Putting the Bananas in Bananas Foster

Creamy caramel with a slight rum flavor mixed with bananas over some vanilla ice cream. Sounds good, huh?

Leah and I have tried a few bananas foster recipes in the last few weeks and made our share of errors, but even when it doesn't go exactly as planned, it turns out to be pretty tasty. By far the coolest part of making this dish is lighting it on fire. You pour in the rum, let it get a little hot and light the fumes. It looks just like this...

... Ok, not quite. Actually we couldn't get even a tiny flame the first time. It turns out that you are not supposed to stir in the rum, but just let it sit on top. Our bad.

We also have started to cheat. The point is to mix butter and brown sugar, then use the flame to caramelize the whole thing. We just started melting caramels and adding the booze to that. More consistent and you can sneak a caramel or two when Leah isn't looking.

We have also learned that letting it cool for a minute or two is wise. My first attempt melted the ice cream almost instantaneously. Our errors aside, it has turned out better and better each time, as Leah says: "I get better at this every time I wing it."