Strawberry Cream Cheese Banana Bread

Another recipe modified by me. I used strawberries that I dehydrated this summer.




2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup chopped pecans
1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1 8-oz. pkg. reduced-fat cream cheese
½ cup butter,
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 slightly beaten eggs
1/2 cup dried strawberries crushed

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease bottom and sides of 2 of two loaf pans; set aside. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside. In a large bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on high speed for 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup of the brown sugar, the 2 eggs, and vanilla; beat until combined. Add dry mixture and mashed banana alternately to beaten mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until combined. Stir in pecans. In a medium bowl beat cream cheese, remaining egg, and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on medium speed until almost smooth. Stir in strawberries.

Pour one-fourth of the banana batter into each loaf pan. Spoon one-fourth of the cream cheese mixture over each loaf. Using a spatula, cut through the batter to marble. Repeat the two layers as above, but do not marble. Bake about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool.

this weekend...

My parents came for a visit.


For lunch on Saturday, we had Winter Squash Soup - which is similar to a cold summer squash soup I make in the (shocking) summer. :)



From the cookbook “The Squash: History, Folklore, Ancient Recipes” edited by Arneo Nizzoli

Squash Soup

6 cups chicken broth
6.5 pounds squash seeds and rind removed
1 small onion
3 small shallots
3 floury potatoes peeled
3 tbsp flour
2 cups cream
salt
pepper
gruyere
10 tbsp butter

Chop onions and shallots saute them in the butter until soft.

Add flour and stir in. Allow to brown slightly.

Cut up potatoes and squash add them to the onions and leeks and brown for fifteen minutes.

Season with salt and pepper, add the chicken broth, bring to a boil and leave to cook for one hour over moderate heat.

Blend the soup. Return to heat, add cream, and check the seasoning.

As soon as it boils remove from heat and add grated gruyere.




We fixed a 'Thanksgiving' style meal for supper. We had Apricot-Glazed Turkey with Roasted Oniont and Shallot Gravy and Dried Fruit Stuffing. Both Recipes that my Uncle P brought to my attention. C and Grandpa also made pumpkin pie.

Some shots I took of my Dad right before we left the house for morning church.




Ornaments that Grandma and C made.


In the evening, we went to the church Christmas concert...

Trying to wrangle the 2-5 year-olds into position.



K discovers the prop box for the next portion of the program.


They are supposed to be singing about the sleeping baby Jesus here...



Finally in the last few seconds of the little kid's portion of the program, someone realized the damage K was doing and rescued the prop.

another one of my food creations

When we first got married, I managed a weeks worth of shopping with less than twenty dollars. To this day, I can't quite fathom how we did it. It helped that my parents would occasionally send us packages of bulk produce. A friend worked at a chicken and dairy ranch and he would bring us expired products. But I still don't fathom it.

One dish I started making is one I found on the side of a bottle of Miracle Whip. We bought Miracle Whip because my husband scorns anything that is not Miracle Whip. I made the dish quite frequently for many years and then stopped. Every so often, my husband would ask for it. I never wrote the recipe down - it was one of those this and that sort of things. Recently, I decided to try writing it down and come up with the 'best' combination. This casserole tastes good cold too...I've had people who are visiting help themselves to the "ham salad" they found in the refrigerator and comment on how much they liked it.

M's Ham Casserole

1/2 tsp dill
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne
a couple cloves garlic
2 tsp basil
1 tsp tarragon
1 tsp thyme
1 1/2 cups milk or evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups miracle whip
2 cups shredded cheese
approx. 2 cups cubed cooked ham
1 pound of frozen mixed veggies (we prefer a mix with cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots)
1 pound cooked pasta

Mix the first eight ingredients to make a dressing or sauce. Toss the remaining four ingredients. Combine the dressing with the 'dry' ingredients. Place in a casserole dish or in the crock-pot. Add a little milk so that the bottom of the dish is just barely covered. If baking in the oven, cover the casserole. Bake in oven or crock-pot until hot and bubbly.

a meal that my husband always likes

and he doesn't generally comment on food unless it is absolutely revolting....

