Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie

Please tell me if I'm being petty. Maybe all of this food blogging has skewed my view of reality.

Here's the situation:

Friends invited us over for dinner this past weekend.  Well, initially they invited us over a month ago and then cancelled.  Then they rescheduled about 2 weeks ago.  We've had dinner parties with this couple before and it has always been enjoyable. In the past, we've had meals like BBQ steak, thai chicken pasta, skirt steak, BBQ chicken, etc. at each other's homes. So, not gourmet, but made from scratch meals that require some effort from the host.

When I received the invitation, I offered to bring something. In the end, we decided that I would bring dessert. I set out scouring recipes on the internet. I even asked for feedback on options I was considering on Twitter. I spent the majority of my Saturday getting the groceries and making this recipe that I found on Slow Like Honey.

(story to be continued after recipe...)

Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie
Adapted from: Food and Wine, November 2011
Servings: 10-12 servings

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups fine graham cracker crumbs (about 7 ounces)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
4 large egg yolks
2 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 medium bananas, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
Chocolate shavings, for garnish

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°. In a food processor, combine the graham cracker crumbs with the sugar, cinnamon, salt and melted butter and pulse until the crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly into a 9- to 10-inch, deep-dish glass or ceramic pie plate. Bake for about 8 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned and set. Let cool completely.

In a large saucepan (preferably with a rounded bottom), combine the granulated sugar with the cornstarch, egg yolks and 1/2 cup of the milk and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the remaining 2 cups of milk and cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly, until the custard is very thick, about 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla extract until the butter is melted. Pour half of the vanilla custard into a medium bowl.

Whisk the chopped chocolate into the custard in the saucepan until it is melted.

Spread the chocolate custard evenly in the pie crust and top with the sliced bananas.

Carefully spread the vanilla custard over the bananas.

Refrigerate the banana cream pie until it is well chilled, at least 6 hours and preferably overnight.

In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the heavy cream with the confectioners’ sugar until it is softly whipped. Mound the whipped cream on top of the pie. Garnish the banana cream pie with chocolate shavings and serve.



Make Ahead The banana cream pie can be prepared through Step 3 and refrigerated for up to 3 days. The crust can be frozen for up to 2 weeks.

Verdict: I was really pleased with how the pie turned out. For the second time, my concern about having a crust that falls apart has led me to press the pie crust together quite tightly. As a result, the crust was more difficult to break apart than I would like. The custard was very good. The recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate. I could only find semi-sweet. Apparently semi-sweet chocolate generally has more sugar in it than bitter-sweet. Personally, even with the semi-sweet chocolate, I found that there was a slight bitterness to the chocolate. But, I should mention that I do not like strong chocolate flavours. I'd take milk chocolate over dark chocolate any day.

Now, back to the story...


We sat down for dinner and were served fries, heated up from a frozen package and meatballs, also store bought and heated up from a frozen state.

I don't get it! Why invite people over for dinner if you don't want to make dinner? Now I'm worrying that something is wrong.  How would you feel if you were invited over for pre-made processed frozen food?

President's Choice Holiday 2011

I recently received the holiday package of samples from the Holiday Insider's Report . How beautiful is the container the PC products came in? Kudos to the marketing team that put together this campaign - it's brilliant!


It made me think about those timeless memories that we all have about the anticipation of holidays. Sit back and think about what those are for you. Do you remember your growing up years and the etched in stone traditions of the holidays? Do you have young children that you're creating new memories with? Wouldn't you love to just be able to put time in a bottle?



The rituals of the holidays include family, friends and equally as important is the food we enjoy and share. I don't know about you but for some reason, this year feels like it was a total blur and I can't figure out how it's getting to be Cbanukkah and Christmas again. Every year I make myself entirely crazy over prepping for the holidays. Not doing it this year. Well, at least I'm going to enlist some help. I'm thankful to be able to have a large variety of food products available at reasonable prices that are either ready to go or require minimal preparation.

So many delicious looking new and tested ideas for entertaining. When I'm going through new products to review I generally like to take everything out, check each item individually firstly for how appealing it is to me and would be to my family and secondly (and equally important) I check the ingredients. While I was doing that I came upon one item that it been the only product I'd received, I would have had a smiling girl for the whole day. For those who don't know me, I have a wierd and wonderful connection to all things peanut butter. I'm wierd and the peanut butter is wonderful.


Peanut butter pretzels with white candy topping - oh my gawd!!!! In my opinion, this is a treat that should be available to everyone during the holidays and beyond. I know it will be in my home.
The second thing that immediately caught my attention was a bottle of Memories of Morocco.
I like to buy chicken when it's on sale. I marinate and freeze it in zip lock bags and defrost it in the fridge with the marinade day before. Memories of Morocco is an ideal marinade for this. The combination of sweet and spicy with the fragrance of Moroccan spices is hypnotic. I shared the bottle with a neighbour who is from the Middle East and her evaluation was the same as mine. Her comment to me was "why bother making it at home; this is terrific". That's the whole message with the new PC products; if you've got a product that's not hard on the wallet and fills a need while saving you your precious time I can't find an argument to not buy it. See how easy it is to put together a great meal in minutes.

I'm happy to share some of the newer branded PC products with you;
Do you enjoy a dark roast cup of coffee?

or a decandent Dulche de Leche decaf

or try something you might never have even thought of ...

Looking for some quick and easy appetizer ideas? How about Blue Cheese with Walnut Canapes?




Timeless melba toast that works with so many toppings:

with Goat Cheese and Cranberry (my personal favourite)

or just plain Goat Cheese

While you're busy in the kitchen and wrapping gifts, don't forget to keep yummies on hand for the kids;

Give yourself some munchie treats while you're at it.

