Banana Bread - America's Test Kitchen

A friend gave me a large box of bananas to which I... froze 15 for smoothies, dehydrated 30, and made 8 loaves of banana bread!  I used this recipe and it turned out really good.

Banana Bread
by America's Test Kitchen (but found posted here)

Butter a non-stick bread pan, then flour well. (The flour is really important for the bread to “climb” against while baking.)

Combine and mix well the following dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside:
2 cups all purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
½ cup toasted coarsely chopped walnuts
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

In another medium bowl, coarsely smash 3 ripe bananas (use a large spoon or spatula and don’t puree – the banana needs to be chunky) To the bananas, add and combine: (but try not to reduce the banana chunks)

2 large eggs, beaten
6 Tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup buttermilk or plain yogurt

 Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently FOLD until the flour is thoroughly moistened. Pour into the prepared bread pan and spread the mixture evenly across the top. Bake in a preheated 350-degree (F) oven for 45-50 minutes.

Lemon Garlic Chicken

I made this last night and my son said it was great... he even had it for breakfast today!  Now that's good :)

Lemon Garlic Chicken
by Mels Kitchen Cafe 

juice of 1 lemon, approximately 3 TBSP
3 TBSP olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic,
about 2 medium cloves
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 lb chicken breasts (I usually cut really thick chicken breasts down to thin them out and make the pieces a little smaller so they absorb the marinade better)

Combine all marinade ingredients. Place chicken in a ziploc bag and pour marinade over chicken. Seal bag and place in fridge overnight. Grill (or cook in frying pan). Serve with sides of your choice or cut into bite sized pieces and add to desired recipe. Note: If you cut your chicken into smaller, bite-sized pieces and then marinate it, you can get away with only letting it marinate for 5 or 6 hours instead of overnight.

Tacoritos

photo by Taste of Home

My husbands comments "I think you have a winner here"

Tacoritos
by Taste of Home

1/4 cup butter, cubed
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups water
3 TBSP chili powder
1 tsp garlic salt
1 pound ground beef
1 pound bulk pork sausage
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup refried beans
8 flour tortillas (8 inches), warmed
3 cups (12 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Optional toppings: shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, sliced ripe olives and sour cream

In a large saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour until smooth; gradually add water. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1 minute or until thickened. Stir in chili powder and garlic salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the beef, sausage and onion until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in refried beans; heat through. Spread 1/4 cup sauce in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Spread 1 tablespoon sauce over each tortilla; place 2/3 cup meat mixture down the center of each. Top each with 1/4 cup cheese. Roll up and place seam side down in prepared dish. Pour remaining sauce over the top; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 18-22 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is melted. Serve with optional toppings if desired. Yield: 8 servings.

KAF Baking Class

Perfect Apple Pie

On October 19th, I took two free baking classes offered by King Arthur Flour.  The classes were amazing and were taught by the co-author of three of KAF cookbooks, Susan Reid.

The morning class was Perfect Pie Crusts and Scones.

The evening class was Baking with Whole Wheat.  Between the first and second class I bought two of the cookbooks at the bookstore.  

Susan signed them for me before the second class started.

When Susan was talking about WHITE Whole Wheat in the first class I thought of a visual aid that I had made.  I sewed a ziplock down the middle and poured red wheat in one side and white wheat in the other side.  I gave that to her before the second class started and she loved it.

Since the bookstore didn't have "Cookie Companion" in stock, Susan said to order it from the KAF website and she would sign it before it shipped out.

and as promised this is what was written inside.

Easy Fruit Dip

I made this today for our End of Season Soccer Party.  This dip is so good, it's hard to believe that it's this easy!


Fruit Dip 

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 jar marshmallow cream

Using a hand mixer, combine cream cheese and marshmallow cream until well combined and smooth. Serve with fruit.

Olive Garden Salad

Walmart was out of pepperoncinis, so  I went to another store and bought the LAST bottle on the shelf!


Olive Garden Salad
by Estes McDoniel Cookbook & The On-Call Cook

1 head romaine lettuce, torn
1/4 of a red onion, thinly sliced
1 carrot, shredded
1/4 of a purple cabbage, shredded (I left this out)
1 cup black olives
croutons
1 tomato, chopped
pepperoncinis
parmesan cheese

dressing:
1/4 c Newman's Own Family Italian Dressing
1/4 c pepperonicini juice (from the jar with the pepperoncinis)

Combine the dressing ingredients and stir to combine.  Make sure you shake the Italian dressing before pouring it.

Add the salad ingredients in a large bowl.  Drizzle about 1/2 of the dressing on the salad and toss it.  Add more dressing if you'd like.

Sprinkle on the Parmesan Cheese.

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Yesterday I made these Candy Corn Cupcakes for our Ward's Fall Festival (aka Trunk or Treat).  I pinned this idea from two different bloggers... Your Homebased Mom and The Girl Who Ate Everything.  I used the recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything, but wasn't crazy about it.  I think I will try a different method of "doctoring" up boxed cake mix the next time.