Allison: Banana Bread Alternative

Hello, hello!  I'm actually going to try to post a "normal" post this week!  My newborn is napping, and my 2 year old is momentarily "happy" (aka not being crazy), so I thought I'd hurry and post.

I've had some bananas getting overly ripe on my counter for the past few days now, but the thought of making banana bread AGAIN, didn't sound very appealing.  For some reason, I keep buying bananas, and they keep going bad.  That equals A LOT of banana bread.  This usually isn't a bad thing, but I wanted another option.

Then this morning, I saw a recipe from one of my favorite bakers over at Cookies and Cups.  This is such a fun blog, where Shelly posts so many amazingly-devilish recipes.  When I saw her recipe for Banana Bread Cookies, I knew I had to try them.  So... I did!  :)  You can find the recipe here.

These cookies aren't exactly what I had imagined, but I really like them!  In Shelly's recipe, she used chocolate chips (which I wish I'd tried).  I used raisins in my version, and thought they came out tasting like a cross between oatmeal cookies and banana bread; two of my favorite treats!  Shelly also posted a recipe for Maple Cream Cheese Frosting (Mmm...), but I didn't have enough cream cheese to attempt it.  You better believe I will next time!

They were so good, Isla kept trying to sneak one.  :)

Regardless of whether you try this recipe or not, you should definitely go check out Shelly's blog.  Everyone have a great week!


Allison

Sara Jane: A Bavarian Feast and Outdoor Waterbed

I will apologize in advance.  This is going to be a LONG post.  We have had a really fun week and I wanted to share all of it with you.

First up...the food (of course!).

For this week's Olympic meal, I made German food.  Normally, we wouldn't eat this type of a meal in the summer (we're mostly veggies around here) but we HAD to for the Olympics, right?

For our Bavarian feast, we had sausage, latkes, fondue and pretzels.  This is another rather time consuming meal but if you're up for it, I would recommend it all the way.  It was absolutely delicious!  

Here we go....

LATKES 

(Potato Pancakes)

Ingredients:

2 large potatoes, peeled and shredded (I use regular baker potatoes.  After I shred the potato, I set them aside in a bowl of cold water to prevent them from changing color.)

1 medium onion, diced

1 egg

2 Tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil, plus 1/2 to 1 cup more for cooking

Directions:

Combined oil, onion, egg, flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt, and about 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl.  Add drained shredded potatoes until combined.

In a skillet, add enough oil to be about 1/8 inch thick on the bottom.  When the oil is hot, using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, drop cup fulls into the oil.  I usually only cook 2 or 3 at a time as to not overcrowd my skillet and lower the oil temperature.

Cook the latkes until they are a deep golden brown (about 2 to 3 minutes per side).  When they are done, remove them from the oil and drain on a paper towel.  Sprinkle with salt.

If you are not going to eat them right away, keep them warm in a 200* oven.

Traditionally, these are served with apple sauce.  I prefer mine by themselves.

These pretzels are delicious.  I searched and searched for a good recipe for pretzels and found one several months ago.  It is mostly the recipe I am about to give you but I can't remember where I found it.  I changed a couple of the amounts of ingredients.  It is a very basic recipe that I have never had turn out badly.  Try it.  You won't go back to your old method...I promise!

HOMEMADE PRETZELS

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tablespoon of yeast

1/3 cup brown sugar

4 to 4 1/2 cups of white flour

1/2 cup baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 475*.

In a large bowl, combined the water, yeast and sugar.  Let proof for 3 to 5 minutes, or until frothy.  Add flour, one cup at a time.  If, after you have added the 4 cups of flour, the dough seems too sticky, add another 1/2 cup.  Knead dough for a few minutes until nice and smooth.  You can let the dough sit or use it right away.  

In a large pot, boil 4 cups of water (or about half a pot full) and 1/2 cups baking soda.  Add the soda to the water BEFORE you turn on the burner.  If you add the soda to the water after the water is boiling, you will have a huge mess.  Trust me :)

When you are ready to begin, cut off small (about golf ball size) pieces of dough.  Shape them how you like (sometimes we just do pretzel sticks, especially if we are dipping them into cheese) and drop them into the boiling water/soda.  Boil them for about 30 seconds.  Most of the time they will float to the top when they are ready.  Again, do not put too many in the pot at once.  A few at a time.  Once they are done boiling, place them on a greased cookie sheet.

