101 Things to do with a Frozen Banana – Part II

Did you know that if you put bananas in the freezer they multiply?? It’s true!! I started with 14 bananas and now I have 25. Fortunately I have been finding plenty of ways to use them all (unless I find some more). This week’s banana entry comes from The Red Hat Society Cookbook.

Banana Blueberry Bread

The recipe makes two loaves so I made one with and one without the Blueberries

The only change I made in the recipe was to sub out the White Flour for the WWF again.

The plain bread was really tasty. The Blueberries in the other loaf added a hint of tartness to a sweet bread. Definitely a keeper.

I found 5 more naners in my freezer today. Guess I will have to find more recipes. (See, told you they bred in the Freezer!!!)

 

Party On with Dorie’s Holiday Bundt Cake

I love the Holiday Season. Family! Baking! Turkey with all the trimmings! (Trying NOT to gain pounds!) And we can start the holidays with this FANTASTIC cake from Dorie’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. It is the All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake and it has all the basic holiday flavors. Pumpkin, Apples, Cranberries, Cinnamon, Ginger. PERFECTION!!!

Dense and Delicious! Great Pumpkin flavor with a hint of tartness from the Fresh Cranberries. The only subs I made were to switch out 2/3 cup of the AP flour for Whole Wheat and used Walnuts instead of Pecans. Still good. Dorie suggested a Maple Glaze, but I used just a simple powdered sugar butter glaze. It was just enuff to counter the tartness of the Cranberries without adding to the sweetness of the Cake.

Remember we can post in whatever order we want this month to make it easier on the TWD Bakers so this recipe – Thanks to Britin of The Nitty Britty – won’t be on her site until 11/27. Until then, trust me, it will be worth the wait.

 

101 Things to do with a Frozen Banana

Well — maybe not 101, but there are lots of recipes out there that use bananas. And when I found 21 bananas in my freezer I knew I would need several of them. Expect to see lots of naners here for the next few days (except for Tuesday – that’s TWD Day!)

Alone all day Friday and Saturday there was a flurry of baking. With Bananas. With Blueberries. With Peanut Butter. With Walnuts. But you don’t get it all at once

And in case you didn’t know – November is National Peanut Butter Lover’s Month – so in honor of that…..

I didn’t make many changes to this one. I subbed out 1/2 cup APF for 1/2 cup WWF (Thanks Nancy!)Every little bit helps. I also used some left over Honey Roasted Peanuts from a previous recipe. Three bananas down – 18 to go.

This was REALLY good. Chocolate Chips. Life is Good!!

This recipe is from Pampered Chef’s More Stoneware Sensations.

 

Dorie – Dark and Delicious!

Thanks to Pamela of Cookies with Boys for this pick (It is not this week’s pick, but Lovely Lauri said we could post out of sequence since it is a holiday month.) Thank you, Lauri, that helps a lot.

Anyway. The recipe of the week is Sugar Topped Molasses Spiced Cookies. They reminded me a lot of the gingerbread cookies my Mom used to make. The were crisp on the outside with hot spicy flavor because of the allspice and the pepper. In other words – delicious.

I made a little ginger whipped cream (2 – 3 tsp ginger to one cup cream) to go with the cookies, either to dip or make sandwich cookies. It was just enough to cool down each bite.

These are REALLY good. If you haven’t made them yet, what are you waiting for.

And visit the other TWD Bakers and see which recipe they made this week.

 

Sorry – No Dorie.

I am out of pocket for about a week. Please come back and visit.

Just thought I would leave you with my Son’s Birthday Blondie/Brownie Cake. Layered with Chocolate Ganache and Caramel.

 

Slow & Steady BBA – English Muffins + More

Breakfast has become a popular meal in this house in the last few years. On Weekends we go for the Big Breakfast – eggs/toast/sausage or maybe pancakes/waffles. During the week it is a small meal – eggs or toast or cereal. The Best Thing for Breakfast – however – is English Muffins. I have bought them for years and have always had a soft spot in my heart stomach for them. Making them was not something I considered. But that was then, and this is NOW. NOW I don’t buy bread anymore – I make it. And English Muffins have now become part of that.

This was not my first time to make these. In October 2008 I made English Muffins from a recipe I found at Pete Bakes. At the time I didn’t know about BBA and Peter Reinhart. And when I made them I didn’t know I was using a BBA recipe. I do now. Seems I have made these before. And they were good. I didn’t end up with many nooks and crannies, but still much better than store bought – of course. DUH!!

Please visit the other members — Kayte, Nancy, Cathy, Audrey, Jessica, Melissa, Sarah, Di, Karen, Natalia, Tracey, and Leslie, of the Slow and Steady BBA and see their English Muffins.

I did not join the Slow and Steady Group until August of this year, so I am trying to catch up. The bakers were already on Ciabatta bread – I had 6 breads to make to catch up. I’ve done 3.

