Even those with allergies can enjoy this pudding

If you have any friends or family who have food allergies, chances are they are allergic to one of the "big eight" foods. While allergies can be caused by any food, it's likely that one of these eight will be the cause. Cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat cause 90 percent of reported food allergies.
Today's recipe is free of any of these foods, plus it includes no animal foods. That means no cholesterol, since cholesterol is only found in foods derived from animals. But it also means if you are having a vegan over for dinner, this is a good dessert to serve. About 1 in every 72 people in the United States follows a vegan regimen. Everything in their diet is plant based, which means lots of grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes. By the way, this recipe is also delicious, so you can feel confident serving it to everyone you know, whether they follow a special or non-mainstream diet.
As for food allergies, they seem to be on the rise. About 12 million Americans, or one of every 25 people have some type of food allergy. In children under 3 , it's one of every 17. Allergists say this is double the rate of 10 years ago.
Why more food allergies? That's a good question, and the answer is debatable.
Some physicians and specialists say that it's because we are exposed to more of these potentially allergenic foods too early, with some of the exposure coming from processed foods. Some say we are exposed too late and our bodies haven't learned that these compounds aren't invaders that need to be responded to. Other experts point to what some call the "hygiene hypothesis," which speculates that we have eradicated so many diseases and we have sanitized our environment so much that our immune systems aren't tested enough. Thus, we end up with an immune system that goes a little haywire when exposed to some of these food substances. Or the answer could be something else entirely.
A true food allergy has an immune response, which often shows up as a skin rash or respiratory problem. In severe cases, food allergies can lead to anaphylactic shock, which is fatal if not quickly treated.
Other symptoms like cramping or stomach rumblings may indicate an intolerance and not a true food allergy. While an intolerance is not as serious, it's still uncomfortable, and you will feel better avoiding the offending food.
In today's recipe, rice milk makes a good substitute for cow's milk in cooking or on cereal, but it isn't quite as nutritious. Cup for cup, the protein in rice milk is substantially less. And even rice milk fortified with calcium will have only about 60 percent or so of the calcium found in cow's milk.
Still, if you have a milk allergy, or if you are lactose intolerant, making for some uncomfortable side-effects after consuming milk, rice milk can be a reasonable alternative. In a dessert recipe like the one included today, you won't miss the cow's milk at all. Rice milk stands in just fine in this pudding, and blends well with the nutty brown rice taste and the smooth and creamy bananas.
If you don't have or can't find brown basmati rice, you can substitute regular brown rice or a long grain white rice. Of course, the brown rice will have more fiber and B vitamins, but white rice will work well in this recipe too.

Recipe:
Dairy-Free Banana Rice Pudding
1 cup brown basmati rice
2 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups plus 1 tbsp. gluten-free vanilla rice milk, divided
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon, plus more for garnish
1 tbsp. cornstarch
4 ripe bananas, divided
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine rice, water and salt in a large saucepan or Dutch oven and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until the liquid is fully absorbed, 45-50 minutes.
Stir in 3 cups rice milk, brown sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and bring to a lively simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Stir cornstarch and the remaining 1 tbsp. rice milk in a small bowl until smooth; add to the pudding. Continue cooking, stirring often, until the mixture is the consistency of porridge, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.
Mash 2 bananas in a small bowl. Stir the mashed bananas and vanilla into the pudding. Transfer to a large bowl, press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pudding and refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours.
Just before serving, slice the remaining 2 bananas. Top each serving with a few slices of banana and sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired.
Makes 8 servings.
Per serving: 208 calories, 2 gm fat, 0 gm saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 49 gm carbohydrates, 3 gm fiber, 3 gm protein, 182 mg sodium.

Dirt Cake: How Could Something With A Name Like That Taste So Good?

