winter comfort food

Bananas Foster is my favorite dessert ever. I made some for my son's birthday party last Sunday and it was such a hit! With the adults, of course. The kids got ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.
The recipe that I use is a little different from other recipes for this dessert. Most will call for frying the bananas to caramelize them - I always think that this just makes them mushy. I make the sauce first, then I add the bananas. If I'm making this for a party, I don't add the bananas until just before I'm ready to serve dessert.

Bananas Foster

3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup dark rum
3-4 ripe bananas, sliced into rounds
vanilla ice cream

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the brown sugar. Stir until the sugar has melted into the butter. Remove from heat and carefully add the rum. (If the alcohol ignites, just let it burn itself out, but keep the lid to the saucepan on hand just in case.) I usually return the saucepan to the stove and heat it gently to let the alcohol evaporate. If I'm making the dessert right away, I add the bananas and stir them a bit. Place a scoop or two of ice cream in each serving dish and ladle the hot sauce over the ice cream. If I'm serving dessert later, I put the lid on the saucepan and set it aside. Reheat the sauce when you're ready to use it (the butter will have solidified on the surface of the sauce, but it'll melt again as you heat the sauce up.)