BANANA BREAD

Perhaps you tried my mother's recipe for bread pudding that I posted a few days ago.  Today I'm posting my mother's recipe for banana bread.  I know, there are a gazillion recipes for banana bread.  I expect that my mother had many other recipes as well since she shared this recipe as her "favorite."  I also have many recipes for banana bread with notes such as "greasy" or "dry" or "bland".  These are all reasons why you should try this particular recipe.  Not only does the recipe result in banana bread that is moist and flavorful, it is flexible, as noted in the recipe.

As I emptied this bag of flour I noticed that a recipe for banana bread was printed on the package.  Even though I think my mother's recipe may be better, I'll probably go ahead and make this one, just out of curiosity.  If I do, I'll try to remember to blog here about it.  

The question is:  Why do I keep trying so many different recipes for the same thing, when I already have the perfect recipe?!?  

As an aside, Gold Medal flour is America's #1 selling flour brand - originating over 135 years ago... in Minneapolis, Minnesota!  



MOM'S BANANA BREAD
*  1/2 cup soft butter
*  1 cup sugar
*  2 eggs, large
*  1-1/3 cups mashed bananas (about 4 bananas)
*  1 tablespoon milk
*  1 teaspoon vanilla
*  2 cups flour, all purpose
*  1 teaspoon baking soda
*  1/4 teaspoon salt
*  1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional:  chocolate chips)
*  1/2 cup quartered maraschino cherries (optional:  chocolate chips)
Preheat oven to 350º.  Grease a 9"x 5" loaf pan.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar;  beat in eggs.  
Combine mashed bananas with milk and vanilla.
In a small bowl, mix flour, soda and salt together; blend it into the banana mixture.
Stir in nuts/cherries/chocolate chips.  Pour into loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

 

Notice the very, very ripe bananas.  The two in the bag came out of the freezer.  They look awful, but they are perfect for a flavorful bread.   Tip:  When you have overripe bananas, instead of tossing them, peel them, put them in a baggie, and store them in the freezer for making banana bread.

Here are the three mixtures: 1) dry ingredients in the small bowl, 2) creamed sugar and butter, with eggs ready to be beaten in, and 3) wet ingredients - bananas, milk and vanilla.


Tip:  As you can see in the photo below, I should have put on gloves before cutting the maraschino cherries.  Oh well...

TA DA...  Ready to eat!  Actually, this was cut when the bread was hot out of the oven.  Tip:  Once the bread cools, it sets up and will cut perfectly.  

Of course, you probably don't need suggestions for eating banana bread BUT consider this:  Toast a slice of banana bread, top with a scoop of ice cream of your choice, and top with hot fudge sauce.   Really, really good!

BREAD PUDDING - MY FAVORITE RECIPE

It is understandable that the foods we were raised on remain our comfort foods, our all time favorites.  Bread pudding is that for me.  Although I frequently order it for dessert in restaurants, I am also routinely disappointed.  Typically the pudding is too bready or too sweet.  My mother's recipe for bread pudding results in a creamy, smooth custard, and just the perfect amount of sweet.  It is wonderful!  Today I share this recipe with you, and I hope that somewhere along the line a chef picks up the recipe and gives it a try.  It is quite a contrast to restaurant "bread pudding."

MOM'S BREAD PUDDING.
Butter a casserole/souffle dish.  Preheat oven to 350º.  In a large bowl whisk together:
*  6 eggs, large
*  ½  cup sugar
* ¼ teaspoon salt
Scald: 4 cups whole milk (or a mix including ½&½); 
Add:  1½ teaspoons vanilla (plus optional:  ½ teaspoon cardamom)
Then whisk it into the egg mixture.  
Add:  
*  4 cups of cubed bread*
*  ½ cup raisins/currents (optional)
Let rest a few minutes in order for the bread to soak up the egg mixture.  Pour all into the prepared casserole dish.  Sprinkle top with cinnamon.

Set casserole dish in a bain marie** and bake at 350º for about an hour, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Refrigerate as soon as possible to avoid separation of the custard.

 NOTES:____________
*  Throughout the year I dry out left over bread and save it in a metal tin.  That way, I always have what I need to make croutons, dressing/stuffing, bread crumbs for coating fish, and for bread pudding.  Of course, having fresh left over bread is a good excuse to make bread pudding!

**  bain-ma·rie

ˌbanməˈrē/

noun

1. a container holding hot water into which a pan is placed for slow cooking

TINY KITCHEN - Macaroni and Cheese

We are just back from a delightful Christmas - New Years trip to England. Now to make up for eating all of those "chips" by going on a diet! Perhaps if I can limit my food intake to this recipe I will be successful. Check it out!

COLD BREWED COFFEE...SO SMOOTH AND RICH!

A good friend of mine has been making cold brewed coffee for years and I have always enjoyed having coffee at her home.  For ages I've been saying that I'm going to start making coffee her way and I finally did! Now I will never go back to hot drip coffee; cold brewed is significantly more smooth (non-acidic), and has a deep coffee flavor.

