From time to time we need the ability to make quick, easy, but tasty, desserts. It could be a last minute invitation to a gathering or having forgotten about an invitation. It could be as simple as deciding that we want something sweet. When that happens, these recipes will come in handy.

Our first recipe is Bananas Foster. This is traditionally served flaming over ice cream. I wouldn't recommend flaming this in the Crockpot! Serve it over ice cream (try butter pecan) or angel food cake or pound cake. You can even just eat it like it is. Put this in the Crockpot while you are finishing dinner and you will have a great after dinner treat.

The second recipe is an old fashioned ice box cake. These cakes are making a comeback. Try making this easy no cook recipe with different flavors of pudding mix and frosting for a new taste sensation. You can also add nuts or sprinkles for an added taste sensation.

The third recipe is champagne sorbet. You can use any fresh fruit in this simple recipe; just make sure that the flavor matches the sorbet. If you want it to be alcohol free, use sparkling cider instead.

The fourth recipe is a wonderful watermelon slush. What can be better than watermelon? This delicious and super easy dessert recipe is wonderful served with a bit of sour cream or mascarpone cheese on top.



Bananas Foster in the Crockpot



4 Tbsp. butter (no substitutes)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

6 bananas, peeled and sliced

1/4 cup rum



Place butter and brown sugar in a 3-1/2 to 4 quart Crockpot, cover, and turn on LOW. Let butter melt for 10-20 minutes, then stir to combine. Add cinnamon, bananas, and rum; turn gently through the brown sugar syrup. Cover and cook on LOW for about 1 hour until bananas are glazed and softened. Spoon sauce over pound cake and top with rum flavored whipped cream. Serves 6



Graham Cracker Iceb ox Cake



16 oz. pkg. graham crackers

2 (3.5 oz.) pkgs. instant vanilla pudding mix

3 cups whole milk

8 oz. container frozen whipped topping, thawed

16 oz. container chocolate frosting



Blend the pudding mix, whipped topping, and milk in a medium sized bowl. Stir until well blended.

Place one single layer of graham crackers in the bottom of a 9x13" baking pan. Do not crumble, but leave the crackers whole. You can fill in gaps with crackers broken in half if necessary. Spoon half of the pudding mixture over the crackers and spread evenly. Repeat with another layer of crackers and remaining pudding mixture. Top with another layer of graham crackers. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set up a bit.

Stir the frosting and spread it over the whole cake up to the edges of pan. Cover and refrigerate cake for at least 4 hours before serving. 14 servings



Champagne Sorbet



1 pint mixed berry sorbet or any flavor fruit sorbet

2 cups raspberries or blueberries or champagne grapes

1 cup good quality champagne OR sparkling apple or pear cider



Place sorbet in four to six parfait or martini glasses. Divide berries evenly over sorbet. Slowly and carefully pour the champagne or sparkling cider over the berries and serve immediately. Serves 4-6



Watermelon Slush



1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

3 cups cubed watermelon

1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate



In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar and water and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Let cool completely.

Puree the watermelon in a blender and strain to remove seeds. Measure 2 cups of the puree and combine with corn syrup and cooled sugar syrup; stir with wire whisk until blended.

Place in freezer container and freeze for about an hour, until the mixture begins to freeze around the edges. Remove from freezer and beat thoroughly with hand mixer. Return to freezer.

Repeat this process for 3 more times every 30 minutes, until mixture is frozen to a slush consistency. To serve, spoon some of the slush into a goblet and sprinkle with chocolate. Serves 8



Did you know?



10 dessert tips for life

In an increasingly fast paced society, knowing some basic tips for preparing desserts would help bring pleasure and decrease the chaos in your life. Desserts are so important in our culture that they are even considered a food group on the food pyramid. Despite the fact that Americans are becoming more and more overweight each year, desserts are not escaping from our treasured American lifestyle.

Desserts are a delicate pleasure that we all enjoy. But often the fact that we are a fast paced culture, baking cookies or a cake does not often seem like fun due to the fact that it is viewed as time consuming. Well, if you follow some basic tips for dessert preparation, guarantee you’ll enjoy making desserts again!

1. Buy already made ingredients on your list – This is a great tip and saves a lot of time. Pre-made ingredients include pie crusts, crumbs, baking mixes, fresh or frozen mixed fruit, etc.

2. Have the most common dessert ingredients in your kitchen always – Having the most popular dessert ingredients in your kitchen always will save you a lot of time. Try to buy the following in bulk: nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar, flour, eggs, butter, chocolate, etc.

3. Preheat the oven! – Although this is a very basic tip, it is probably the most important, especially if you have an old oven. Ovens can take anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes to heat up. Who wants to wait for an oven to heat up for 30 minutes? The trick to remembering this is to turn the oven on immediately after getting all your ingredients together.

4. Use the bottom rack in the oven – Another essential oven tip! For obvious reasons, using the bottom rack in the oven saves baking time due to the fact that the bottom rack receives the most direct heat. So, try to squeeze as many baking sheets down there as possible!

5. Bake in multiple batches – You can obviously save time by making multiple batches of a dessert like cookies, cupcakes, etc. The only thing to be careful of is to avoid eating them in a few days. Although cookies can lose freshness after a few days, they can go quite a while before not being any good.

6. Always have fruit in the house – This tip is great because many recipes call for some sort of real fruit like berries. Having fresh or frozen fruit in the house at all times will definitely save a last minute trip to the store to find that essential fruit ingredient. Frozen fruit will last the longest so definitely buy that in bulk as well.

7. Simplify your favorite dessert recipes – We’ve all prepared desserts that have over 15 ingredients that are supposedly not optional. Find alternative recipes online and after making the recipe once, pay attention to the taste, and find ways to simplify it. Does it really need walnuts? Does it really need brown and white sugar? Probably not.

8. Let your kids help prepare the dessert – You may have given birth to them so that they could grow into respectful individual human beings, but they can help you bake just like they help with chores around the house. The best thing about getting your kids involved is that if you find the right repetitive task, they can save you a lot of time. Also, the best thing about this tip is that kids usually don’t turn you down when it comes to preparing a dessert they can eat!

9. When in doubt, just grab some stuff and go! – If you weren’t planning on making a dessert, just throw in some ingredients off the top of your head and see what happens! This is an awesome tip because it allows you to save on time in the sense that you won’t be looking at a detailed recipe with a long list of ingredients and long list of preparation steps. I use this one all the time when it comes to preparing smoothies. With a smoothie, you can’t go wrong! Throw in as much as you want of anything and see what happens. The only rule to follow with this tip is to put the most of a particular ingredient into the blender that you want the smoothie or beverage to taste the most like.

10. Let go of measuring utensils – This may be the hardest tip yet because it forces you to trust in your abilities. Some people may fear that they have no abilities and thus do not want to prepare a dish, especially a dessert, free style. But this is so important when it comes to saving time because when you have to get out a lot of ingredients and a lot of measuring utensils, it becomes a major time consuming project to prepare something as simple as cookies.

So, follow these 10 steps for making desserts and you will be definitely find preparation a lot easier. It will also run a lot smoother and more than likely you will have fun in the process. Imagine that, enjoying the process of making a dessert while knowing you will also enjoy tasting it later on! It doesn’t get any better than that.

http://www.localwin.com/julie/dessert-tips



Karen’s Kitchen is a weekly column by Karen Freeman of Tarboro. Contact Karen at:

kvfreeman@triad.rr.com to exchange ideas, ask questions, submit recipes, tips or suggestions.

Check out her Web site: http://www.geocities.com/kvfreeman27886/