Recipe: Banana-Rum Splits

Recipe: Banana-Rum Splits

You’ll Need:

"- ½ Tbsp butter                                       - 2 bananas

- 1 Tbsp brown sugar                              - 2 Tbsp dark rum or bourbon

- 4 large scoops vanilla ice cream           - ¼ cup pecans, toasted and chopped

- 4 Tbsp dark chocolate syrup                 - Light whipped topping” (Goulding)

- Decades 

* * *

Prep: 5 minutes

    Mrs. Brown, my kindergarten teacher, looks sick when a truck that isn’t my mom’s finally comes to pick me up in front of school. Her face twists funny when my mom walks out of this strange car with no hair and a moustache. My dad introduces himself and says sorry for being late. “Family emergency,” he says. I take off my backpack in the truck, stretch my shoulders and ask him what took so long and where Mom was. He apologizes for being late. “Family emergency,” he says.

* * *

Step One: “Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat.”

    My mom comes out from behind the corner of the kitchen before I’m even halfway through the living room. The house feels muggy, like when I accidentally left my space heater on overnight and Mom got mad. I woke up sweaty, looking like Mom’s face does now when she stops me in front of the couch. We don’t sit down.

    “Do you remember your cousin, Chad?” I see her face isn’t sweaty, but that she’s been crying.

    “Yeah.” I don’t though.

    “Chad’s passed away.” I can’t see a face, and I am still unsure exactly what a cousin means. I think we’re related. Mom goes back to the kitchen crying again and I start wondering if I’m going to have to do my homework today or not. My brother comes home ten minutes later with Dad. Why didn’t we get picked up together? I thought.

* * * 

Step Two and Step Three: “Slice the bananas in half crosswise, then lengthwise, place the banana quarters in the hot pan with the brown sugar and cook on one side until deeply caramelized”

    The coastal drive to Santa Barbara is my favorite, even if no one in the car is talking. I prefer sitting in the way back of the van so Jed and my mom and dad can each have their own aisles. 

    I imagine living on the beach. Not in a house by the beach, but in a shack I’ve made for myself out of driftwood, rocks and my furniture would be made out of sand. I’d have to move everyday when the water washes it away, but the ocean would always bring new materials.

    Aunt Nancy’s house is behind a gate that has plants growing all over it. It smells like I think the bottom of the ocean should smell. Before we get to the door, Jed explains that Aunt Nancy’s kids are my cousins. I’m still unsure if that means I’m related. Cody, my “cousin,” is in his room when we’re hugged at the door by Aunt Nancy. She says Uncle Mike has been in the garage all day. There’s other people here, but I don’t know them. Everyone walks into the kitchen with the big window to the backyard, but I don’t follow them. They’re all crying and I’m not, but Jed comes back and gets me anyway.

* * *

Step 4: “Turn the bananas over and cook for another 30 seconds.”

    “Chad was Aunt Nancy’s oldest son.” Jed says to me when we’re in our own room that night. I like Aunt Nancy’s house at night because I can hear the ocean.

    “I know dying means you don’t come back, but doesn’t everyone die when they’re suppose to?” My mom comes in to check on us and leaves. She thinks we’re asleep. I hear people talking in another room.

    “Well, I guess in the way that God has plans for everything, yeah.”

    “If Chad was suppose to die, then why is everyone crying and why won’t Cody leave his room?”

    “Because Chad wasn’t even thirty yet. Everyone is sad that he should have lived longer.”

    “So why didn’t he?” Jed doesn’t answer. I am in a sleeping bag on the floor and Jed is above me in a bed so I can’t see his face. I think he’s sleeping. “Jed?” It’s stupid that Chad’s dead since it just makes everyone cry. 

    “Chad did…bad things. Do they tell you to say no in kindergarten? Probably not. Aunt Nancy told us that Chad went to bed at a friend’s house and never woke up… Chad use to give me haircuts whenever we came down here. He’d take an electric razor and run it right through the middle of my hair giving me a reverse mohawk. You, Chad and Cody would laugh every time.” It sounds like Jed is talking more to himself and I don’t want to be rude and listen. Jed stops talking soon and the ocean makes my eyes sleepy, but I keep them open because I’m afraid I won’t wake up after the bad things I’ve done.

 

* * *

Step 5: “Remove from the heat and add the rum. Be careful––even when the pan is removed from the heat, the alcohol can still ignite.”

    I wake up and Jed’s not in the bed. I go out to the kitchen because I hear sizzling and I see Cody in front of the oven. He reminds me of someone else who was in this kitchen because of how tall he is. I also remember a bald head. I think I’m starting to remember Chad and Cody says, “Morning.”

    “What are you making?” It smells good, like the bottom of the ocean should. Cody picks up a bottle that looks like the ones my mom use to twist her face funny at my dad for drinking.

    “Breakfast.” I see an ice cream container on the counter to the right of him, the one next to the big window out to the backyard where the garage is. I look out but I don’t see anyone.

    “You can’t have ice cream for breakfast.” Cody moves the pan off the stove and over to the counter away from me but tilts it down to show. 

    “Look, there’s bananas, that’s breakfast, right?” He smiles and pours the bottle over the bananas. Now it smells like the ocean really does, not like it should. Cody takes out two bowls with names on them that I can’t read, but quickly puts them back and takes out two more. 

    “Here, we’ll have ice cream for breakfast today and no one will know. Just you and me.” I think about Chad and the “bad things” and how he died in his sleep, but Cody has already made the bowls and I think that he wants me to eat with him. I don’t know where anyone else is, but I imagine Cody and I eating ice cream from bowls with names on them every morning in my shack on the ocean, waiting to see what the waves would bring in.

* * *

Step 6: “Place 2 banana quarters and any accumulated liquid in bowls.” Let it cool. Wait for it to settle in. Serves three. Look at the bowls that are full, not empty. “Top with ice cream, nuts, chocolate, and whipped topping.” Enjoy.

Works Cited

Goulding, Matt and David Zinczenko. "Banana-Rum Splits." Cook This, Not That. New York: Rodale Inc., 2010. 324. Print.