Wednesday Night

Made banana bread and chicken hash.

Both yummerz!

My bananas were browning, though still had yellow bits to the skin. I'd rather have a moister bread and use an extra banana than allow the nanner to overripen and result in an overly sweet bread. Much like controlling salt, to me, sugar is something that needs to be manipulated to perfection.

My one mistake was shorting the glass pan bottom of a liberal greasing-- I like to keep butter wrappers in a ziploc in the fridge for just this purpose, but decided not to take the extra couple of seconds to remove a wrapper. Since the banana bread recipe calls for a half cup, I already had a stick's worth. The land-o-lakes flavor saver wrapper? Also keeps a lot of the butter off the wrapper (it's extra waxy) so it didn't work as well. Note to self: don't skip the grease.

My trick for awesome banana bread is to add a tablespoon of russian plain yogurt to the bananas when I mash them. I also like to add the buttermilk with the bananas, making a thick soupy consistency to add to the batter. I use the banana bread recipe from Betty Crocker's everyday cookbook-- 2.5 cups white flour (wheat ok to sub); 1.25 cups sugar; .5 cup buttermilk; 2 large eggs: 1 tsp each of vanilla, baking soda & salt; 1 tbsp yogurt; 3-4 ripe (but not totally brownie-gross) bananas. I leave my bananas unadulterated (see: no nuts).

Cream butter with sugar; mix eggs; add mashed banana/buttermilk/ vanilla/yogurt; combine baking soda + salt + flour & whisk, stir in flour until mixed, barely; divide between two bottom-(well)greased glass loaf pans, bake in 350 oven for an hour or until it toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 - 15 minutes in pan, remove to rack; cool for 20 minutes at least (unless you like a burned tongue).

Store by wrapping tightly or tupperwaring or the like. You can read; you should be able to figure out the storage.

Hash is pretty easy-- chicken breast cut into similar, approx 1 inch peices, panfried + potatoes + sweet white corn kernels + onion, done in olive oil, seasoned with Old Bay, a tad kosher salt & fresh ground pepper, accompanied by toast.

If I could eat 'em, a scrambled egg might be nice in there, too.

A delicious Wednesday, indeed.

N's totally finishing off the cookies from Saturday. Hehehehe.

In the Beginning

When I was younger my mother had a box of recipes, and this weekend, I plan on unlocking the back door of her house, sneaking in and liberating the recipe box.

When I was fourteen, the oven broke. My parents claim they resisted fixing it because they were tired of the baking crimes perpetrated in the oven; my sister and I were making them fat with cookies and cakes and such. (Nevermind that this meant the end to Thanksgiving.)

So for many years we spent our "cooking" time programming microwaves and reading directions about stirring then nuking on high for one more minute; burritos were cold in the center and soup burned my lips. I ate a lot of things from cans. I graduated high school, left my parent's house and did not resume my love affair with the oven immediately, though I still gravitated towards making things. I fell in love with a boy, and we decided that eating together every night was a pretty good thing. We moved in and the rest is a story left for another time.

The first dish I made for N did not turn out so well. We were nineteen, living in Colorado. He stomached it because he loved me, and because we were broke, and because there was nothing else to eat. We've come a long way since then.

I continued making things, and baking things, and testing things, and perfecting things; in small kitchens mostly, sometimes in another house, sometimes with a little liquid inspiration, sometimes not.

Through it all I kept cooking.

Now, eleven years after N forced himself to eat the worst-macaroni-and-cheese-mixed-with-hot-dogs-ever-created-by-human-hands, we have an amazing kitchen with two ovens and my love of baking, cooking, stirring, simmering and searing has reared it's head, saying "Me! Me! Me"

I'd love to write more, but you'll have to excuse me; I need to check my sheperd's-ish pie.

Shepherd's-ish Pie

1 lb ground turkey

1 packet gravy mix + 1 cup cold water

2 cans green beans, drained

4-5 potatoes, cubed

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

2 tablespoons milk

1 &1/2 teaspoons Worchestire Sauce

Salt & pepper to taste

Water

Shredded Cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Put potatoes in wide pot with enough water to cover by at least one inch. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, let boil about 6-8 minutes or when potato breaks apart with a fork.

Once the potatoes are ready, drain water. Add the potatoes back to the pan. Mash with salt (approx 1 teaspoon), butter & milk. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in skillet. Add onions and ground turkey. Brown turkey.

Add gravy mix to sauce pan. Whisk in 1 cup cold water. Bring to boil, reduce heat @ simmer for one minute.

Whisk in Worchstire sauce to gravy.

Combine ground turkey & gravy in a 8 x 8 x 2 pan.

Cover with green beans.

Spread mashed potatoes, sealing edges.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven. Sprinkle top with cheese. Put back in oven, let cheese melt/brown (preference) (about 5-15 minutes depending). Remove from oven. Let stand for at least 5 minutes before serving.

PS:

My parents, who tend to eat the same thing every night, still have not fixed the oven. It broke in 1994.