Banana Cake

Chris’ mom had a file card with a recipe for her mom’s banana cake. We had seen this recipe several times when we looked through the recipe card box, so we finally broke down and made it. It was a bit of an adventure. To start with, the buttermilk (sour milk) had three different amounts associated with it. Also, there was no indication of how long to bake the cake, so we had to guess a bit there.

Ingredients
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
3 eggs, separated
2 cups mashed bananas
1/2 cup sour milk (we used buttermilk)
2 tsp baking soda
3 1/2 cup cake flour
2 tsp vanilla

Method
Preheat oven to 350, and prepare 2 9″ cake pans (we sprayed them with cooking spray, put parchment circles in the bottom and floured the sides).
Cream the shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk, one at a time until well combined. Add smashed bananas (we used a potato masher). Add buttermilk and baking soda. Add vanilla. Then, slowly add the flour. In a separate metal (preferably copper) bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks (we did this by hand this time-it’s a bit tiring, but really doesn’t take as long as you might think). Once the flour has been added, fold in the egg whites in batches. Once even, weight out the batter into the cake pans. In this, it took about 1lb 12oz of batter in each cake pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool before frosting.

We decided to do a basic vanilla buttercream with some banana flavor added to it. Everything seemed to turn out quite well.

The frosted and cut cake.

A fuzzy piece of banana cake

Bagels

I’m a fan of bagels, and since I’ve been eating bagels for breakfast recently, I decided to just try my hand at making some. I found a recipe here that has produced some great results.

Ingredients
4 cups bread flour
1 tbsp sugar
1.5 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast
1 tbsp canola oil
1.25-1.5 cups warm water

I typically just go ahead and proof the yeast with the sugar and water for a few minutes. The yeasty mixture then gets added to the flour and salt, along with the oil. I usually do this in my stand mixer, and just let the dough hook do its thing for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth. It will be a pretty stiff dough. Turn out onto a work surface, and cut the dough into 8 equal portions. Let the dough rest for 10-20 minutes. At this point, put on a pot of water to boil (I usually add a tablespoon or so of sugar to the water as well). Shape the portioned dough into bagels by rolling the dough into a snake, and then smashing the ends together to make a circle (I’m still working on this part of it-they’re ok, but not quite as smooth as I hope they will be some day). Let the formed bagels rise for another 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 and grease a baking tray. When the bagels are ready, drop them gently into the boiling water in batches, not crowding the pot. Let them boil for 1 minute, and then flip them over to cook the other side. Place them on the baking tray, and when all the bagels have been boiled, bake for 20 minutes, flipping half way through.

These bagels are pretty tasty, and they have a good chew to them (which is a requirement for any good bagel).

Chicken and Dumplings

Since I seem to be coming down with the crud, we decided to make some chicken and dumplings last night. While a bit on the bland side, for a simple throw together soup, it was great. The dumplings were very light and fluffy, and were great with the slightly thickened broth and chicken mixture.

Ingredients
1/2 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 clove of garlic
2 lbs chicken breast, cut into chunks
Broth, to cover

Saute veggies in some olive oil until translucent. Add broth and chicken. Bring to a simmer. Add herbs and pepper as desired. We let this simmer for an hour or so, then made a slurry of water and flour to thicken it a bit before making the dumplings.

Dumpling Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp melted butter
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
Pepper, herbs to taste

Mix dry ingredients. Add butter, egg and milk and bring together. With the soup at a simmer, drop spoonfuls of batter onto the top of the soup. Cover and let cook, undisturbed for 15 minutes. Serve.

Jalapeno Corn Bread Dressing

This has been a Thanksgiving favorite with Chris’ family for many years now. I introduced my family to it a few years ago, and it was a hit. Since the weather is cold and grey, we’ve decided to roast a chicken, make some jalapeno dressing and sauteed turnip greens and watch some Manchester United games (trying to catch up on games this season).

Ingredients
4 cups torn bread (or bagged stuffing mix)
3 cups crumbled corn bread
1 stick butter
1 medium onion
1 bunch of green onions
2-3 stalks celery with leaves (if no leaves, add some chopped fresh parsley)
1/2 cup chopped pickled jalapenos (or more)
1/2 cup of jalapeno juice (or more)
Chicken/Turkey broth to desired moisture level
1 egg (optional)
Sage, thyme, salt, pepper to taste

Method
Saute chopped vegetables (except jalapenos) in butter until soft. Stir into bread crumbs. Add jalapenos, juice, broth, and egg, if using. Put in greased baking dish or covered casserole and bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes, until cooked, but not dry.

Schlotzsky’s-Style Bread

Chris and I both really like the Schlotzsky’s sourdough bread. We decided today to try to come up with a recipe for it. Although it took a couple of tries, we ended up with a bread that really is remarkably like the sourdough loaf at Schlotzsky’s. The original recipe came from here. We tweaked the recipe some.

