Rich Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of my favorite treats.  My grandma makes it in a metal coffee can, so her banana bread always has circular ridges all the way around it, and the slices are round.  I don't have any metal coffee cans so I had to make this recipe in a normal bread pan, boring, but probably a prettier picture.

Janet's Rich Banana Bread
Source:  Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 medium bananas, sliced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, stir together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla, mixing well.  Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, then stir it into the butter mixture until smooth.  Fold in the sour cream, walnuts and bananas.  Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Bacon, Egg & Cheese Cups

My mom came down for a long visit this past weekend, she didn't have to work Columbus Day so she was able to make it a three night weekend! We went to the Tulsa State Fair, shopped, relaxed and played with the baby. We had a long list of all kinds of stuff we wanted to do, including cooking a fun breakfast, but the real reason mom came down was so that Caleb could show her his newest discovery:
His feet!

Ever since he discovered them it's been impossible to keep socks on him. And when he does have socks on, they are usually soggy wet. I love watching him playing with his feet, the concentration on his face when he is doing it is priceless.


My mom had this idea for our fun breakfast creation, she said she used to make them all the time, but I have to tell you, I don't remember ever having them. Her and dad had all kinds of fun PK :-)

Bacon, Egg & Cheese Cups
Source: My mom

Ingredients:

Twelve slices of white bread, crusts removed
Melted butter
1/2 package maple bacon, cut into bite sized pieces
6 eggs
A splash of milk
Grated cheddar cheese, for sprinkling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Brush both sides of the bread with a little melted butter. Lightly press into muffin tin cups, forming a little bread bowl. Bake until lightly browned and able to retain their shape. Remove from the oven and the muffin pan and allow to cool slightly on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, fry the bacon pieces until desired doneness. Combine the eggs and milk with a whisk and scramble. Mix together scrambled eggs and bacon, putting mixture into bread cups. Top with the shredded cheese.

Pesto Tuna Salad with Sundried Tomatoes

After making another batch of pesto last Sunday, I needed to find a recipe to use it in that wasn't pasta based. This tuna salad was nice, but if I make it again I will make a few adjustments. I'll note them here, if you want the original recipe click on the referencing link.

Pesto Tuna Salad with Sundried Tomatoes
Source: Allrecipes

1 (12 ounce) can canned tuna
1/2 cup prepared basil pesto sauce
12 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and diced
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Combine ingredients together in a bowl, season to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve. This actually tasted better the next day.

Garlic Herb Bread

To go along with my and Brent's joint-effort modified chicken marsala, we decided to try an Ina Garten recipe that I first saw on a Barefoot Contessa episode from the DVR, garlic herb bread. I mainly wanted to try it because I wanted to use my food processor! I love how that thing is dishwasher safe, I can use it whenever I want without having to stress out about washing all the pieces by hand.

Garlic Herb Bread

Barefoot Contessa

Since I don't want to copy her recipe, above is the direct link to the Food Network site. I will tell you a few adaptations I will make to the recipe the next time I make it, so we can have it how WE like garlic bread the best. Mainly, we both thought it needed more salt. Also, even though this would completely transform the recipe, we will probably mix in some mozzarella cheese with the herbs and garlic to make it garlic herb and cheese bread. In our house, everything is better with cheese.

It was fun cooking with Brent tonight, I even shared my food processor with him since he peeled all the garlic cloves.

Banana Bread, Ebony and Ivory

I have loved banana bread since I was a kid. My Grandma would make it for me...specifically for me. She would save a loaf for me, hiding it from the other banana bread eaters to make sure that her darling Granddaughter would have a slice. OK, I'm waxing poetic here, my Grandma loved me, but she didn't spoil me. If I wanted some banana bread, I better get in there and get it, because she wasn't gonna keep it back special or nothing...she had lots of special people to take care of, I was one of many.

When I saw that a baking group on the chat board I frequent decided to tackle a new type of banana bread I became excited. Banana bread. YUM. I love banana bread. I want to make my own banana bread. And then, the moment of truth came. I knew that you had to let bananas, well, ROT to make banana bread. But I've never touched rotten bananas before, let alone peeled and mashed rotten bananas. Gulp. But never fear. Just as I've conquered my fear of raw chicken, I also conquered my aversion to rotten bananas. Now I didn't bathe in them, or rub them all over my face. But I did handle them without gagging. It's a testiment to my love of the finished product. So I tackled Tuesday's with Dorie's black and white banana bread, and I lived to tell the story.

