January 22, 2012

Banana bread!

Zach brought home a bunch of bananas his work had procured for feeding some folks at a workshop. This particular bunch had not been munched, so home they came. They are completely outside of the acceptable softness for Zach, and I detest eating a banana. However, I could not stand by and let them rot (I cleaned the fridge out Wednesday and felt badly about how much got thrown out- we're talking green and blue fluffy mold on some things!). So, I went to the standby of banana bread. PW is a big source of inspiration around here. She posted an easy banana bread recipe a while ago, and I jazzed it up some... Here's the recipe, with my additions:

Banana Bread

Ingredients:
2 sticks room temperature butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 mushy ol' bananas, mashed/pureed
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon cinnamon


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350, grease and flour pan of choice (I used a cute bundt and a little corningware dish for the overflow). Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time, combining thoroughly after each one. Add banana mush and vanilla, mix thoroughly. It'll be a little weird looking, but don't sweat it. In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients. Alternate adding sour cream and dry ingredients mixture to sugar/eggs mixture, mixing thoroughly in between additions. Pour into greased pan(s), bake for 70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. O em gee, yum. Eat this with gusto. And butter. :D

January 18, 2012

Black bean soup for a blustery day.

It got very cold yesterday, and warmed up a smidge today. Still good weather for soup! My crock pot is wunderbar. It makes me so happeh! So, on to the recipe:

Black bean soup

Ingredients:
2 cups dry black beans
1 large onion, diced
5 or more cloves of garlic, minced/pressed
1 diced green bell pepper
1 tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups orange juice (I know, I know... trust me)
black pepper and cayenne to taste


Soak your black beans overnight. Rinse and put in crock pot with 4 cups of water.
Add all other ingredients and simmer on high for 6+ hours. Adjust flavors as you see fit. :)

January 10, 2012

Sweet thing... for two

Hi hi! I am already starting to think of Valentine's Day. (commence eye rolling) There are just 2 of us at my house, so full-sized desserts often go to waste. I have a recipe for flourless chocolate cake that I love, and tried to scale it down for 2 people. It turned out great, here's the recipe!

Flourless Chocolate Cake for Two

3 1/3 ounces semisweet chocolate
7 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar, divided use
2 eggs, seperated

Preheat oven to 350, grease and paper a 6 inch cake pan. Melt your chocolate and butter together in a microwave safe bowl. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and 1/4 cup of sugar together. Slowly add your melted chocolate mixture, taking care to temper the eggs-who wants scrambled egg bits? lol :) Rinse out the chocolate bowl, dry it off, and use it to beat your egg whites and the rest of the sugar. Beat using a hand mixer on medium speed until glossy firm peaks form. Fold egg white mixture into chocolate mixture. Scrape into prepared pan, bake 35-40 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Top with whatever makes you happy- cool whip would be a nice choice. :)

Pretty certain this cake is gluten free, if your chocolate and butter are. Also, it is a rich enough dessert that a little bit will do ya.

Enjoy!

<3Jen

January 3, 2012

Happy Mew Year!

Happy mew year! (I want a cat, can you tell? lol)

Here's what I made for dinner tonight:

Mushroom and Zucchini pasta

1 zucchini, cut into thin slices
8 mushrooms, cut into thin slices
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon of butter
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup dry white wine (or chicken stock if you're opposed to wine)
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
salt & pepper
2 servings of your favorite pasta
grated parmesan cheese

Melt butter in a skillet. Add mushrooms, zucchini slices and garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Let saute until veggies start to brown a bit, then add lemon juice. Add wine/stock and italian seasoning, let it bubble and get happy for a few minutes, add to your favorite cooked pasta, top with grated parmesan and chow down! :)