Ingredients
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the water and milk, and heat to lukewarm. Add the sugar and yeast, and let proof. In the bowl of a mixer, put the flour, salt and baking soda. Mix, slowly adding the milk and yeast mixture. When this is incorporated, let mix for a few minutes. Add the remaining 1/4 cup water. The dough will be very loose and sticky. Prepare a pan (I used a 9″ spring-form cake pan) by greasing, then dusting with cornmeal. Pour the dough into the pan and let rise for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Before baking, spray the top of the dough with cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool for about an hour. This resulted in a loose, chambered structure that does taste remarkably like the Schlotzsky’s bread. In the future, I’ll probably divide the dough into two portions and bake in some 7″ or 8″ round pans.

Whoopie Pies

For those of you who aren’t familiar with these, this is a sandwich cookie/cake concept that look kind of like oversized oreos. That’s where the resemblance stops. The cookie portion from here is like a cake (Chris thought the dough would make great cupcakes). The filling (from here is a fluffy vanilla frosting. I’ll repost the recipes here together.

Cookies
2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar until light. Add egg and vanilla and continue mixing until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk in alternating batches, beginning and ending with the dry. Portion the dough out onto greased cookie sheets (the original recipe said 1/4 cup a cookie, but I think next time I’ll do closer to 2 tablespoons). Bake 11-13 minutes, until the cookie springs back when touched.

Filling
1 cup milk
1/4 cup AP flour
1 stick butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar

Mix milk and flour in a microwave safe bowl. MIcrowave, stirring occasionally, until the milk and flour turn into paste. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and shortening, and add the sugar. When the mixture is light and fluffy, add the vanilla. When the milk mixture is cooled, add it to the sugar mixture, and whip until combined.

When cookies are cooled, spoon some filling onto the flat side of a cookie, and sandwich with another cookie. Consume over a sink or large plate (this can be a messy process).

Low Sugar Chocolate Cake

I’ve made this cake several times for diabetic birthdays and celebrations. I’ve tried several low sugar cakes, and this is by far the best one I’ve tried.

Ingredients
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups splenda
2 cups buttermilk
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oil, egg and vanilla. Add sugar and splenda. In a seperate bowl, mix dry ingredients. In alternating additions, add buttermilk and dry ingredients, starting and ending with the dry goods. When the ingredients are incorporated, add the water and stir. Divide the batter into two prepped cake pans, and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Suppli for Risotto Milanese

A couple of years ago, a good friend posted a Milanese Risotto recipe, with a little teaser for a suppli, or way to reuse leftovers that make them a bit different. We’d never made it until a couple of weeks ago, because leftover risotto doesn’t have a very high survival rate around here. Finally, we had enough left over to do it, when we finally thought of it. It works like this.

Scoop a tbsp or slightly more cold risotto, shape it into a ball (or disc, like we did since we pan fried), and dip it into a whisked egg, then give it a roll in some breadcrumbs. Fry until crispy and golden-brown. I’m not entirely sure what we’re supposed to with them after that, as far as serving them goes – they didn’t really survive much past getting them out of the pan. These are just that good. I think I dipped a few into some reheated tomato sauce, much like one would with fried polenta sticks, and thought it was ok.

Turnip Greens with Sausage

Last night we decided to do some more greens, and when we got to the store, we found that the best looking greens they had were turnip greens. We both loved them. We’ve tried kale and mustard greens, and we do still like both of them quite well, we were surprised at how much we liked the turnip greens.

Ingredients
5 bratwurst (or one package)
1/2 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
2 bunches turnip greens (although in the future, we’ll do more-we didn’t have many leftover greens)

Brown the sausage in the pan with a little oil. When browned, pull from the pan, and saute the onion and garlic until translucent, scraping up the browned bits. Add the torn and rinsed greens, and put the brats back in the pan. Cover and let cook for 20-30 minutes, until the brats are done, and the greens cooked.

We served this with potatoes roasted with fennel bulb and red pepper.

Roasted Potatoes

Last night we made pork marsala, and to go with it we made mustard greens with oil and garlic, and roasted potatoes. Chris and I both love this treatment of potatoes, unfortunately I never think about it when we’re planning meals.

1.5 lbs new potatoes (you can use red or white skinned, or both depending on personal preference)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried sage
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Clean and quarter potatoes (you want about 1 to 1.5 inch pieces). Mix oil with herbs and pepper. Toss potatoes in oil and herb mixture until well coated. Put on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle salt over potatoes. Bake for 1 hour, turning occasionally.

These are fabulous, crunchy and golden on the outside, soft in the middle. The herbs used can change depending on what you’re making and what flavor profile you’re going for.