The Dirt Cake is one of the most fun desserts to unveil at a dinner party. Imagine that your guests are all seated around the table, the meal has been enjoyed, and everyone is waiting for their after-dinner sweet. The host walks up to the table and the guests all look up hopefully, but the host is empty-handed. To their amazement, the host pulls the flowers out of the pot that was sitting on the table and starts dishing up the dirt from the pot into beautiful dessert dishes! Before anyone can complain, the clever host scoops a worm from the dirt and eats it right in front of everyone!
The "dirt," of course, is dirt cake, and the worm is a gummy worm. The guests marvel at the presentation and the dirt cake becomes the topic of conversation for the rest of the pleasant evening.
The origins of the dirt cake are unclear, but it is an American creation which probably became popular in the 1970s. It is usually served in a flower-pot to emphasize the "dirt" effect, and many people like to use candy rocks, gummy worms, or other novelty sweets to play on the garden theme. Artificial flowers can be stuck into the dirt, but be sure to wash them very well or wrap them in plastic wrap or aluminum foil prior to putting them in contact with food.
Serving the cake with a new, clean garden trowel completes the effect. However, dirt cake is just as tasty and interesting in any kind of bowl.
Dirt cakes make a wonderful surprise for your favorite gardening enthusiast, any young boy, or just about anyone who loves chocolate!
Ready to try it yourself? Dirt cakes are most often made with crushed chocolate sandwich cookies, instant pudding, and whipped topping. One variation of the recipe adds cream cheese for a richer consistency and flavor.

INGREDIENTS

1 new 8" flower pot or kids sand & shovel set1 1/2-2 lb. Oreo cookies1 (8 oz.) cream cheese1 c. powdered sugar1/2 stick softened butter3 1/2 c. milk2 sm. pkg. instant vanilla pudding12 oz. Cool Whip

DIRECTIONS
Cream together cream cheese, powdered sugar and soften butter. Mix 3 1/2 cups milk and instant pudding for 2 minutes and add 12 ounce Cool Whip. Add liquid mixture to creamed mixture. Put 1 1/2 inch cookie crumbs on bottom of pot or sand pail (can line it with aluminum foil) layer mixture and crumbs. End with 1 inch crumbs (and put top crumbs on just before serving). Refrigerate 2 hours. Decorate with gummi worms and fake flowers. Scoop out with plastic shovel.

The Homemade Ice Cream

"Are you sure you don't want me to pick up a cake at the ice cream store?" I ask my twenty-five-year-old son on the phone. He whines like a three year old. "You try to talk me out of it every year, Mom. I want you to make me an ice cream cake for my birthday. I want a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. I've told all the guys in the band how great it is. C'mon Mom!"
He's told all his friends. I thought he was over having birthday parties with his friends when he was ten, but apparently not.

