can handle the one I have! During the episode, Kate revealed that she would be making Monkey Munch with the girls. It looked like a sweet variation of one of my faves – Chex (US)/Crispix (Canada) Mix! I was at the store the next day buying the ingredients that I was missing – all it takes is Crispix, chocolate chips, peanut butter, margarine, vanilla and icing sugar! Kyle and I are addicted.

I fear that I have turned into a junk food freak.

More VT - Back to May

After having moderate success with the June issue of VT, I decide to go back to the May issue and make a few things. First up was Pita Panzanella. I was surprised at how tasty this was. I did substitute edamame for the frozen peas (blah) and I think that was a better choice to add more protein. I always expect a meal to taste like mint gum whenever I read mint in the list of ingredients, but I’m always pleasantly surprised! The best part of the recipe was toasting pita triangles in a little olive oil – I must do that from now on!

Next, I made a Greek Lentil Salad. Good – even better a few days later.

I wasn’t too impressed with the Burst-of-Spring Salad (no photo). Yes, I did omit the radishes because I don’t like them and my avocado wasn’t healthy-looking enough to add, but I don’t think either of those two ingredients would have helped. The dressing was really watery and simply tasted like I poured orange juice on spinach. I’ll stick to my tried and true orange spinach salad with red onion vinaigrette.

The Italian Eggplant Ragout was pretty tasty – although allowing the eggplant to hang out with 2 tablespoons of salt not only removed it’s bitterness, it made the dish REALLY salty and the eggplant actually tasted pickled! And I did rinse the eggplant well!


Finally, on Friday, I made Edamame Rice Bowls. Very easy. Remarkably tasty. Even better with the necessary addition of something salty like tamari. I should mention that I used crumbled tofu instead of feta.

VT - June!

So I’m back to making some meal plans again – thank goodness! I’ve been looking at some of the time-friendly recipes from issues of VT. I first tried some recipes from the June 2008 issue. I tried the Spring Orzo Salad and was totally delighted. It was easy! I did make some substitutions, of course. For added protein, I used edamame instead of the frozen peas. Delish!

I then made the Golden Bowl, which was essentially a stir fry. I was surprised that this was voted as one of the favourite reader recipes from some veg restaurant, but whatever. I found it quite bland (which certainly says something, as I don’t like anything remotely spicy!).

The best recipe from this issue was the vegan Mac and Cheese. I was seeking some comfort food, and oh my god, I found it! Now, I do have to say that it doesn’t taste like mac n’ cheese, which is why I like it. I never liked the taste of cheese so I don’t often seek out anything trying to mimic the taste. But something was telling me to try this recipe. Am I ever glad I did! It was so easy, the sauce was mild, and the leftovers were even good! I made it gluten free by using brown rice pasta too.

Finally, I wanted to offer a little public service announcement. They look nice, but do not make the Roasted Bananas. Two weeks later, I still want to mini-vomit. See, I thought that I would have these delicious crispy bananas in a caramel sauce. Instead, despite following the recipe to a “T” (OK, close to a “T”, I used cinnamon instead of allspice), I ended up with soggy, stringy bananas in a sickeningly sweet sauce. I didn’t help that Kyle split the results between the two of us when the recipe was to serve EIGHT! Regardless, one little banana half was enough to know that this was not good. Ugh...