Banana Bread

This recipe was used out of necessity, and for my compulsive need to not be wasteful. We had a few bananas, you see, that were about to cross over to the dark side. They HAD to be used before it was too late...dun dun dun.

I found particular recipe on one of my favorite recipe websites: Simply Recipes. This website is a fast and reliable resource for an every day cook. I made a slight modification to the original recipe by adding about 1/3 cup of walnuts to the batter, and sprinkling a handful of walnuts on top of the cake before it was added to the oven.

This bread makes for a tasty breakfast or dessert--whatever your preference. The few ingredients required make this a fast recipe that can be popped in the oven while other things can be finished up (cleaning, laundry, reading about cardia bifida in zebrafish...wait, what?).

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas

1/3 cup butter

1/2 cup Splenda for baking (or 3/4 to 1 cup sugar)

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

palm-full of walnuts for garnish

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. SMASH BANANAS! WOO HOO!

3. Calm down. Enjoy your moment of being destructive, then, get over it.

4. Add melted butter and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Add sugar, egg and vanilla.

5. Sprinkle baking powder and salt over mixture, and incorporate thoroughly.

6. Sift in flour, and finally, add the walnuts.

7. Pour into a greased, standard loaf pan, and top with walnuts.

8. Bake for about 1 hour, and cool on a rack.

9. Hide bread from hungry husband. He may eat more than you want him to...:)

Kettle Tea

This recipe comes from my mom, who knows how to make a darn good kettle tea. Basically, it's a soothing mixture of sweetened, warmed milk with vanilla. It instantly calms my nerves, and the aroma is to die for. I use Splenda and skim milk, so it isn't unreasonably unhealthy. 

This is the perfect way to wind down after a long day...

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1-2 tsp sugar (or Splenda)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure:

Mix all together and heat for about 1 minute and 30 seconds in the microwave.

Relax. Decompress. Barter for a foot rub. 

Vanilla Chai Shortbread Cookies

Well, the cookies have all surely been eaten by now, and I'm not in danger of ruining a surprise...so here's the recipe!

Vanilla beans are intimidating, particularly if you've only ever used one once before. They are strange looking little devils, and surprisingly, require a sharp knife and a steady hand to open. I wrote an earlier post to help those who may be like me--a vanilla bean novice.

These shortbread cookies are great with tea--actually they were inspired by the Bigelow Vanilla Chai tea! This recipe has gone through several adaptations, but the original recipe is a Martha Stewart Special, from her holiday 2008 magazine. They're not too sweet, and not overpowered with vanilla or chai. They're originally designed to be used with a cookie press, but since that is one of the few kitchen gadgets I don't own--I opted to roll them into balls and press them flat instead.

Alrighty, let's get to it.

Ingredients:

1 Vanilla bean, split and seeds removed

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

2 chai tea bags (any flavor would work)

2 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. Prep the vanilla bean. If you are not used to doing this, it may take a few minutes...

2. Grind the tea to a fine powder. No one wants a big o' leaf in the middle of their cookie. I used a mortar and pestle, but you could just place the contents of the tea bags in between 2 pieces of waxed paper and use a heavy object (meat tenderizer) to grind to a powder.

3. Whisk the salt and flour together.

4. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla bean seeds in a mixer on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. I swear if I could, I would have eaten it just like this on toast. Or with a spoon...ahem. Doesn't it look great??

5. Add the egg, vanilla extract and chai tea to the mixture, and fully incorporate.

6. Then, add the flour to the wet mixture with the mixer set on a slow speed, until everything is all mixed together.

7. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Start preheating the oven to 350 F.

8. Form small balls with the cookies, flatten slightly dip the top in turbinado (raw) sugar if desired, and place on a greased cookie sheet a few inches apart from one another.

9. Bake for about 15 minutes, turning the cookie sheet halfway through, or until the cookies begin to brown slightly.

Voila! Enjoy!

The Vanilla Bean

Later this week I'm going to post a new cookie recipe, but I'm going to have to wait a bit, since the cookies are kind of a gift and I don't want anyone getting any early surprises...

I will say that the recipe used a vanilla bean (Tony prefers the word "niller", so hey, whatever floats your boat), which I had never really worked with before. Oh sure, I'd see the little devils in the store, expensive as all get out right next to their cheapo cousin, vanilla extract.

I needed a vanilla bean for this recipe, however, and the redneck niller extract cousin was just not going to cut it. I also happened to stumble upon the vanilla bean motherload at Costco--10 beans for about $6. This may not be as cheap as buying them off the internet, but it sure beats buying 2 beans from McCormick for about the same price as at Costco!

So this was what my setup looked like today. Vanilla bean--check. Sharp knife--check. Super cute ramekin that I use for just about everything when I'm cooking--check. We're ready to go!

First split the vanilla bean lengthwise down the center. This actually requires some force to get through the pod. I had to attempt this a few times before getting to the good stuff.

This is what the inside looks like, and those little black specks are the seeds--so close to victory!

Take your knife and gently scrape the seeds out. I had to do this a few times, and made a gigantor mess, but by the end I was able to get at least a good teaspoonful, maybe more, of vanilla bean seeds. Success!

Happy Sunday, y'all!