Banana Bread Bars with Brown Butter Frosting

Okay everyone, get ready to change your pants because these banana bars are a 10 on the shit-your-pants scale. And that's all the explanation you need so go make these right meow.

Ingredients:
Banana Bread Bars:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
3 or 4 ripe bananas, mashed
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional. But I used them. So you should too. Unless you are allergic. Please don't in that case)

Brown Butter Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk

Directions: (Oh, I just though of New Directions and then got really sad. RIP Cory Monteith...)
Preheat your oven to 375 F. Grease a 10x15 inch cookie sheet (I saw it written as a jelly roll pan, and I had NO clue what that was. So I googled it. It's just a large cookie sheet. Am I making it very obvious that I'm Canadian?) Start with the ingredients for the bars. Beat together the sugar, sour cream, butter, and eggs in a large bowl until creamy.

As a side note, Whenever I have bananas that are getting a little on the brown side, I just chuck them in the freezer and take them out a little bit before I want to use them so they thaw out some. Once they are thawed they come out of the peel nice and easy (it's kind of gross actually).
Okay, so mix your gross bananas with the sugar/butter/egg etc. mixture along with the vanilla extract. Mix until well blended. Then add the flour, baking soda and salt and blend until just incorporated, about one minute. Stir in walnuts (which you should be using; allergies are the only exception in my opinion).

Spread the batter evenly into the pan (it should come up right to the top of the sides of the pan) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
Okay, while that sucker is in the oven, start making your frosting.
Put the butter in a large saucepan and heat over medium heat until boiling. Let it turn a delicate shade of brown...

... and then take it off the heat immediately. Make sure you don't let it burn! It's called BROWN butter frosting, not BURNT butter frosting.
Once off the heat, add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk. Whisk together until very smooth but still thick.

Once the bars are out of the oven...

... Use a rubber spatula (or a yeetzlapel, for all my fellow Mennonites. Bad spelling, I know) and spread the icing on while the bars are still warm! I know that sounds weird (well, at least it did to me) but it's important! The icing will not slide off, don't you worry your pretty little head.

Now, you can let that cool off a bit before you dive in. And once you do, be warned, you will not be able to stop.

Just look at those things!! Ugh, I can't even handle it.

Don't say I didn't warn you...

xoxo

Ash

Recipe found via Pinterest on Life's Simple Measures

Rice Pudding

This post is dedicated to my Grandma Annie.

Rice pudding is something that really reminds me of my Grandma Dueck. She made this for me and my brother (and I'm assuming all of my cousins as well) all the time. I remember eating this warm, creamy dish with a whole whack of cinnamon on top. If you can take a particular dish for granted, this is one that I definitely did. Once we were older and she moved out of her house into her condo, I can't remember ever having it again however time has not dimmed the memories of eating rice pudding in her kitchen at the house at the end of River Road South. Sometime last year, after my Grandma had passed away, my husband saw the rice pudding was on sale at the grocery store. We picked some up and I realized I had forgotten how much I liked it. And then all the memories of having it at Grandma's house came flooding back to me and I thought, "This is nonsense, I am Annie Dueck's granddaughter, I'm making this from scratch." So that's exactly what I did...

Creamy Rice Pudding:

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup uncooked white rice
2 cups milk, divided
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup golden raisins (my Grandma never made it with raisins but I happen to love them so I though, what the heck)
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
(as a side note, I changed the method with this recipe, for the original recipe's method follow the link above)
First, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a saucepan. Once the water is boiling, stir in the rice. Reduce heat to low and cover, simmering for 10 mins or until all the liquid is absorbed.
Next, in a clean saucepan, combine the cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt.

Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, at leeaaaasst 20 minutes, if not longer. Once you have it at a consistency you are happy with, stir in the remaining half cup of milk, beaten egg and raisins. Cook two minutes more, stirring constantly.

Once those two minutes are up, remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve topped with a little bit of cinnamon if you so desire.

That's also the same bowl that I used to eat rice pudding out of at Grandma's place. So it was really the only bowl I could eat it out of this time. Miss you every day, Grandma.

xoxo

Ash