When your sheet is full, cook them in your preheated oven for 8 to 9 minutes, until golden brown.  When they come out of the oven, you can brush them with butter (or not) and sprinkle salt (or cinnamon sugar) on them.

My kids love pretzel dogs.  If you want to give those a try, simply wrap a regular hot dog in a rope of dough, boil for 30 seconds and cook for 8 to 9 minutes.

Sorry folks.  I don't make my own sausage.  I wish I did but...I don't.  We buy our favorite sausage at our local grocery store and cook it until it is ready.  Its that simple.  

As for my fondue recipe, I simply used the cheese from my mac and cheese I made here.  

Just in case you were wondering what was going on while I was making this delicious dinner....

Bea found some water AND dirt! Lovely!

Next up...I've seen the outdoor waterbeds all over Pinterest lately so I thought I would give it a try, too.

Here's what I used for my waterbed.  Gorilla tape (next to the duct tape at the store), 2 heavy duty shower curtains and a pair of scissors.

If you have an old water toy that has one of these nifty hose hook ups, cut it out and use it on your waterbed.  It made filling it SO much easier!

To start, I laid my shower curtains out flat on my family room floor, one on top of the other, and then I started taping. It took about 30 minutes to tape the entire thing together.  After taping each side, I would then tape the inside too to prevent too much leaking.  When I got to the fourth side, I cut a small hole out for my hose hook up, placed the piece in the hole and taped all around the hook up.  Then I finished taping the fourth side.  Before I began filling the bed, I went back over my tape job to make sure I didn't miss anything.  Then I started filling.

After a good 20 minutes of filling, the bed was finally ready for the kiddos to play on.  

At first, the kids just enjoyed laying on the bed.  I purposely put the waterbed in the shade so it would stay cool.  It was perfect.

 Then a leak sprang.  No worries, Bea was there to catch all the water.

 After a few hours, we did need to refill the bed but it was totally worth it.  If you have the time, I would definitely recommend making your kids one of these before the summer ends.  It provided hours of fun for my babies.

Sara Jane

Friday Favorites: Recipes

Hello!  Welcome to another Friday Favorites!  This week we'll be concentrating our posts on favorite recipes or dishes that we've discovered/stolen from others.  Isn't that how it works?  You find some amazing dish and it slowly becomes your own, though it originally came from someone else.

That's how I feel about my favorite recipe.  Sometimes I think my husband and I ultimately ended up together because we both LOVE plain New York-Style Cheesecake.  No strawberries, no topping, no swirled flavor inside... just PLAIN cheesecake.  He even added it to his mental list of "reasons I love my wife".  There you go.  :)

So a couple of years ago, when I was trying to think of a really special dessert to make for Valentine's Day, I decided to venture my first cheesecake.  I looked up a recipe on allrecipe.com for "plain cheesecake", and found this recipe.  I have no idea who Chantal is, but I've mentally thanked her many times for this recipe.

If any of you are like me, you're probably intimidated by the idea of making a cheesecake that takes close to 8 hours.  It's not that bad, and I'm going to share my tips/tricks to make it PERFECT!  Most of them I found online, or from others that have tried this recipe, but I'm taking credit for applying them.  I'm not going to brag too much, but I've used this recipe 4 times now, and they've all been amazing.  No splits or cracks... just perfect!

TIPS/TRICKS
-I'm not going to retype the recipe here, but I'll list what I changed about the actual recipe or the steps given.


#1- If you like a sweeter graham cracker crust, add just a little sugar to your crushed crackers and butter.  The cheesecake itself is plenty sweet, so it's not really needed, just depends on preference.


#2- I didn't change any other ingredients, but I did reduce the oven temp to 325 degrees and altered the baking time to 45 minutes.  When the 45 minutes is up, turn the oven off and forget about it for a couple of hours.  For real.  Don't open the oven every 5 minutes, just let it set.  (This part is hard to do, as you'll want to make sure it's not cracking.)  Just walk away...

