I’m not sure if frugality and penny-pinching is genetic but for better or worse I’ve inherited my family’s Midwestern “waste not, want not” mantra. I get phone calls like “Hey Vanessa, I’m about to throw away some bubble wrap, a yard of astroturf, and a silver ice bucket with my initials on it… I just thought you might, you know, want to do something with it before it goes into trash.” You see, I hate wasting anything.

I buy a bunch of bananas, for instance, and if the sisters and I can’t eat them all before they start to go spotty I throw the brown ones in the freezer, skins and all, to be later incarnated as banana bread or my favorite smoothie: banana-peanutbutter-cocoa.

So when challenged by a recipe development class at the Institute of Culinary Education to create a variation on the classic chocolate-chip cookie, I thought it would be fine time to clear the freezer of bananas and put them to use in a cookie version of my favorite smoothie. Effervescent instructor Sarah Copeland, recipe tester for the Food Network, used her encyclopedic baking knowledge to help turn my smoothie concept into real (and vegan!) cookies. My classmates shared inspired ideas and comments, including Myra Kornfield’s vegan baking tip to use coconut oil in the cookies for richness. The weekend class somehow flew by even though my stomach was quite heavily bogged down with test cookies.

So here they are, the results of my smoothie-to-cookie experiment - Vegan Banana Peanut Butter Cocoa Cookies, or Vanana Cookies for short. The bananas, peanut butter, and cocoa combine to create a rich brownie-like cookie with bursts of creamy banana and chunky peanut. Truly scrumptious, vegan, and a great way to reclaim a few overly ripe bananas.

Preparation = 20 minutes
Cooking = 10 minutes
Yield = 16 large cookies

Vegan Banana Peanut Butter Cocoa Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, preferably organic
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 very ripe bananas*
1 1/4 cup natural chunky peanut butter, at room temperature
1⁄4 cup coconut oil (not virgin), at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 firm-ripe bananas, cut into large dice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl.

In another bowl, cream together the ripe bananas, peanut butter, coconut oil, light brown sugar and vanilla extract until all ingredients are completely incorporated, about 3 minutes.

Slowly add the chocolate mixture to the ripe banana mixture, stirring to combine. Mixture should be very thick. Fold in diced banana with a rubber spatula.

Drop on an ungreased cookie sheet in large, 3 tablespoon-sized scoops, spaced one inch apart.

Bake until the outside of the cookie lightens, starts to develop deep cracks, and the banana bits start to brown, about 8 - 11 minutes.

Cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack.

*Can be frozen and rethawed

And now for something completely different; a totally unseasonal dessert that is not particularity quick or easy to make.

Don’t worry – this is a vegan Pina Colada Ice “Cream” and I’ll provide a hint on how to make the recipe quite a bit easier.

Sort of like Christmas-in-July, the sisters and I experienced some summer-in-February during a visit to our dad’s in Florida this weekend. Whilst lolling about in the 72 degree sunshine, The Li’l Sis and I got to reminiscing about tropical drinks, speaking in great detail about a particular Pina Colada she had on Roatan, an island off of Honduras.

She said that “there was a rickety stand on the beach where an old lady made amazing Pina Coladas with only a regular kitchen blender, coconuts, pineapples, and some rum.” I was a bit skeptical, thinking that there had to be more to it than that. The only thing The Li’l Sis couldn’t figure out was how the Pina Colada lady got the extension cord for the blender to run the whole way out to the beach.

Following our estimation of the beach lady’s technique, we created a Pina Colada mix that was too textured for a smooth summer drink but upon freezing made an excellent and satisfying vegan ice “cream.”

Here’s what you do:

Gathering the following:

a whole, shell-on coconut.* you’ll use 2/3 of it
1 fresh pineapple
some of your favorite rum (you can sub pineapple or orange juice)
1/2 lime
a little salt
honey, optional

Take your cute little coconut and, with a hammer and nail, pound a couple of holes in its indentations. Drain and reserve the liquid that comes out.
Now smash the heck out the coconut. This is much more fun when done outside in one’s bathing suit with sunglasses as protective eyewear.
Pry the coconut meat out of the shell with a flathead screwdriver or similar. Keep doing this until you’ve hurt yourself and have to stop OR until you’ve gotten 2/3 of the meat out of the shell.
Now for the REALLY tedious part: using a paring knife, remove the last of the brown skin from the outside of the coconut meat. You want your coconut to blend up the color of a white sand Caribbean beach, not look all brown and junky like Rockaway.
Put your coconut meat in a blender and whip it up as much as possible, using the reserved coconut juice as liquid to facilitate the blending.
*you can totally skip this whole step and use a can of coconut cream instead