Bagels
Brioche


Casatiello

All of these were fun. I had no idea you had to boil and THEN bake the bagels. I made the Middle Class Brioche ( with my new Brioche pan). Psychedelic Pan! The recipe gave me one regular brioche, 10 minis and one loaf. Really good. While I was familiar with Bagels and Brioche, Castiello was a new one. The bread contains cheese and meat. I used shredded cheddar and Summer Sausage chunks. The taste of the cheese was very subtle. Next time I want to use chunks of cheese rather than Shred. Sliced this makes an excellent grilled sandwich. Jut add a little sliced cheese.

All I have left now are Anadama, Greek Celebration Bread (Artos) and Challah. I am looking forward to these.

 

Sweet Potato Dorie Biscuits

Well. I baked. I cooled. I buttered. I photographed. Then the camera decided it didn’t want me to have the pictures. I had only baked four. We ate them after pictures. So had to bake more and rephotgraph. So here is the second batch. (Actually, I made a full batch and just froze the ones I didn’t bake.)

Now, I am a Southern Girl. A good Southern Girl has two things in her kitchen. One is a good biscuit recipe and the ability to actually MAKE a good biscuit. The second thing is at least one good, well-seasoned cast iron skillet. I am a good Southern Girl. And I can make a GOOD biscuit. It’s in our vows – “Love, Honor, Cherish, and Make a good Biscuit!!” But this biscuit just didn’t happen for me.

The texture was right, but it just would not rise much. I ended up with 2 inch discs of Sweet Potato. And a lot of the flavor has to do with the Sweet Potatoes you use. Don’t buy them and use them immediately. They are harvested green and they need to sit about amonth to build the sweetness. Well, mine haven’t sat long enough yet, because they were basically tasteless.

If/When I make them again, and you know I will have to, I will saute or fry/smother the Sweet Potatoes with a little brown sugar to enhance the sweetness.

Thanks, Erin aka Prudence Pennywise, for choosing this recipe. I just didn’t have my biscuit mojo working on this one.

Please go visit the other TWD Bakers and see their biscuits.

 

‘Boo’-T-Full MSC and CupCake Hero

This weeks MSC cupcake was chosen by Kim from What the Whisk: Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes on page 236.

MSC Pumpkin Patch Cuppys

These cup cakes were really good. I made 1/4 recipe but only cut the spices by 1/2. Just right. I used a variety of frostings because I was trying to clear out the fridge. So some have Browned Butter Frosting. some have MS’s Cream Cheese (the best), and some even had Banana’s Foster Frosting. Quite a mix. But they were all good. The recipe is HERE.

You do realize that Halloween IS just around the corner. Honest!!

Additionally by Cup Cake Hero we were challenged to decorate and use Pumpkin in the Cup Cakes.

Spiders and Cobwebs. Scary Things!!!Pumpkins in Patches (It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!!)

For Cupcake Hero I used Martha’s basic Pumpkin Patch Cup Cake and added Chai spice. (Thanks for the idea, Teanna). These. Were. GOOD!!! And you can see the results of the decorating. Fun Times!!

NOW!! Go visit

And if you don’t…..well, I’VE GOT MY EYE ON YOU!!! Bwahhahahah!!!

Chai Spice Mix
2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp black pepper

 

Daring Cooks – Vietnamese Chicken Pho Ga

This is what I am eating right now. It is Pho, Chicken Pho to be exact and it is FANTASTIC!!!

Before I go any further let me say one thing – “THANK YOU, JADEN!!” Oh, and one more thing:

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

I am slowly adding the flavors and foods of Asia to my mental cook book. A few challenges ago I added dumplings or pot stickers. I’ve made egg drop soup (but not posted yet) I’ve learned to make some American Asian dishes like General Tso’s Chicken (yes, I know NOT Asian, but still good.)But this is the Vietnamese dish. Oh, the flavors – star anise, coriander, cloves, fish sauce. The flavors mixed together created the most wonderful aroma. And the taste – the best I have ever had in any type of soup.

Admittedly I did not have any whole coriander, but I did have ground and I did not have the star anise (but I tweeted {new verb} Jaden and she said I could leave it out) but the flavor was still amazing – especially the second day. The broth is supposed to be clear but no matter how much I strained it it was still a little milky. I think it was because I used the ground coriander rather than the whole. Still good.

I did have the rice noodles (sometimes my brain does remember to buy ahead) and they added a different texture than the noodles I am used to.

All in all, this is definitely a keeper. Even if I am the only one who eats it, it is on my repeat list. Thanks again, Jaden. Loved it.

P.S. I didn’t get to the dessert wontons yet, but planning to. Just did not have the time.

Please go visit the other members of The Daring Kitchen and look at their lovely variations. And the recipe is available on Jaden’s site – Steamy Kitchen.

 

Spiced up with Dorie for TWD.

Tuesday!! Tuesday!! Tuesday!! Muffins!! Muffins!! Muffins!!

Allspice Crumb Muffins to be exact.

Simple. Sweet. With Struessel on top. The struessel was good. The muffins, if I make them again I will up the spice in the muffins a smidgen. Maybe a little cinnamon? I ended up with 6 Texas Sized muffins – baked 20 minutes. This weeks TWD was chosen by my friend and Twitter baking buddy – Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table . Go visit the rest of the Bakers and see their muffins.

Now that some have set for a day (which is amazing in my house) they are much fuller in flavor. MUCH better!!! I like these.