Tasty Tuesday - Banana Bread

I've tried a lot of banana breads, read a lot of banana bread recipes and even been to a banana bread making demonstration.  For my family this one is the winner.  I found it on the side of the bag of "day old" bananas at Winn Dixie soon after we moved to the United States.

When our bananas are past their prime I put them in the freezer still in the peel.  Then when I am ready to bake I just pull out three and let them thaw a bit and they work perfectly.  They don't look good, but they taste great in this recipe.

BANANA BREAD

1 stick butter at room temp
3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 c flour (all purpose)
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c whole wheat flour
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 t vanilla (I use 2 t)
1/2 c walnuts, coarsely chopped (The girls don't like nuts so we skip this.)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease 9x5x3 metal bread pan.

2. Cream butter & sugar til light and fluffly.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Sift all purpose flour, baking soda and salt together, stir in whole wheat flour and add to creamed mixture, mixing well.

4.  Fold in bananas, vanilla and walnuts.

5. Pour mixture into pan, bake 50 - 60 minutes or til tooth pick comes out clean.  Coool in pan 10 min, then on rack.

Makes one loaf.

Tasty Tuesday - Sour Cream Coffee Cake

This is a recipe I found by accident and we all really like it.  Not just for breakfast or dessert, it is also great for school lunches.  I usually make it when I have extra sour cream on hand, which I did this weekend!

I forgot the struesal topping but that didn't stop anyone from eating it!

It is from The All New Good Housekeeping Cook Book 2001 edition.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Prep: 30 min  Bake: 1 hr 20 min

2/3 + 1 3/4 cups sugar
2/3 cup walnuts, finely chopped  (the girls don't like nuts, so I skip these)
1 t cinnamon
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
1/2 c butter or margarine, softened
3 large eggs
2 t vanilla extract
16 ounces sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease and flour 9- to 10-inch tube pan with removable bottom.

2. In small bowl, combine 2/3 c sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon.  Set aside.

3. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

4. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat butter and remaining 1 3/4 cups sugar until blended, frequently scraping bowl with rubber spatula.  Increase speed to high; beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl.  Reduce speed to low; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in vanilla.

5. With mixer at low speed, alternately add flour mixture and sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating until smooth and occasionally scraping bowl.

6. Spoon one-third of batter into prepared pan.  Sprinkle one-third of cinnamon nut mixture evenly over batter, then top with one-third more batter.  Sprinkle evenly with another one-third more cinnamon nut mixture; top with remaining batter, then sprinkle with remaining cinnamon nut mixture.

7. Bake coffee cake until toothpick inserted in center comes our clean, about 1 hour 20 minutes.  Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes.  Run thin knife around cake to loosen from side and center tube of pan; life tube to separate from pan side.  Invert cake onto plate; slide knife under cake to separate from bottom of pan.  Turn cake, nut-mixture side up, onto wire rack to cook completely. 

Makes 16 servings.

Tasty Tuesday - Onion Casserole

I've been wanting to compile the recipes that our family likes so that the girls will have it when they are on their own.  I think I entered one or two into a Word document a few years back and that's as far as I got.  College R will graduate in May, so I better try harder.  Thinking of ways to better utilize the blog I figured I would try this year to post a recipe each week. 

So without further ado...

Onion Casserole

4 large onions
1-2 T mayonnaise
1 1/2 c shredded Swiss cheese (or whatever cheese you have on hand)
1 t pepper

Slice the onions top to bottom - north pole to south pole - to make slivers, not rings.
With clean hands separate the slivers in a large bowl.
Add mayonnaise and work it into the slivers so they are all lightly coated.  Add more mayo if needed, but don't over do.
Stir in pepper.
Stir in cheese.  More cheese never hurts.

Pour into a greased casserole.  Cover and bake at 350F for 60 - 90 minutes or until browned on the top.
Bake time will depend on size of casserole and height of onions in the casserole.

Onion Casserole is at 12:00

This recipe is super flexible as far as ingredient amounts.  I pretty much just use what I have. The original recipe used Swiss, but we prefer cheddar or a Mexican blend.   My family finished off a Christmas version with 5 large onions in 24 hours!  It is currently our most requested dish.

Tasty Tuesday - Empanadas

Middle E needs to take empanadas for the World Cultural Fair at school tomorrow.  This week has already nearly put me over the edge but what's a double batch of empanadas???

We have a "go to" recipe and it didn't fail us this time either.   I made up the dough before work and let it chill in the fridge all day. 

1/2 cup butter softened

3 oz cream cheese softened

1 cup flour

Mix into a smooth ball & chill overnight. 

Roll it out thin and cut circles

Put about 1/2 teaspoon in the center 

Wet the edges of the circle with water on a finger tip

Fold over into a held circle and pinch the edges together 

Middle E decided they also needed to be pressed with fork tines 

Out of the oven   375F for 15-20 minutes

Ready for school.   Sprinkle with powdered sugar or sugar and cinnamon. 

We got to sample some first thankfully.