As I mentioned before, I was tasked with bringing dessert to my sister’s superbowl party. I brought ice cream and 3 original, Mexican-ish themed sauces.
Sauce 1:
Citrus-mixed berry
24 oz frozen mixed berries – thawed (could have gotten away with way way less, say 12 oz)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 orange, zested, peeled, segmented
in small pan mix sugar, water, orange zest. Bring to rolling boil (does not stop boiling when stirred), boil for 4 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes. Smash orange segments over pan with hands and drop in. Bring to a rolling boil, boil for 2 minutes. Let cool.
Pulse mixed berries in food processor, add orange syrup. pulse some more. enjoy.
Sauce 2:
Spicy Mexican Chocolate
2 disks Ibarra chocolate (abuelita will do, but it is much sweeter), chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp chipotle powder (more or less depending on the strength of what you have and what you prefer)
Mix spices and chopped chocolate together. Set aside.
In small pan over low heat, slowly heat the cream while stirring frequently. Heat cream until small bubbles/foam forms around edge of cream. Pour hot cream over chocolate and whisk briskly (but not messily). EAT.

Sauce 3:
Coffee-banana caramel
2 tbl light corn syrup
1 cup less 2 tbl sugar
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 shots espresso or 1/2 cup very strong coffee
1 ripe banana
Please, PLEASE be careful making this recipe. If you have not made caramel or done any candy making or sugar work, use caution. Sugar boils very hot, it is also very sticky. It’s like lava you can’t get off your skin. I’ve had a number of jam related burns, but nothing compares to a sugar burn.
in a medium sauce pan combine corn syrup, sugar and water, bring to boil stirring frequently. Once sugar is dissolve do not stir anymore. Carefully swirl the pan over the heat as the sugar boils, this will help keep the temp even in the mixture, brush the inside of the pan with water occasionally to wash down the sugar crystals. Do not stick the wet pastry brush in the boiling sugar. Your sugar will start to turn amber at about 8-10 minutes, as you swirl watch carefully. Once it hits a good deep amber (don’t let it burn!) turn off the heat and add the cream. Do this carefully, your sugar is very hot and will bubble furiously at the addition of cream. When the mixture calms add your coffee. Whisk until all caramel bits dissolve (the addition of cooler cream to considerably hotter sugar will cause some of the boiling sugar to immediately freeze up and harden, these bits will dissolve as you whisk).
Once everything is smoother and cooler, say 20 minutes later, pop the banana into the food processor or blender, add caramel and blend until smooth. Do not add the caramel until it is cooled, it is very dangerous to attack hot caramel with angry blender blades!
Pour all of this goodness into a bowl. Sneak out the back door. Eat every bit of it until you pass out.

From the predictable annals of “I’m getting all old and shit” come the regular, super bowl morning after post…
“I ate too much and now I don’t feel good. I used to drink too much and not feel good, but I’m getting all old and shit”.
Super bowl party at April’s means not just munchy snacks but really dense munchy snacks that YOU JUST KEEP EATING!!! There was alcohol, but I’m getting all old and shit and I take the crazy pills and it’s just not conducive to drinking anymore. So I had one weak margarita, a diet orange soda and lots of water. My college-self would not recognize this old lady. Actually, my college-self is probably too damned drunk to focus her eyes at the moment.
I was tasked to bring dessert, something appropriate to the Mexican theme (April….brats with curry ketchup, not so mexican! But delicious and so I say “OLÉ!”). I decided on ice cream sundaes with a trio of homemade sauces. The first was a mixed berry and citrus sauce that was lovely but nothing to write home about. The next a spicy Mexican chocolate sauce with a chipotle afterburn and my masterpiece, a coffee-banana caramel sauce that made me shit twice and die. Seriously, I’m dead right now from that sauce. Hell, I’m just dead thinking about the amount of heavy whipping cream that went into the sauces.
Recipes will be posted later, you will enjoy them.