Now, take your pineapple and whack off the frilly top. Same to the bottom, minus the frilly. Sheering down the sides with your knife, slice off all the skin. Cut the naked pineapple in half lengthwise and then in half again so you have 4 long thin pieces. Core the pineapple by cutting away the “V” portion of each of the 4 pieces. Then dice up the pineapple.

Add the diced pineapple and a good cup of rum or juice to the blender, along with the lime and salt. You can add some honey if your pineapple isn’t particularly ripe or if you like things sweet.
Blend it all up.

Pour into a container and let freeze. It will be easier to scoop out if you stir the slush a few times during the freezing process but just letting it freeze and then unthaw for 10 minutes before you eat it works too.

Serve with blackberries and sunblock.

It was an apartment like many other stately Upper East Side apartments except instead of a parquet floor the floor of this living room looked like it been prepared for surgery with linen, plastic wrap, and silver utensils stretching wall-to-wall. It overflowed with guests focusing with utmost concentration on… dumplings.

You see, the lively Nex0s hosted a dumpling party last Sunday. Guests were invited bring their own fillings to stuff into dumpling skins until they got silly. It reminded me of the nursery rhyme about Old Mother Hubbard except it wasn’t a shoe - it was an apartment. And there weren’t so many children - there were so many dumplings I didn’t know what to do. So many, in fact, that at the end of the evening I became concerned about the “orphan” dumplings - dumplings whose masters had left without giving them a home. Luckily, my sisters were happy to help house a few dumpling-children. For a few minutes, at least, before they gobbled them up.

Here was my contribution:

Peanut Butter and Jelly Dumplings

peanut butter
jelly
dumpling skins
toppings and/or sauces (suggestions below)

The directions are pretty simple if you’ve ever made dumplings before: stuff your dumpling skins with your favorite kinds of peanut butter and jelly. I used the most amazing peanut butter made by my fellow foodblogger Jessica of Su Good Sweets. Buy some. You won’t regret it.

Steam your dumplings. Or, pan fry your dumplings in butter or vegan margarine. If, like me, you’ve never made your own dumplings before, this PDF from Cooks Illustrated does a great job explaining the different methods of stuffing and cooking the dumplings.

If you want to be extra fancy you can make one of the two toppings I made for the dumpling party:

1) Spiced Sugar

In a small sauce pan, lightly brown a few cardamoms and cloves either “dry” or with a little butter.
Mix with some turbinado or demerara sugar (or just plain white sugar if that’s what you got) and add a hardy sprinkle of cinnamon.

2) Salt & Vinegar Crumbs for the Adventurous

Crush up some salt and vinegar chips. Dip away with your Pb&J dumplings.

I’m guessing that these dumplings would be good with pretty much any sweet “dip” too - warm nutella, melted chocolate, lavender honey, cinnamon-butter sauce with lemon zest. So many possibilities you won’t know what to do.

Whoa. Check out these melting popsicle photographs by artist Meredith Allen. I guess my mind needs a defrost because ever since I bought some popsicle molds lasts week I can’t get dreams of ice cream and popsicles outta my head.

Even if you haven’t been having 100 degree weather, and please excuse the pun, how cool are these? Thanks to Slashfoods for the heads up.

^{Images from www.meredithallen.com}

Hey folks… it’s supposed to be nearing 100 degrees in New York City for the next few days so here’s my hat tip to Staying Cool.

Ready for the surprise?

Holy fruit! I just bit into a maraschino cherry!

And regarding the mulitcolorness: I think I’m setting the trend here because when I went to the Bloc Party show at McCarren Pool this Saturday (side note: awesome band, great show), I noticed something familiar about the front man’s shirt…

I think the recipe is pretty self explanatory, but here it is anyway: drop a maraschino cherry into popsicle mold, fill it one third of the way full with cranberry juice, let freeze. Repeat with 1/3 peach nectar, let freeze. Finish off with lemonade and another trip to the freezer. Use whatever colors/flavors you like. Couldn’t be more rainbow-rific.