First, when you read my recipes, keep in mind that I do all my food preparation in the morning - I sort out ingredients in various containers according to how and when they will be added, if meat needs to be precooked, I cook it and put in the refrigerator etc. At one point, I was so uptight about early preparation that if I left the house in the morning without food ready I was rather freaked out about my day. So my recipes always make use of conveniance tools such as the crockpot or bread machine and I seldom make stuff that is super last minute. Which leads me to a plug for the steamer I bought. I bought one of those flavor steamers about a year and a half ago because I wanted to make sticky rice (long convoluted story) but found out that for fresh veggies it is a dream. I chop the veggies in the morning and put them in the fridge in a container of water. Fill the steamer up with water and herbs and let it sit. In the evening when hubby calls to say he is on the way home, I turn on the steamer, drain the veggies and put them in. Yum!!

Oh yeah the recipes!!

Creamy Buttermilk Chicken

Chicken breast halves to feed the family
4 tbsp of dry buttermilk dressing mix
1 1/2 cups (12 oz) chicken stock
2 cups softened cream cheese
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
3 cloves garlic
about a cup of mushroom slices


I forgot to note in the original post that the last few times I've made this I've added 1 tbsp olive oil and tbsp dry sherry to the first sauce.

About three hours before serving, place the chicken in the bottom of the crockpot. Mix the buttermilk dressing mix and chicken stock and pour over the chicken. Place lid on pot and turn on high for one hour then turn to low. About half an hour to an hour before serving pour out the broth mixture and mix with the cream cheese, mushroom soup, and mushrooms and pour back over the chicken finish cooking so that the meal has cooked for a minimum of three hours (no more than four).

Serve with potatoes or noodles and buttermilk biscuits.

Buttermilk Biscuits

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup plain cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 frozen stick of butter cut into tiny bits
3/4 cup cold buttermilk, plus 1-2 tbsp more if needed

Mix all dry ingredients in the food processor. Add butter pieces; and pulse mixture until it resembles corn meal with a few slight larger lumps.

At this point I put in a closed container in the freezer (because i am doing this about eight or nine in the morning). In the evening about an hour before I expect hubby I get out the meal mixture and stir in the buttermilk until the dough gathers into clumps then roll it out and shape into biscuits.

I can never remember what temp I bake these at...sorry!

This makes very tender flaky biscuits. Last time I made them I expected to have some for breakfast. However, when I got up I couldn't find them. I looked in the trash bin and there was a paper plate, and a napkin. Husband had them for a late night snack.

I buy all my spices and mixes (including the aforementioned buttermilk dressing mix) from Penzey's Spices

playing in the dark, something sorta cajun, art, unfolding light

Last night I took the girls out at about 5:30 and we played in the yard with flashlights. It was mildly chilly but not bad. They had fun - I experimented with taking photos in the dark without a flash - using the flashlights as spotlights. Perhaps not an experiment that interests everyone but I kind of liked the results.





Last night I made another one of my cobbled together recipes. About five years ago I decided we were eating way to much Tex-Mex and American-Italian style dishes and that we needed something different. Hubby doesn't like most southern style dishes but I decided to cobble something together that we might enjoy - after a great deal of experimenting. This is what I came up with.

M's Cajun Dish

2 cans of tomato sauce
2 cans of diced tomatoes
3 beef bouillon cubes
1/2 - 1 tsp. hot pepper sauce
2 tsp. seafood seasoning
3 cloves of garlic
1/4-1/2 tsp. cayenne
Beef Kielbasa (sausage)
Shrimp

Mix everything but the shrimp and the sausage in a crock pot ). Simmer. Slice sausage up into thin slices add to sauce about an hour before serving). Add shrimp 20 minutes before serving (however many you want). Serve over pasta.

