My Favorite Banana Bread Recipe

Since I'm in the baking mood and have some bananas that I need to use, I thought I'd share my favorite recipe for Banana Bread.

I have an old cookbook called, "Beat This". This is a compilation of "the best" recipes. There are recipes for apple crisp, blueberry muffins, mashed potatoes, gravy, meat loaf, sugar cookies,  etc...and the best banana bread.

This was my "go-to" banana bread recipe for years, but it did bother me a little that it used TWO sticks of butter. Not very calorie conscience.



Now I have found another banana bread recipe that I absolutely love. It's called Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread. It uses only 1/3 cup of melted butter and I usually add half butter and half coconut oil. What I love about it is the cinnamon sugar that you add to the middle of the muffin/bread and the cinnamon sugar that you sprinkle on top before baking. Sweet! I prefer making muffins instead of bread for two reasons. I can make mini muffins and not eat as much at a time and also there is more cinnamon sugar per mini muffin. I love that extra little cinnamon swirl.

Another thing that I thought I'd share is my favorite muffin tin liners. I have some cute designer liners that I use for special occasions, but if I used them every time I made muffins, I'd go through them pretty fast. I found some "everyday"  liners on Amazon. These muffin tin liners are white, come 500 to a box and are only $10.95.

White Chicken Chili

It's sleeting outside right now. The first snow of the season is on the way. It's a good day to stay inside and cook. One thing I am making today is White Chicken Chili. I already have a crockpot of beans that will be perfect to add to my chili. .

 

White Chicken Chili

1 lg onion, chopped
½ c butter, divided                     

¼ c flour
1-2 c Chicken broth           
 2 c half and half
1 tsp Tabasco or to taste  
1 tsp chili powder
½ tsp cumin                                           
 ½ tsp salt
1 4oz can chopped chilies
2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
2 lbs chicken, cooked and cut into ½” chunks                                      

sour cream
6 oz Monterey Jack cheese, grated

Cook onion in 2 Tbsp butter till soft.  In large pan, melt remaining 6 Tbsp butter over low heat and whisk in flour to make a roux. Cook roux, whisking constantly for 3 minutes. Stir in onion. Gradually add broth and Half and Half, stirring constantly. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, 5 min till thick.

Add remaining ingredients except for sour cream. Cook over moderate low heat for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. Take off heat and stir in a dollop of sour cream. Serve with salsa and garnish with cilantro if desired.

 

ReGrow Celery

I saw a post on Pinterest a while back about veggies that you can regrow in your kitchen.  I've tried to regrow carrots and the occasional avocado seed, but I got bored. I never had much luck, until...I tried celery. I really like regrowing celery. I make my own chicken broth and use carrots, celery and onions. I save the last 4 inches or so of the stalk of celery and put it in water. In just a couple of days, I have celery regrowth. I let it get a little bigger, changing the water daily, and then stick it in a Garden Anywhere box.

To the right is my little celery garden. (I've been making a lot of broth lately.)

Below is a celery plant that I planted near the tomato plant that we have growing inside.



 The picture below is one of some celery that has been outside in an older Garden Anywhere box. This is my cut and come again celery. That is the beauty of regrowing some veggies. You just cut off what you need to season your meal and the plant continues to grow. Truly a year round harvest right at your fingertips.

Apron Bonnets and Pioneer Treks

Remember the garden aprons that I showed you this past summer?

 

Well, I have a different apron to show you today.



When I was in elementary school, many years ago, one of our cafeteria ladies brought some really cool aprons to sell. They weren't just aprons, though. With the buttoning of a couple of buttons, they turned into bonnets. I thought that was the coolest thing!  I had to get one for my mom. I'm not sure that she used the bonnet function, but she did wear the apron.  A few years ago, our family was invited to participate in a Pioneer Trek. I got busy sewing shirts for my husband and boys and long, gathered skirts for my daughter and me. I thought back to that apron/bonnet and  decided that it'd be the perfect accessory to our attire. I did a search on the internet, but was hard-pressed to find a pattern...until I stumbled across a little shop called Country Patterns. It was here that I found a pattern for an Apron Bonnet.


I was so excited. I quickly ordered the pattern. When it arrived, I got to work. I made four bonnets. Two were out of the same fabric for my daughter's and my "Sunday Best" bonnets. The other two were just fun prints that I had. One was a print of Pioneer bears that I thought would be appropriate to a Pioneer Trek.

 Here are some pics of the finished bonnets. The one to the left shows the apron and bonnet.  I thought I'd share these aprons just in case you are looking for that perfect gift for your favorite gardener...besides the present of a Garden Anywhere Box, of course. :)

Sausage and Bean Soup...an old recipe...

One of my favorite soup recipes comes from a very long time ago Southern Living magazine. I haven't made it in a while. I don't know why. My go-to soups are either Chicken Tortilla , White Chicken Chili or Chicken Noodle, but today seems to be a Sausage and Bean soup kind of day.

This is not your standard soup recipe...I discovered...while trying to find the recipe on the internet. The recipe does not call for spinach or pasta, sweet potatoes or smoked sausage, which is what I was finding during my search. I had to break out my OLD cookbook of favorite recipes that I put together years ago. So, here's my recipe for:

Sausage and Bean Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb. hot sausage (regular, if preferred)

Large can crushed, fire roasted tomatoes

3 c. chicken broth

2 potatoes, large dices (I don't peel)

1 lg. can beans (pinto, kidney or black-I prefer Bushes Chili Beans)

 bag frozen corn (I like to use the yellow and white mix)

Directions:

Cook sausage and drain grease. Add crushed tomatoes and chicken broth to sausage. Add potatoes. Cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender. Add chili beans and corn. Heat to warm.

This recipe is very versatile. You could saute an onion, some celery and bell pepper with the sausage if you like. You could add some (heart-shaped or chopped) carrots along with the potatoes. You could even add cream style corn, if you like. I've made it all kinds of ways, but above is the basic recipe.

Fiery Kitchen Sink Chili

Color me surprised and happy! I won a chili contest. We had our annual Trunk or Treat/Chili dinner at chuch last night. I usually bring White Chicken Chili (which is amazing, btw) just to offer a change from all of the other chilis. This year, there was a request for someone to make some spicy chili. I decided to try my hand at spicy chili since I had SO MANY dehydrated jalapeno and habanero peppers from the garden this past summer.

I'm reconstructing the recipe as close as I remember. I made it up as I went along... ;)
I had ground venison in the freezer, compliments of our neighbors (Thank You), so that's what I used. With all of the additions, this made a little over a crock pot full. I scooped out a few cups and put it in a saucepan. I also made some Mexican cornbread to go with the chili. (Recipe to follow on another post along with the White Chicken Chili recipe...as if you need another one, but this one)

Feel free to adjust the peppers and spices to your taste. The funny thing is that even with all of the peppers, it's only really HOT if you actually eat a pepper. The dehydrated ones are big enough to see and avoid. The chopped ones only added a little kick, but not a burn. I believe that the dehydrated peppers added a little smoky earthiness that you just don't get with fresh peppers.

p.s.  I took a picture of the chili with my phone to send to my husband to show him what some spicy chili looked like. I never dreamed that the picture would come in handy later.

Fiery Kitchen Sink Chili

2 lbs. ground venison or hamburger

1 onion, chopped

4 jalapenos, chopped with seeds

4 habanero peppers, chopped with seeds

3 cans crushed Fire Roasted Tomatoes (Muir Glen)

2 c. roasted tomato and fig sauce

2 lg. cans Bushes Chili Beans

1 lg. can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

¼ jar Suan’s Scotch Bonnet Pepper Jelly

½ c. dehydrated jalapeno and habanero pepper slices (more or less to taste)

½ c. chili powder

2 t. cumin    

2 t. Slap Your Mama

1 t. garlic powder

1 t. chocolate chili spice

1 t. Jamacian Jerk seasoning

1 t. smoked paprika

Brown meat and drain fat. (No fat with venison) Add onion and peppers and sauté. Add meat to crockpot. Add beans, tomatoes and seasonings. Stir. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.