Black and White Banana Bread

(Source: Dorie Greenspan Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours page 232)
Makes about 8 servings.

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1½ ripe bananas, peeled

Squirt of fresh lemon juice

Grated zest of ½ a lemon

1 tablespoon dark rum

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ cup whole milk

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½ inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Place the pan on an insulated baking sheet or on two regular baking sheets stacked on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. In a small bowl, mash the bananas with the lemon juice and zest, then stir in the rum. Melt the chocolate and 2 tablespoons of the butter together in a microwave oven or in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the remaining stick (8 tablespoons) of butter at medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 to 3 minutes, until light and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. The batter will look curdled, and it will continue to look curdled as you add ingredients. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the flour mixture, mixing only until it is just incorporated. With the mixer running, pour in the milk, and when it is blended, add the remaining dry ingredients. Scrape down the bowl and mix in the mashed bananas. The batter will look even lumpier.

Pour a little less than half the batter into the bowl with the melted chocolate and stir to blend. Drop alternating spoonfuls of both batters into the prepared pan, then, using a table knife, swirl the batters together, taking care not to overdo it.

Bake for 1 hour and 20 to 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. Check after 30 minutes and if the cake starts to brown too much, cover it loosely with a foil tent. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest for about 15 minutes before unmolding, then cool the cake to room temperature right side up on the rack.

Cheeseburger Bierocks with Bacon

Of course, I'm using the term 'bierock' loosely, you will find no cabbage in this recipe. It is simply just a wonderful bread-y pocket of goodness, containing items with which I would normally like to top a hamburger patty. I started with my Aunt Deb's easy bread recipe. I was fearful. I've baked before, and it wasn't pretty. That calamitous experience created a loaf of bread was closer in consistency to chunks of granite than a soft, flavorful transport for butter. After a reassuring telephone call to my aunt, I decided to jump right into my kitchen and attempt to create an idea that had been spinning in my mind for a few days...a cheeseburger style bierock.

For the bread dough:

1 package yeast (fast rising or regular)
1 cup warm water
1 egg
1 T. oil
1 T. sugar
3 cups flour
Salt (as I type this, I realize I forgot this ingredient. Don't be like me. Use salt)

Combine warm water and yeast until dissolved. Add egg, oil, sugar and stir. Start by adding two cups flour. Mix well. Add additional flour until it's a nice dough consistency. (Don't ask me to define 'nice' dough consistency, I have no answer. I guess it just 'looks right') Put in an oiled bowl, cover with a cloth and allow to double in size, about half an hour. (I took my aunt's advice and allowed my oven to heat to about 200 degrees, then shut it off. I placed my dough in there to rise which worked well.)

For the filling:

1 pound hamburger, browned and seasoned, drained
1/2 onion, chopped and sauted
1 8oz. bag cheddar cheese
5 slices bacon, browned and crumbled

Mix all ingredients. Easy, huh?!

Assembly:

When dough has finished rising, lightly flour your workspace and rolling pin. Pull off a little chunk of dough and roll into a nice round shape. Put about a cup of the filling on the dough circle (mine were more of ellipses) and seal the edges to make a little pocket. Tip: don't allow any filling to touch the edges of the dough, it's darn near impossible to seal them shut if you do. Place the pockets sealed side down on a greased cookie sheet. You can brush on an egg wash if you'd like. Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes, until the bread is nice and browned.

This recipe made about seven bierocks. These four were the prettiest. My other three were not so pretty. This is gonna take practice. I served these little jewels with some ketchup and mustard. Next time, I might put a little mayo on there too.

I was really expecting this recipe to take a lot of toil. It didn't, it was really pretty easy. I dirtied lots of dishes in the process, but that's okay. Two dishwasher loads instead of one, no big deal.

Olive-Onion Cheese Bread

I started with a recipe from a magazine, but made a lot of changes to include things my husband and I like best. I served it with a big plate of spaghetti and the cheesy topping was a good accompaniment to the acid in the sauce.

8 oz. shredded mozzarella

1/4 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. mayonnaise

6 green onions, thinly sliced

1 8 oz. can mushrooms, drained and chopped

1 4.25 oz. can chopped black olives

1 1lb loaf unsliced French bread

Preheat oven to 350

Cut bread in half lengthwise and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Combine the other ingredients, spread on bread halves. Bake at 350 for 12-20 until cheese is melted.