In this day and age, it just seems wrong to make a homemade ice cream cake. There are beautifully decorated cakes in the freezer section of the grocery store, not to mention in the local ice cream parlor. I realize that making his ice cream birthday cake is more about reliving his childhood (I've made him ice cream cakes since he was two years old), and I recall baking and freezing a volcano ice cream cake that his friends talked about for years. He was so proud of that cake. (Not of his mom; of the cake.)
"How many friends are coming, Jake?" I ask him, knowing full well that he is going to tell me something like I don't know, Mom. Can you make enough for twenty?
It was easy to make a cake for twenty little freckled faced boys with twenty pairs of dirt-riddled sneakers in the house when he was a kid. It was no problem dealing with the twenty little hands that hide twenty little boogers under the coffee table top instead of using a Kleenex. Twenty little gift bags full of plastic spiders and Jolly Ranchers. And twenty gifts that made Jake so excited that he had to run to the bathroom every fifteen minutes. Ahhh, those were the days.
A cake for twenty nowadays means two cakes in the freezer. This entails my husband taking out all the Lean Cuisines, frozen oat bread, pork chops, and something grey and hairy, and trying to stuff them into the extra fridge in the out building. (You know the extra fridge... It's called the Extra Fridge because it costs an extra thirty bucks a month on the electric bill so he can store two six-packs of grocery store brand diet soda, an empty bottle of mustard, and two half-bottles of ketchup).
We take everything out of the freezer to fit the humungous birthday cakes for Jake. His birthday party is in the evening, so this requires appetizers as well. I pick up ten pounds of Buffalo wings for the band, and another five for the regular folk. My husband goes to Costco and purveys massive amounts of chips and soda. He also comes home with a five CD audio set of John Denver. "It's for Jake." I see through his bald faced lie. "Jake doesn't like John Denver." He smiles and takes the shrink wrap off the CD's. "He doesn't? Well I guess I'll have to listen to them, then. I just hate waste." (Guess he forgot about the Extra Fridge.)
So the cake is ready, the appetizers are in place, the soda is chilling, and there are piles and piles of chips and salsa on the table. The family begins to arrive and mill around while John Denver plays in the background.
Then we hear the tell-tale backfire. We look out the window and watch as the primer-gray serial killer van pulls up. With a little banging and coaxing, the van's side door opens and out tumbles Jake. (The driver door hasn't worked since the Great Wal*Mart Parking Lot Incident of '06.) Then the real show as the van begins to mime the capacity of a clown car; band member after band member emerges with some kind of instrument in hand. The van just doesn't look big enough to hold them all. Yes, Jake is right. There are twenty of them, and they are all heading toward the door. (Except the one who stops by my maple tree and begins to "water" it. He must be the drummer.)
Twenty pairs of dirty Converse sneakers, twenty spiked up, multi-colored hair-dos (or hair-don'ts... depending on how you look at it, I guess...), and twenty outlandish outfits that I think their sisters should be wearing. I have to blink because at that moment I see Jake and his friends as ten-year-olds again. It just happens that these ten year olds eat gobs more and are a lot louder.
"Hey Mrs. M," shouts Jake's lifelong friend, Sam. "Did you make one of your awesome ice cream cakes?" "No, Sam, I made two." "Right on," he casually replies as he beelines past me for the ranch dip and the Fritos.
By night's end, the house has transformed into a waste site filled with dip-smeared paper plates, empty chip bags, and enough aluminum soda cans to build a Toyota. There are also smashed chips in the carpet, and droopy Mohawks on these future captains of industry. I also find it amusing to see the boys listening to John Denver with Jake's Dad. Jake actually looks interested in what my husband is saying. I think they actually like John Denver.
The band isn't so bad; they sing and play a punk-reggae-fusion version of Happy Birthday for Jake. And as the party wound down, Jake came over to me and gave me a big hug. "Thanks Mom for making my cake. And thanks for letting the band come, too. You're a great Mom."
It was all worth it until next year.

Ice Cream Cake Recipe
2 boxes of cake mix (any flavor)
2 to 3 containers of Cool Whip
1 gallon of ice cream in a rectangle box (any flavor)
2 to 3 cans of frosting (any flavor)

Make the cakes as directed on the box, use two 9 x 12 pans to bake the cakes. Let the cakes cool. Put one of the cakes on a covered with foil cookie sheet. Open up the ice cream box completely so that you have a brick of ice cream and slice the brick into 6 even slices. On the top of the first cake, lay each ice cream slice on top of the cake, side by side so that it covers the whole top of the cake and pinch each slice into the next so you have a solid layer of ice cream. Next, take a half of a can of frosting and spread it over the ice cream evenly. Try to do the frosting quickly because the ice cream will begin to melt. Next, use one of your Cool Whips and spread half the container on top of the frosting and spread evenly. Now take your second cake, and lay it over the top of the ice cream/frosting/Cool Whip layer. Cover in saran wrap and stick it in the freezer for an hour. After freezing for an hour take the cake out and completely frost the whole cake. After frosting the cake, put a whole nice thick layer of Cool Whip over the frosting as if the Cool Whip is the frosting. Then put back in the freezer for eight hours. When you serve, pull cake out of freezer about 15 minutes before slicing.
This cake will serve 12-24 people depending on how you slice the pieces, or how big the band is!