tuesdaes

DD's latest thing is bananas. For a long time she didn't like them, in spite of loving them as a baby. Just recently she decided to taste them again, and now she loves them. Then I bought ice cream the other day, and she immediately proposed banana splits for dessert, but that day, she had to be content with "We'll see."

Since then, the idea of banana splits had been percolating in the back of my mind. So tonight's dinner was simple: roast chicken and broccoli and bread and butter, because I decided that we'd do the extravagant dessert thing -- for no reason other than it was possible.

The ice cream was in the freezer already. I chopped some bittersweet chocolate, melted it in the microwave, and stirred in heavy cream -- ganache is the easiest, tastiest chocolate sauce I know. Some frozen raspberries went into a dish with some sweetener, and into the microwave they went -- instant raspberry sauce. Dicing a banana took 30 seconds, and whipping some cream with vanilla syrup took only 2 or 3 minutes more.

The assembled desserts didn't look like much, but oh! they were heavenly, all the better for being put together from such freshly prepared components.

Everyone was pleased, especially me, since it was so easy to please everyone else.

The children have no idea that this kind of thing is atypical. They would most likely be just as happy with a few squirts of Hershey's syrup and a dollop of Redi-Whip on their ice cream, but I don't buy those things. If I'm going to indulge, I'll do it with the good stuff -- and if I'm educating three little palates along the way, so be it. Lots of good food takes only a little time, and a little money. We are lucky in having both to spend, and so I do.