More banana recipes???!!!

Yummy, hot from the oven banana bread!

I seem to have an absolute plethora of rotting bananas in my house. I am really hoping for apples but the kids keep eating all of those and leaving me with bananas! So I made banana bread. Really good and fast banana bread.

I had my youngest home with me yesterday so it needed to be fast. In between the coloring and the constant questions and making me watch her every move I needed to be quick with anything that I had going on. I knew this one would be fast and just what I needed.

Moist and nutty banana bread!

Banana Bread (all recipes.com)

Preheat oven to 350

Ingredients:

2 cups AP Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2-1/3 cup bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 pecans, chopped

Directions:

1. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs, mashed bananas vanilla, and pecans until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

This was a super fast and easy recipe. Be sure not to over mix the batter. Over mixing will make for a drier bread. This is a very bananay bread with a ton of moisture! Loved it!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Quiche my way...

Quiche with sausage, mushrooms, onion, zucchini, and green peppers! Yummmmmm!

Okay so I haven't really been posting much in the food way but I have been cooking. It's just that T. has been out of town and it really makes my life all the more hectic. Yes, I am one of the lucky ones who's husband helps out, a lot!!!

Anyway the other night I couldn't figure out what to make so I hunted through the freezer and found a couple of Italian sausage links (leftover from another recipe), some zucchini, and some green peppers. I thought quiche and good thing I did. This turned out so good. For some reason the cheese escaped to the top and made it look more like a cheese pie and I would have spiced it up a bit but this was dinner for the girls and I.

Yes, I confess to using store bought pastry but I was all alone with the girls and this was still better than going out!!!

My Quiche

Ingredient:

! ready made pie dough (I know, I was just really lazy that day!!!)
2 sausage link, sausage squeezed out of casing
1/2 cup baby bella mushrooms, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup milk
pinch nutmeg
fresh ground pepper

Directions:

• Place pie dough in a tart pan and press in. Cook at 450 for about 15 minutes or until almost cooked. Remove from oven and rest.
  
• Meanwhile cook sausage over med. heat until cooked through. Remove and store in a separate bowl.
• Cook onions and mushrooms until cooked through. Add zucchini and green peppers, garlic powder, onion powder and salt.
• In a seperate bowl beat 4 eggs with milk, nutmeg and pepper.
• Place sausage in the bottom of the pie shell top with the cooked veggies, then cheese. Top this the egg mixture.
• Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes or until the center is set and a knife comes out clean.
• Allow to rest for about 10 minutes. Slice and serve.

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

October 17, 2008 - Finest Foodies Friday

Jenn - The Leftover Queen is out of town and she has decided (after I begged and begged and told her how worthy I was!) to allow me to take over her Finest Foodie Friday post while she was away. Just to let you all know this is harder than it looks! I had to choose 5 blogs (only 5 blogs???) out of 2416!!!

As always here is what the FFF is all about. Finest Foodies Friday! FFF is a weekly Friday post featuring favorites from The Foodie Blogroll! We do this so we can share in the rich diversity of what The Foodie Blogroll has to offer by featuring some of our favorites yours! What is the Foodie Blogroll? It is the first and fastest growing free membership blogroll for food bloggers and has become a wonderful community (just under 2000 strong) to share ideas about all things food related.

The only requirement to be featured here on FFF is to be a member of The Foodie Blogroll and be displaying The Foodie Blogroll widget on your blog. If you are not yet a member, but you have a food blog and would like to join us, please click here!

If you have a favorite foodblog on The Foodie Blogroll, that you would like to be featured here on FFF, please join us over on The Leftover Queen/Foodie Blogroll Forum, and post your favorite Foodie Blogroll foodblogs here.

My method of choice here was purely selfish. I wanted to find 5 food blogs that shared the same ideas and philosophy that I have about food (local or organic, minimal meat) but, have never been to their blogs before! How fun for me. These are the 5 that I choose in no particular order at all:

Alexandra of Alexandra Cooks- This is a beautiful blog with wonderful photos. Alexandra describes herself as an avid supporter of the local food movement. Go look at her pics!

VB of Feed Yourself-Another blog with beautiful pictures and with a focus on real food recipes. This is their blog description: Forget food from a box or plastic package. There is plenty of real, whole food out there. Go get it and feed yourself! Couldn't have said it better myself!

Amy of Super Healthy Kids - This is a mother of three kids, a graduate of Health Education, and who loves food. She says that this blog is the journey of trying to practice what she preaches, and how difficult, yet rewarding it can be. I am on a similar journey so this blog was very attractive to me. Love her position on HFCS!

Dog Hill Kitchen- This blogger loves cooking from scratch and trying new things. She tries to buy locally as much as possible and to keep most processed foods out of her families diet. She is an omnivore but eats vegan/vegetarian meals several times a week. I love this blog because the philosophy is very similar to what our family has!

Feeding Maybelle- This family started this blog when they thought Belle (the baby) was allergic to dairy. They kept going because they realized that they loved the vegan foods were making. But, as they say, they are omnivores; and they eat a great deal of local, vegetarian, vegan…they eat a lot. Once again the philosophy is similar to mine and I couldn't resist!

Well that the list for this week. I have tried to choose blogs that have not been featured but I may or may not have succeeded but regardless I now have 5 more blogs to follow myself!!! Come back next week for another installment of my FFF!!!

Remember, if you would like to see a blog featured here, who is part of the FBR please visit the forum and nominate them. I NEED NOMINATIONS!!!!!!