To begin, I went to Amazon.com and bought the "Toddy Cold Brew System" which cost about $35 with extra filters.

The Toddy System comes with the white brew container, 2 rubber plugs for the bottom of the brew container, the carafe and its lid.

 The System that I purchased also came with extra filters.

Of course, coffee should be made to taste and if you try out this system (which I hope you will!), you will want to adjust the amounts of coffee and water to suit your own taste.  Here is my "recipe."

1.  Place the plug in the bottom outside of the Toddy brewing container.
2.  Place the filter in the bottom inside of the container.
3.  Into the container pour one cup of fresh cold water.
4.  Coarsely grind just under 3 cups of coffee.  We use Kirkland/Costco brand coffee.  Pour the coffee into the container, gently leveling out the top.
5.  Gently and slowly drizzle 3 cups of fresh cold water over the coffee grounds in a circular manner, wetting the entire surface.
6.  Coarsely grind another slight 3 cups of coffee and pour it into the container, gently leveling out the top.
7.  Wait 5 minutes, then gently and slowly drizzle 4 cups of fresh cold water over the coffee grounds.

Here is what it will look like:

8.  Leave this on your countertop and wait 24 hours for the coffee to steep.
9.  Remove the lid from the carafe and place the brew container just above the carafe, pull the plug from the bottom of the brew container in order for the coffee to drip into the carafe.   It will take about an hour for all of the coffee to drip into the carafe.

Here the water has run out of the brew container, leaving only the grounds.  These go into my garden beds!











The coffee now in the carafe is actually a coffee CONCENTRATE.  To make coffee from the concentrate pour about 1/4 cup of the concentrate into your coffee cup, then add boiling water to the concentrate for a rich, flavorful cup of coffee.  I have found that one carafe of the concentrate makes about 32 cups of coffee.
Here are some of the benefits of cold brewed coffee:
1.  It's about 67% less acidic than hot brewed coffee, and you can distinctly notice the difference.
2.  The coffee has a deep, rich flavor.
3.  Making coffee for me is a once-a-week endeavor rather than a daily production.
4.  My husband drinks fully caffeinated coffee and I drink decaf.  Making a carafe of decaf for me and a carafe of caffeinated for him means we are both drinking the coffee we prefer, no compromises.
Thus, the Toddy cold brew system gets four thumbs up in this family!

"ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE" a Book Review

There is so much information available today on food production and my decision to read about it in book form wasn't easy.  One can become depressed, angered, feel powerless, and all sorts of other emotions that are unpleasant when reading about what has been happening in the food sector.  In deciding to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver I was influenced by the fact that the technical information would be couched in a casual narrative of this family's year of eating "local" and growing their own food.

Kingsolver presents a plethora of information on all aspects of the food industry.  Here are a few passages from the book:
*  Modern U.S. consumers now get to taste less than 1 percent of the vegetable varieties that were grown here a century ago.
*  Six companies - Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Mitsui, Aventis, and Dow - now control 98 percent of the world's seed sales.
*  An estimated 67 million birds die each year from pesticide exposure on U.S. farms.

Kingsolver's family took a vow to eat only foods grown and produced locally which meant that they needed to radically change their diets. No more bananas, salmon and many other foods that they were used to.  In addition to their other life tasks (work, school, etc.) they now also needed to plant, tend and harvest their food.   They needed to cook their meals rather than to eat at restaurants.  They needed to prepare their produce for long-term storage.  Their trials and rewards are all recorded.

Daughter, Camille, assumes a key role in the book, adding sidebars of her own, and tackling such topics as whether potatoes are good for us (due to high nutritional value) or bad for us (due to their high glycemic index, their ability to make us gain weight, and their contribution to type II diabetes).  She points out that eating potato skins isn't always safe since conventional potatoes are among the most pesticide-contaminated vegetables.  Since this family grows their own, their potatoes are safe.  Camille includes seasonal recipes for potato salad.  Recipes from the book can also be found at www.animalvegetablemiracle.com.

Camille, a vegetarian, experienced difficulties with her friends over her food preferences.  Apparently, they felt that she was becoming too vociferous in her views.  After careful consideration, Camille decides that it is best to be less judgmental of others, to present her views as less of a mandate and more of a "choice" based on full knowledge.

Despite the heaviness of the topic, Kingsolver manages to present the material in a charming, readable manner, occasionally incorporating wit.  One small example - she includes a New York saying:  "A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat."

Two thumbs up for this book.

By the way, you may already be familiar with Barbara Kingsolver.  She has written twelve books of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction including the novels "The Poisonwood Bible" and "The Bean Trees."

EASIEST WAY TO PEEL GARLIC

Over the years I've tried so many ways to peel garlic.  My usual method is to simply take a clove and wack it with my hand.  That loosens the skin enough for me to peel it off.  Well, I now have another way to peel garlic!  Watch this: