Good ole tried and true banana bread recipe from Sunset Cookbook
This always turns out tasting moist and good, if not too exciting. It converts a lot of people who think they don't like banana bread because it is too dry or too laden with oil. I usually throw finely chopped chopped nuts in there, also.
How to wreck this recipe: In my new effort to get sugar out of food when I can, I substituted equal thirds truvia and brown sugar (that is, 1/3 C Truvia, 1/3 Brown sugar--equals l cup regular sugar). I also added dates and a big handful of chopped Macadamia nuts. I was shooting for a way to get dates into the bread for a date-loving friend, and added the macadamias on a whim because they seemed to add a tropical note.) The flavor and the crumb of the bread were compromised, I think mainly by the nuts. They are soft and rich in oils, which I think caused the too-dense crumb as well as a flavor that seemed to overpower the delicate banana. Better part of valor, do something else with dates and Macadamias, and check a cooking light/artificial sweetener recipe.
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 C flour
1 tsp each salt and soda
1 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 3 medium)
1 C sugar
l egg
1/4 c butter, melted and cooled.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a greased 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf pan (I like to put baking parchment on the bottom so it comes out reliably without breaking apart.) Mash and measure banana so you are sure you have 1 cup. Stir flour, salt and soda together in a small bowl. In another, bigger bowl, combine banana and sugar. Stir well. Add egg and butter, stir again until they are incorporated. Pour the dry into the liquid ingredients. Sprinkle nuts on the top of the flour. Stir everything just until blended. Pour into bread pan and bake for about 55 minutes, until bread begins to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick comes out clean. Put it on a cooling rack, let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn onto cooling rack and cool completely before slicing. This will stay tasty in the refrigerator for a week and it freezes well.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Monday, March 11, 2019
Crock Pot Chicken for Soup and/or Meat
Kind of like Maria's but I started with a whole chicken. I am looking for a nice, reliable, pain-free way to get chicken meat for the week and also to make good ole chicken noodle soup, which is a favorite of Mark's. When I don't have a meal planned and we don't want to go out (that's just about always since Mark's back hurts fairly quickly no matter what he is sitting on) he brings home a quart of Piazza's chicken noodle. It's okay, but for $10 I'd like at least organic chicken and better flavor. This really did it for the flavor. Like slow-roasted salmon, it is on the "regulars" list for now.
Next mission: figure out whether I can get CostCo's, which are much cheaper but probably taste just as good, but you have to buy 2, so I will want to freeze one of them and that often doesn't work very well with meat.
Report on Next Mission. I got the Costco birds. Cooked first one and it tasted just about the same. But I left Bird 2 on the counter for about 4 hours. Internal temp 55 degrees and I wasn't feeling like taking a risk. So I gave it to my neighbor, who will cook it in her pressure cooker and give it to her dogs as special treat tidbits on top of their kibble. Not a bad ending for the bird, but I still don't know about freezing for later.
INGREDIENTS
2 carrots, slice in chunks
1 big onion, chopped (recipe says two but I didn't have another)
2 stalks celery, chopped, including leaves
3.5 pound whole chicken, Mary's organic, air-chilled (recipe said 3 pounds..)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon course black pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth, (recipe says white wine or water works, too)
1/2 tsp basil (I added about the same amount of dried oregano later because it was sort of bland)
DI|RECT|IONS
Put the vegetables in the bottom of crockpot. Sit the chicken on top. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the chicken. Pour chicken broth over it. Sprinkle the basil on the chicken. Cover, cook for 5 hours. (recipe says 3.5 to 5). Mine might have been done earlier but meat came out tender and moist after 5.5 hours (I was playing with Nadia and let it go.) It filled my crockpot dish. If I want a bigger chicken I'll have to get it chopped, as Maria did.
I let everything cool a little, then lifted whole chicken into a big tupperware container and poured the vegetables and broth into a different one. About 4 hours later I started the soup--took some big egg noodles like Maria's (my neighbor gave me a bunch, fortunately) and threw them into some chicken broth made from the remains of a rotisserie chicken. When they were ready, I put in the juices and vegetables from the crockpot and added shredded chicken. I planned to put in more fresh vegetables with the noodles but due to a miscommunication with my trusty partner and husband, I had two cans of green beans (different varieties) but nothing fresh. Still, it was super-delicious!
Kind of like Maria's but I started with a whole chicken. I am looking for a nice, reliable, pain-free way to get chicken meat for the week and also to make good ole chicken noodle soup, which is a favorite of Mark's. When I don't have a meal planned and we don't want to go out (that's just about always since Mark's back hurts fairly quickly no matter what he is sitting on) he brings home a quart of Piazza's chicken noodle. It's okay, but for $10 I'd like at least organic chicken and better flavor. This really did it for the flavor. Like slow-roasted salmon, it is on the "regulars" list for now.
Next mission: figure out whether I can get CostCo's, which are much cheaper but probably taste just as good, but you have to buy 2, so I will want to freeze one of them and that often doesn't work very well with meat.
Report on Next Mission. I got the Costco birds. Cooked first one and it tasted just about the same. But I left Bird 2 on the counter for about 4 hours. Internal temp 55 degrees and I wasn't feeling like taking a risk. So I gave it to my neighbor, who will cook it in her pressure cooker and give it to her dogs as special treat tidbits on top of their kibble. Not a bad ending for the bird, but I still don't know about freezing for later.
INGREDIENTS
2 carrots, slice in chunks
1 big onion, chopped (recipe says two but I didn't have another)
2 stalks celery, chopped, including leaves
3.5 pound whole chicken, Mary's organic, air-chilled (recipe said 3 pounds..)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon course black pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth, (recipe says white wine or water works, too)
1/2 tsp basil (I added about the same amount of dried oregano later because it was sort of bland)
DI|RECT|IONS
Put the vegetables in the bottom of crockpot. Sit the chicken on top. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the chicken. Pour chicken broth over it. Sprinkle the basil on the chicken. Cover, cook for 5 hours. (recipe says 3.5 to 5). Mine might have been done earlier but meat came out tender and moist after 5.5 hours (I was playing with Nadia and let it go.) It filled my crockpot dish. If I want a bigger chicken I'll have to get it chopped, as Maria did.
I let everything cool a little, then lifted whole chicken into a big tupperware container and poured the vegetables and broth into a different one. About 4 hours later I started the soup--took some big egg noodles like Maria's (my neighbor gave me a bunch, fortunately) and threw them into some chicken broth made from the remains of a rotisserie chicken. When they were ready, I put in the juices and vegetables from the crockpot and added shredded chicken. I planned to put in more fresh vegetables with the noodles but due to a miscommunication with my trusty partner and husband, I had two cans of green beans (different varieties) but nothing fresh. Still, it was super-delicious!
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