You're not going to stop creating old family favourites but instead of slaving over so many different varieties, give yourself a break with some of these ageless treats AND get the kids to chip in - isn't this what memories are made of?







Who says you can't add chocolate chips :)

Now if I could find an elf that would wrap everything for me, life would be complete. There are the gifts for the concierge, the mailman, newspaper boy/girl, friends down the hall, teachers and hairdressers to name just a few. Who wouldn't enjoy some of these'




(I love that the biscotti has a COR that makes it kosher/dairy. A fabulous Hanukkah gift.








I can see this post is getting very long but I still have much to share. Stay tuned for further posts on making memories with President's Choice.

President's Choice Holidays - Part IV

If you're not recognizing this logo by now you're not Canadian. AND... if you're not Canadian, I'm sorry - you're missing out on a great year for new entertaining products. If you're American and planning a trip to the great white north, remember to bring a cooler and ice packs for take home goodies.

Package 2 of 3 arrived filled with frozen goodies. I'm not sure how many of the packages went but it was a gutsy effort to logistically send them out, packed in dry ice and make sure everything went where it was supposed to go without incident. I really have to commend our contact Laura for making sure it was relatively seamless. She was diligent in follow up and a plesure all the way through. I suspect she's sitting back now and saying "whew, thank goodness that's done".




Let me share package contents with you and my own personal thoughts about favourites and how to incorporate them into making the holiday season less stressful.

Red Velvet Cheesecake as an opener is sure to grab your attention. Although I've made red velvet cakes before, I can honestly say that tasting this one has encouraged me to perfect my own recipe. This cake is a party in your mouth and I generally don't like cheesecakes finding them dense and oh so rich. This one is sweet but not dense. I took this cake to a party in my building and couldn't find it about 10 minutes after I put it down. Enough said!







I had already talked about the Beef Bourginon previously and loved it.



It didn't take long to make the decision that this would be dinner. There's a substantial enough amount in the package for two average eaters and one hearty eater. I suspect this one will be in the top 5 of best new frozen entrees for this season; restaurant quality with braised beef pieces, baby carrots, pearled onions, root vegetables and mushrooms in a red wine reduction, demi-glaze with bacon. I really doubt my mother had this type of option available to her when we were growing up.

If beef's not your thing, think about Roasted Chicken in Merlot Sauce or Creamy Tarragon Pan Fried Chicken.

Friends stopped by and we took out the newest Hors D'oevre collection. PC took familiar ingredients and designed new fillings and shapes. Flavours include Chicken Sausage Roll, Swiss, Gruyere and Smoked Ham Boats sprinkled with parsley (no less), Roasted Sweet Potato and Goat's Cheese Rolls sprinkled with paprika; and Apple, Smoked Gouda and Carmelized Onion Lattice Roll.

The absolute favourite in this collection is the Roasted Sweet Potato and Goat's Cheese Rolls. Every flavour is easily distinguished and the combination is delicious. We challenged each person to tell us what was in the french puff pastry and since many are foodies, it was fun and interesting to see how refined peoples' pallets are. Each box has 40 pieces and warms up really quickly in the oven.


French Souffles... authentic .... imported from France ... not possible. Yes possible. We took out a couple of ramekins, buttered them well and dropped in premeasured cubes of frozen souffle pieces, put them in the oven and within minutes we had a taste of richness that I've only seen in restaurants. You can make the mini size or full size of either the Emmental Cheese Souffle or the Smoked Salmon & Dill Cheese Souffle.



We're having a drop in event this weekend and I've saved these dry seasoned rotisserie style chicken wings for the event. There's a goodly amount in the package and after all, who doesn't love chicken wings. Grey Cup, Superbowl, New Years, a beer and wings get together - fussy to make from scratch, easy to warm up.

If you're not drinking the beer, this alternative is really addictive;




Smoked salmon is really popular during the holidays. PC has come out with another smoked fish - Smoked Wild Albacore Tuna. The meat texture is more delicate than salmon. I'm serving a combination of both smoked salmon and smoke tuna on pumpernickle squares and rounds with a dollop of room temperature creamed cheese and a garnish of dill. This appetizer is the #1 baba approved and is a must do at any family function.



I don't think I've been to many holiday parties and not found a tray of cheeses and crackers. This one is great value for dollar, six (6) varieties and plentiful. Really, it's all you'll need for that big tray. We keep these around all year long; great as a snack and a quick prep when the mahjong group comes.



You've got the snacks and now you need a good cup of coffee all around (except for the tea drinkers of course). This 100% Hawaiian coffee is medium and balanced and left me asking for a second cup. I suspect this is the coffee that most people would consider their every day coffee. If you want something that's more full-bodied, the 100% Columbian Supremo should fill the bill, or the 100% Kenyan that has an interest berry and citrus flavour. The 100% Sumatra is the wake up coffee that's bold and intense with earthy undertones.

Although the mini melts came earlier (first package), I had to go to my local Loblaw store and get all the flavours and you'll soon be seeing posts of the holiday baking using these products.




Freezer bags was something I really didn't expect and welcomed with open arms. The size is bigger than a lunch bag size and smaller than a large freezer bag size - perfect!!! I admit it - my freezers are FULL of things packed in freezer bags.



Gift Box #3 arrived on December 1st and was an envirobag full of a number of items individually packaged. I love presents and I especially love trying to guess what's in the packages before I open them.





I don't think any explanation is really necessary with these items. Each and every one is fabulous, giftworthy and symbolic of so many of the foods I think of when I think of the holidays.









Thank you President's Choice for the opportunity to sample the new products and also for including a gift card for my future shopping and sampling.

Stock your freezers - you won't be sorry.