One of the nice things about this time of year is that our local grocery stores will sell their frozen shrimp bags two for one. I will get six of this dish out of the two bags. It is nice to be able to serve shrimp and not feel like you are breaking the bank.

Speaking of breaking the bank. I've recently been reading a lot on frugal living as a sort of a personal refresher course. When reading about saving energy, not one article has mentioned crockpots. Using a crockpot as opposed to an oven or a stove can be a great deal cheaper plus it saves time. I've modified a lot of conventional recipes to use a crock as a way to keep it warm until hubby comes home. His arrival is sporadic and I like to have hot food ready as soon as he is and the crock is an excellent tool.

Here is a neat art site that makes me want to go further in my efforts - I found it at the 'inaminuteago' blog. http://www.reneeharris.net/index.html

I was reading Psalm 119 this morning. Almost everyone who has memorized verses or learned songs in Sunday School is familiar with vs 105 "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." but I was startled by vs 130 which seems a true companion to vs 105 and a lovely and haunting image "The unfolding of Your Words gives light."

The idea of unfolding is beautiful - what tremendous openess and honesty when something is unfolded - vulnerability. And here is a thought - is God's heart so tender to us that it is vulnerable?

random, random, random

When I was nine, my Mom started working nights. Previously, she had been a stay-at-home Mom. However, that was no longer practical and so Mom worked nights part-time as a nurse's aid so she could be home during the day and we would not have to go to daycare. Dad worked in town which was about two miles away so he would come home at lunch to check in on us. I am not sure how old I was when I took cooking and baking in 4-H. The only specific thing I remember learning was how to use the egg’s shell to separate an egg. As a result, I have never had an egg separator. I don’t know if it was immediately or a couple years down the road but it became my responsibility to make sure there was food for Dad at lunch. I remember pouring over the Betty Crocker cookbook to come up with something different to make. Dad never got a balanced lunch and I am amazed that my father wasn’t ever admitted to the hospital for severe heartburn. I was fond of making homemade fried onion rings for him. Other times, I made cheddar biscuits. Over the years, I developed a few specialties – two of which he was particularly fond: Extremely Spicy Beanie Weenies (I developed a knack for spicing them so they didn’t burn until after you swallowed) and Goulash.

I remember that the summer I lived in CA with my husband’s family, I would often make them goulash. I made it quite a bit when we were first married and then didn’t make it for years. Recently, I actually wrote down the ingredients and fine tuned it until I have a low heat version that my whole family will eat (it is easy to spice-up – just increase the amount of the warm spices to suit – when I was young I used to put raw serranos from the garden in it to).

Goulash

1 jar bbq sauce
1 can corn drained or half a bag frozen corn
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup vinegar
1/2-3/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp Spanish paprika
1 tbsp mustard seed
1 tbsp liquid smoke
1 pound browned ground beef
1 pound noodles

Mix first thirteen ingredients for sauce and warm in a large sauce pan. Add the browned beef let it simmer while the noodles are boiling. Serve over noodles.

Or do as I often do…put the sauce in the crock pot all day about an hour before serving add the ground beef. And when hubby calls to say he is coming home, boil the noodles and mix it all together.








Today, we ran to the store to get some medicine for K’s ears. She is working on her two year molars and is having a great deal of pain and last night we ran out of medicine for her. We’ve discovered that over the counter ear meds gives her a great deal of relief so after running it past the doctor it is our number one line of defense for her. After the store stop, we went to one of our favorite walking trails along Coon Creek off Egret. It was a fun walk until K decided stand up in her stroller while I wasn’t paying attention. I was trying to help C get something out of her sock and K knocked the stroller over. I know, I know, I should buckle her in...I just hate to cause she resents it and yells and then my ears resent it and I yell back.



Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. Abraham Lincoln

cool article I found on using buttons:
http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/buttons.html