A Cooler Weekend Six

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dawnnys

Well-known member
1. Below 90 - finally!

2. Getting a steady yield of green beans now. And all it took was about 20 bushes at the community garden!

3. TONS of basil, so I'd better perfect my pesto-making technique ;o)

4. Made chicken-basil pasta last night for dinner. Added my "black pesto" to sour cream and more Parmesan cheese, butter, sliced tomatoes (from the garden), leftover chicken breast, and tossed with linguine. Sauce turned a beautiful pink. No black.

5. Getting so many grape tomatoes now too. Will be looking for a "tomato" thread soon I think!

6. Pizza and Chardonnay for supper tonight (cupcakes and Chardonnay for brunch the other day, just sayin'...).

Bonus #7. Oh! Getting new Kenmore refrigerator today, to be delivered this week, so I will actually be able to buy food and cook again soon!

'Hope everyone had a nice weekend wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

 
Does everyone know how to oven-roast a plethora of tomatoes? It's one way we maximize ours. Last

night, we used about a quart of our cherry tomatoes (we have yellow and red) in a salad. Just toss with a little aged balsamic, extra-virgin olive oil, Maldon flaked salt, cracked pepper and chopped Italian Parsley. Served it up with cold roasted chicken and a bottle of '06 Jericho Syrah. Yummilicious. (To use the technical term)

Also baked 3 loaves each Bananas Foster Bread and Banana,Chocolate & Ginger for CB's film crew. They really appreciate gratis carbs but then, who doesn't?

 
Also good roasted this way with a little olive oil, minced garlic and sliced cheese. Oh wait, that's

pizza without the crust! Really good though.

 
Here you go, REC: Bananas Foster Bread.

Bananas Foster Bread

4 ripe BANANAS, mashed
1-1/3 cups packed BROWN SUGAR, divided
5 Tbsp UNSALTED BUTTER
3 Tbsp COGNAC or RUM
1/3 cup PLAIN GREEK YOGURT
2 LARGE EGGS
1½ cup ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR
¾ tsp BAKING SODA
½ tsp SALT
½ tsp CINNAMON
¼ tsp NUTMEG

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine banana, 1/3 cup brown sugar, butter and cognac in a skillet. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat, cool.

Place banana mixture in a large bowl, add yogurt, remaining l cup brown sugar and eggs. Beat with a mixer at medium speed.

In a separate bowl sift together flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add to the wet ingredients and mix well.

Pour batter into a greased, 9”x 5” loaf pan. Bake for one hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes.

 
Ina Garten's oven roasted tomato method is really good, thanks for the reminder smileys/smile.gif

 
Thank you Steve. I think I will pick up some bananas. . .

tonight. In this heat they will QUICKLY become ripe enough to try out this recipe!

 
Yesterday I made 3 loaves of Chocolate-Ginger Marbled Banana. Wow, fit t'eat.

No wait! Let me say it first . . . "Sounds like I've gone BANANAS!" Okay, not so much but we keep not eating the suckers and SOMETHING has to be done with them. Thanks goodness CB's peeps have a sweet tooth or I'd have a house full of rotting bananas or moldy banana breads. (I know, I know, nice picture.)

 
so, this doesn't really appeal to me, but there are several recipes showing up for "Monkey Jam" or

"Monkey Butter", which uses bananas and pineapple to make a jam. have you ever tried bananas in jams?

 
I've eaten it, never tried it. Doesn't seem quite "right" to me. Very odd texture although the

flavor was "bananay". Still, it's a very odd looking muck and discolors quickly.

 
Lisa, this was an experiment that was more about marbling than anything else but here goes . . .

I think this was actually more complicated than necessary but I wanted to make a marbled banana bread so I separated ingredients to a certain extent, then tried a method I saw on-line.

The basics are two separate batches of the same banana bread batter. To one, I added a cup of mini-semi-sweet chocolate chips, 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder and 2 Tbsp Creme de Cocoa. To the other, I added 2 Tbsp freshly grated Ginger, 1 Tbsp Powdered Ginger, 2 Tbsp Ginger Liqueur and 1/2 cup finely minced Crystalized Ginger. (Add in wet ingredients when you incorporate other wet ingredients, dry ingredients, same-same.)

I put 1/3 of each batter in separate containers, prepped three 8" loaf pans with parchment paper (I rarely bake without it anymore) and proceeded to add alternating flavors to each pan.

This is my basic banana bread recipe. NOTE: It's been modified to reflect use for the above marbling. Yes, two batches will make 3 8"loaves although a single batch will make one 9 or 10" loaf. When used to make a stand-alone banana bread, I'll add chopped nuts (either toasted walnuts or pecans), 2 Tbsp of Banana Liqueur (my secret ingredient) and a tsp of Ground Cinnamon. Do NOT over mix.

½ cup CANOLA or CORN OIL
1-1/3 cups SUGAR
2 LARGE EGGS

3 large ripe BANANAS, mashed
6 oz container PLAIN GREEK (or BANANA) YOGURT

1½ cups ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR, sifted
½ cup WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR
1½ tsp BAKING POWDER
½ tsp BAKING SODA
½ tsp KOSHER SALT

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and parchment a loaf pan.

Cream together oil and sugar until it becomes lighter. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Continue to beat until well combined. Mix in the bananas, liqueur and yogurt

Sift the dry ingredients together and fold into batter until just combined.

Bake on middle rack until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean 55-65 minutes. Cool bread in pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Cool at least an hour out of the pan before slicing.

 
Thank you very much! I think I might head myself to Bevmo and see if

they carry minis of the fruity liquors. Over the years we've gotten ourselves a pretty well-stocked bar, but short of fruity stuff aside from the oranges.

I do have a killer Chai liquor, maybe I oughta figure out how to incorporate into a spice bread or cake of some sort. Mmmmmm....

 
Chai and Zucchini, I'd think. Don't worry about the liqueurs. I'm not sure how much they added, I

just happened to have them (and they are fairly ancient. I'll bet the creme de cocoa is over 20 years old, given to me by a neighbor when we moved in 20 years ago and SHE had had it for awhile!) I'd really say the only liqueur I use regularly is the Banana. Now THAT, I use in every banana loaf. (BevMo carries the Bols brand, which is what I use.)

 
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