Also we all love to know how people came to find our blogs, so please visit all of our featured bloggers today and don’t forget to tell them that you found them via Finest Foodies Friday!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy

A Cookbook Review...

I hate doing product reviews. Generally all of the stuff that I receive to do a review on is some sort of processed food and I usually have a hard time finding something nice to say about it. I did like this stuff though and was pleasantly surprised! So when I was contacted a while ago by the girls (Michelle Huxtable and Alyse Christensen) at The Gathering of Friends, to review their new cookbook I was pretty excited. How bad could it be. I like new recipes and love cookbooks.

Well let me tell you...I LOVE this book. It has a unique set up and one that I was using when I first started this blog. A recipe and at the end a shopping list of everything you will need. They take it a step further and do it by menu. You have the whole theme laid out in front of you, menu and all and then the recipes (each with a beautiful photograph) and at the end of that theme you have the shopping list and they have left room for comment and a spot to help you organize yourself! These girls have thought of everything.

Did I mention how beautiful it is? Go to their site and check it out for yourself. The Gathering of Friends. My only wish is that they had of sent me an extra copy to give away...hint, hint!

Thanks for the book ladies it will be well used!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

My sister will delete this post from her reader...

The Best Ever Banana Muffins...I will never use another recipe!

She thinks I have gone mad with all of the muffins and cupcakes that I have been posting lately. I think she is about to plan an intervention (anyone watch "How I Met Your Mother" last night?) between me and my muffin pan. Truth be told I don't really even like my muffin pan and badly need a new one. But I am really liking muffins and cupcakes right now. Too bad Sis this one still goes in!!!

These were the absolute best banana muffins I have ever had or made. They were rich, nutty, full of chocolate and bananas. Everything a banana muffin should be. Can I duplicate the recipe? Not too sure. I had one of those bags of ingredients that you buy in bulk and always forget to label or just figure you will remember what it was. I think this bag was almond meal. Maybe from a Daring Baker challenge months ago? I guess I need more almond meal!!! My quest is over. I now have the perfect banana muffin recipe!

Banana Nut Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups AP Flour
1 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3 ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup milk
5 Tbs butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven 400 degrees. Place liners in your muffin pan.
• Mix flour, pecans, almond meal, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg.
  
• In a separate bowl mix together the bananas, milk, butter and egg.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just moist (do not over mix). Stir in the chocolate chips.
  
• Fill the muffin cups to almost over full with the batter.
• Bake until tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
• Cool for 1 minute then remove and allow to cool on wire rack.

I will never make another banana muffin using any other recipe! This makes me soooo happy. Probably my sister too who will never have to read another post on banana muffins!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

So what did I do with the leftover cream cheese mixture?

Cream Cheese and Bittersweet Chocolate Chip Turnovers!

Sunday afternoon was pretty lazy around here. We put in the garden and then I sat outside and read while the girls and the dogs swam. One of those really nice days where all seems right in the world.

But then I got hungry, and I remembered the leftover cream cheese and chocolate chip mixture from the cupcakes that I made for the Baking for Breast Cancer Awareness Event. I had gotten some pretty good suggestions as to what to make but it was a lazy Sunday...

I popped some frozen puff pastry out of the freezer and let it thaw and I cut the sheet in quarters and filled them with the mixture and sealed them up nice and tight. I gave them a little egg wash and sugared the top, popped them in the oven and ate them up. Nah, not really I shared with everyone. But these were so good that I did momentarily think about keeping them all to myself!


So remember, don't throw out your leftovers. They can be made into some pretty incredible things!!!

I am sending this over to Ivy at Kopiaste... for her Sweet Pies Event!


As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Jalapeño Poppers finally...

Jalapeño Poppers

I have been wanting jalapeño poppers for a while now. Every time somebody mentioned peppers or I saw jalapeños it was all I could think about. I wanted the yummy ones that we used to be able to get in the bars. Filled with piping hot cream cheese and just a little zing of hot pepper. These were way better than that.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. We had set aside the morning to finally get our garden in. I am really hoping that we aren't too late but we'll see. We planted a variety of tomatoes and some zucchini, peas, arugula, basil, parsley, oregano, cilantro and just for fun some sun flower seeds. Every year I swear I will keep a diary of what works and what doesn't but I never, ever do. When will I ever learn...

Doesn't look like much yet but just you wait and see...

It was after that when I decided that we were having poppers for lunch. After hunting around on the internet for that perfect sounding recipe I decided that I liked what was in my head a bit better.


Jalapeño Poppers

Ingredients:

2 packages (8 oz) of cream cheese, softened
1 cup of cheddar cheese, grated
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
12 jalapenos, split lengthwise, seeds and membrane removed
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 box panko breading

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, and cheddar cheese Spoon this mixture into the jalapeño pepper halves.
2. Mix the flour with the black pepper, salt, paprika and garlic powder
3. Put the milk and flour mix into two separate small bowls. Dip the stuffed jalapeños first into the milk then into the flour, making sure they are well coated with each. Allow the coated jalapeños to dry for about 10 minutes.
4. Dip the jalapeños in milk again and roll them through the breadcrumbs. Allow them to dry, then repeat to ensure the entire surface of the jalapeño is coated.
5. Place in the freezer to chill for about 20 minutes before frying.
6. In a deep pot, heat the oil to 365 degrees F ( 180 degrees C). Deep fry the coated jalapeños 2 to 3 minutes each, until golden brown. Remove and let drain on a paper towel.

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com