#3- I used a water bath.  I think it's the reason that my cheesecakes have never cracked.  It's not too difficult.  I use the heavy duty tin foil around my springform pan (though regular would work... just double it up/overlap it), to make sure the water doesn't get in. I wrap it almost to the top of the springform, and place it on a cookie sheet.  Once they're both in the oven, pour enough water to fill the cookie sheet, but not too much that it'll overflow (duh).  I only had water seep into my pan once, and that was because the springform wasn't completely "closed" before I added the crust.  Oops.  Check that.  Ironically, it still turned out fine.  Just with crust a little more "moist" than usual.  :)


#4- DON"T OVERMIX YOUR CHEESECAKE FILLING!  That will create bubbles, and won't make it as pretty.  Make sure your cream cheese is room temperature before mixing with a hand blender.  After that, I only used the blender to add the sugar and milk to the cream cheese.  The rest I mixed by hand.  It's a bit of a work out but not too bad.  


#5- After your cheesecake has been in the cooling oven for hours, you can leave it on the counter (I put mine on a cooling rack) for awhile longer.  But you can also just leave it in the oven until it's completely cooled.  I usually venture to remove the springform pan edge then.    If the edges look a little ragged, you can smooth them with a wet table knife (if you're a crazy perfectionist, like me).  


#6- This part is tough.  It will be so tempting to try a slice, but it really is best overnight in the fridge, or at least for a few hours.  To me, it seems to get better the longer it cools.  Mmmm... my mouth is watering just thinking about it.  

#1- I think I took the springform off too soon. #2- I discovered the wet knife technique... much prettier.  I also doubled the graham crackers, but the crust became a little too much.  #3- My best by far!  Yum!  No picture of #4.

Okay.  That was a lot of info, but really not as crazy as I made it sound.  The actual prep for this recipe doesn't take too long and the results are AMAZING!  My husband says this recipe rivals any cheesecake he's ever had, including The Cheesecake Factory.  That's pretty high praise from someone who would choose cheesecake over almost any other dessert.  I hope you venture this amazing recipe.  If I left anything out, please feel free to ask.  Good luck, and happy baking!!



Allison

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I have an obsession with bread.  

Not just plain old bread but fresh-out-of-the-oven-covered-in-butter (and-sometimes-honey) bread.  When we make it, whether it be by hand or in the bread machine, the loaf is gone within an hour.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.....

Photo from recipeschezmoi.blogspot.com

My only issue with fresh-out-of-the-oven-covered-in-butter bread is that by the time I think about actually wanting it, I don't want to wait the 3 hours it takes to make it.  Soooooo, when I found the following recipe, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  (Honestly, this bread isn't as good as the 3-hour bread BUT it is perfect when, if you're like me, you decide at 4:00 PM you want to have bread with your dinner which is supposed to be at 5:00 PM.)  The original recipe I found was on the Recipes Chez Moi blog.  I, however, after making it many times, have changed several things and want to share the recipe with you.

 1(ish) Hour Bread

Ingredients:

5 1/4 c. white flour (if you feel the dough is too sticky, you can add another 1/4 cup)
1/4 c. sugar 
1/2 T. salt (I think I actually added 1 T. on accident and it was still great)
1  T. yeast

1/3 c. oil 
2 c. hot tap water

Directions:

Mix together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl (I used my Kitchen Aid).  Add oil and hot water to the dry ingredients mixture.  Mix for one minute, scraping the bowl once (this is where if you think the dough is too sticky, you may add the additional 1/4 cup of flour).  Mix dough for five more minutes on a medium high speed without scrapping the bowl.  When you finish mixing, the dough will be sticky.  ITS OKAY :)  On a floured surface, divide the dough into two equal portions.  Shape the dough and put into a greased (I used Pam spray) bread pan.  Let sit, covered, for 1/2 hour (I accidentally left mine for 1 hour the other day...still perfect).  Bake in a 375* oven for 35 minutes.  Makes 2 loaves.

I hope this delicious bread finds its way to your home soon.  

