Banana Bread

Who doesn’t love banana bread?? Well, I guess someone who doesn’t like bananas. That person does not exist in my home. I made this bread and in 24 hours it was gone. This is my all time favorite recipe for banana bread.

Recipe:

1 2/3 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp salt

½ c sugar

½ c brown sugar

2 eggs

½ c butter – soft

2 tbs sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

3 bananas – very ripe and mashed

Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.

Cream the butter with the sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Then add in the eggs, one at a time, sour cream and vanilla. Next, stir in the bananas. Finally, fold in the dry ingredients. Bake at 350° for about an hour or when a knife inserted comes out clean.

This bread is super moist and delicious. I hope you try it.




 

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Potato Salad

My niece’s birthday is today, Happy Birthday Ava!

Over the weekend was her party and my sister asked us all to bring a dish. I made potato salad. I always get great reviews when I bring this to a party or get together.

Recipe:

5 lbs russet potatoes

8 hard boiled eggs

8 stripes of cooked bacon

1 large cucumber pealed

Yellow mustard

2 c mayo

Celery salt

Salt & pepper to taste

I start by baking my potatoes. I think it gives this dish a lot more flavor. Once they are fork tender, allow them to cool and then peal and cut into inch size cubes. Add in diced egg, bacon and cucumber. I drizzle the mustard around the bowl three rounds, maybe 2 tablespoons; I give the celery salt about 6 shakes, about 1 teaspoon. Then mix in the mayo. Start with a cup and add more as needed. You can always add some ingredients, but once they are there it is hard to take them back out.




 

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Spiced Apple Waffles

My children love waffles. I usually buy Eggo’s, but after my 6 year old downs three of them and is still hungry, it really made me think about what is in them. There is not much bulk to get them through the day, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I came up with a spiced apple waffle with some whole wheat flour. They loved them. It is an easy way to sneak fruit into their diet without them even knowing it.

Recipe:

1c all-purpose flour

1c whole wheat flour

4 tsp baking powder

2 tbs brown sugar

3 eggs separated

11/2 milk

3 tbs melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

1tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp allspice

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1 apple grated

Sift flour, baking power and spices and set aside. Whip egg yolks and brown sugar until dissolved. Slowly add in the melted butter, milk and grated apple. Mix the wet and dry ingredients. Whip the egg whites until frothy and a little thick, and then fold into the batter. This recipe makes about 12 4x4 waffles. You can serve with power sugar, maple syrup or sautéed apples on top.



 

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Kid Birthday Cake Ideas!

Over the last couple of years I have tried to create some interesting birthday cakes for my children and family members. I think I have watch too many episodes of Ace of Cakes!

I ask my children, and nieces and nephews, what they want for their cake and go from there. Over the last couple of years I have made some crazy cakes, and with them made myself a little crazy in the process. I tend to be a perfectionist. This is not a good quality to have when you are not a trained baker trying to make a stand out birthday cake! Here are some pics of my creations.

Candy Land Cake

I made this cake for Liam's 4th birthday. I used the Candy Land game board as a guide.

Lego Pirate Ship Cake!

This is by far my favorite cake I have ever made. It was for Liam's 5th birthday and my nephew, Reid's, 7th birthday. The pirate Lego pieces are actually my husband's. He kept a lot of his childhood toys.

To be honest, I can not take full credit for this cake. I baked, molded and frosted the cakes, but Spencer, my husband, did most of the decorating. I must say he did an awesome job.

The plank is a Hersey's candy bar.

The cannon balls are Whoppers attached with a hard wire.

The sand for the island is crushed gram crackers, and the water is butter cream frosting tinted blue.

Castle Cake

This cake was for Shelby's 4th birthday and Ian's 1st birthday. We do a lot of joint parties! Shelby wanted a castle, so I decorated half for a girl and the other half for a boy. Not my best creation. I was running out of time, so I really rushed this one. If you can see in the background, there are pots full of flower candies that I made as favors for this party.

The walls are rice cereal and the tops of the towers are gram crackers dipped in chocolate. I also topped them off with upside down ice cream cones dipped in chocolate,(not shown in the picture.)

These pictures were taken at about 2 am. Clean-up had not taken place yet!!

Double Rainbow

This cake was for my nieces 8th grade graduation. When I asked her what she wanted, she said a double rainbow. There is this song and video on YouTube about a double rainbow. I guess it is really popular with the young folk. The rainbows are Skittles I attached with royal icing. It was a big hit.

Double Lego Tower

My son and nephew (joint B-day party again, always nice to share expenses!) love Lego's and wanted a cake to look like a Lego tower.

 I am not super happy with the outcome, although I am hard on myself. I really wanted it to be a lot cleaner, but no one in my family likes fondant icing, so I used good old butter cream. Around the bottom of the cakes I put Lego candies, I found at a  not-so-local candy store. It was worth the drive, the kids loved them. The boys were very happy with their cakes. They were even happier decorating the cake, I let them put the Lego guys on!

 

Corn Chowder

August 28, 2011:

Hurricane Irene made her way up the coast. It rained at my house for 18 hours strait, if not more. We had about 7 inches of rain fall. We were very fortunate to not have any major damage to our home, except for some flooding in the basement.

For me a rainy day equals one thing: cooking. I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to cook, due to having to shop-vac the basement for a good 6 hours.

I made corn chowder and grilled cheese sandwiches. I got rave reviews from my husband. The leftovers didn’t last long.

Recipe:

2 Tbs butter

1 Tbs olive oil

1 medium yellow onion – small chop

3 cloves of garlic – minced

5 springs of thyme – leaves only

¼ c flour

6 c chicken stock or broth

2 c heavy cream

2 russet potatoes – small cubes, smaller then a dice

8 ears or corn

6 stripes of cooked bacon

pepper to taste, careful of the salt; the stock has a lot

Heat the butter and olive oil in a large soup pan. Add the onion first and let it cook a couple mins, then add the garlic and thyme. Let cook until the onions are transparent. Sprinkle over the flour and let it cook 2 mins while stirring. Next, slowly wisk in the stock a little at a time, allowing the flour and vegetables to mix in without forming clumps. Bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and the heavy cream and let it boil softly for about 10 minutes. Add in the corn and bacon and simmer for about 10 minutes or until all of the vegetables are tender.

Serve with your favorite hot sandwich.

I made a grilled cheese on roasted garlic ciabatta bread. Delicious!!




 



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