Sara Jane

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Lisa here!  One of my favorite things in summer is to not use my stove.  At all.  I love food that my family and I can eat raw, grill or cook in the crock pot.  One of our favorite crock pot recipes is a very simple pot roast on Sundays.  We have a late church and we often don't get home until 4:30pm and we are all super hungry!  To walk in and smell the roast is heaven!  And this one couldn't be simpler!  I've seen this recipe a lot of places but I orignially got it from a friend when we were living in Arizona (talk about hot!).

Courtney's Pot Roast

3-4 lb Chuck roast (mine was frozen and it was perfectly alright!)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 pkt. Lipton onion soup mix (or Walmart brand)

1 large onion, sliced

3 large potatoes, chopped

a handful of baby carrots

Spray the inside of the crockpot with a non-stick cooning spray, like Pam.  Place roast in bottom and vegetables on top of the roast.  Mix soup and soup mix together and pour over everything.  Cover.  Cook on high for 6-8 hours. 

It really is such a favorite with my family.  The meat is super tender and the vegetables are perfectly cooked.  Thank you so much my Arizona friend!!!

Lisa

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I've gotten into the habit of making a big breakfast every morning to feed my growing boys (that includes the husband).  One of my favorite things to make are pancakes with homemade buttermilk syrup.  It is especially fun because Clark is starting to help out now.

Pancakes

2 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
3 tbs unsalted butter, melted
2 cups buttermilk

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.  In a separete large bowl mix all wet ingredients together.  Add the dry to the wet ingredients and mix till a few lumps remain, be careful not to over mix.

Using a buttered hot griddle, pour pancake batter according to the size you prefer and flip once bubbles appear on top.  Serve hot with your favorite syrup!

 

Enjoy!

Lisa: Gardening

Gardening!!

So the theme this week is gardening which I stink at. I’ve been trying to think of anything I could post about gardening. My parents are both terrific gardeners and have a fabulous vegetable garden, flower garden, fruit trees, berry bushes and more. Their yard is a beautiful lush paradise which I love and my children now love, as well. You’d think with that kind of upbringing I’d have more talent and a beautiful garden myself. I don’t. But part of that isn’t my fault. We have these beauties to keep us company.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love the deer and occasional elk that we see on our property but they sure make gardening a challenge! I know there are plants that the deer won’t eat but the ones I want seem to also be the ones they want! We attempted a vegetable garden a couple of times but the deer nipped away at everything so that our produce seems to be very slim! Luckily for us, they’d miss some of the zucchini because of the large leaves (I think that was why, at least!). So I am tweaking the theme to fit my post. Gardening!!Zucchini!!

I have many recipes for this wonderful vegetable. A lot of them involve the grill for some savory dishes but one that I remember from growing up is a chocolate zucchini cake that my mom would make. It was so good and you couldn’t taste the zucchini which I liked since my childish palate couldn’t stand vegetables! I don’t have permission to give out this recipe from my mom (really, I didn’t even ask!) but I did concoct a chocolate zucchini bread which I think is fantastic and similar to her cake!! The key to this is the chocolate chips so don’t skimp!

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon ground cloves

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 cups shredded zucchini

½ cup oil

¼ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup buttermilk

1 bag of milk chocolate chips, divided

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cloves. Set aside. In another bowl, mix the sugar, eggs, zucchini, oil, cocoa powder, vanilla, and buttermilk. Add the flour mixture and stir till just combined. Set aside 1 cup of the chocolate chips. Stir the rest of the chocolate chips into the batter. Pour the batter into 2 greased loaf pans. Sprinkle reserved chocolate chips evenly over the two loaves. Bake for 55 minutes. Let cool before slicing! Delicious!

Here are some of the unfortunate runners up in my attempt to make some thing for this post!

On the left was a zucchini cake with feta which was delicious but a little too doughy. In the middle is a lemon zucchini cookie that was really good and that my teenage boy ate quite a few of. Maybe with some tweaking she'll make it! And on the left is a zucchini brownie which just didn't cut it. I had high hope for them all. So sad, so sad!

What are your favorite zucchini creations?

Lisa