Leftover Bananas

Hubby eats a banana as a snack everyday of the work week.  On the weekends, we buy five bananas, and throughout the week he'll eat the five bananas.  When I was growing up, this was never the case.  We would buy a bunch of bananas and eat some, but there were always bananas leftover.  When this would happen, my mom would take the over ripe bananas and make banana bread.  Hubby went out of town for work this week, and I was lucky enough to have some leftover bananas.

These are the type of bananas I'm talking about... I've actually used bananas that looked much worse than these.

I grew up making the Fannie Farmer cookbook banana bread with my mom.  At one point, I had actually memorized the recipe (though now I look it up just to double check).  What I really like about the recipe is the lack of fat.  There are eggs and sugar, but there is no oil or butter or shortening.  Instead, the mashed bananas help provide moisture to the recipe and result in a dense loaf of banana love.  Hubby is actually not a fan of this recipe since he prefers recipes that use half a stick to a whole stick of butter.  While I agree that butter-y versions have an added lightness and flavor, I feel just a little better about myself when I have my butter-free version.  It's moist and hearty with banana flavor and a good crumb.

Fannie Farmer Banana Bread

3 ripe bananas, well mashed (I've used 4 before for added banana flavor)

2 eggs, well beaten

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a loaf pan.  Mix together the bananas and eggs in a large bowl.  Stir in the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda.  Add the nuts and blend.  Pour batter into the loaf pan and bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove from the pan and cool on a rack.  

 Yum!

The recipe is very easy to whip up (though the hour cooking time is something to take into consideration).  I usually make mine without nuts because I don't usually keep them on hand while the other ingredients are staples in my kitchen.  It's the perfect use for your unwanted (but still good) bananas.

Enjoy your snack!

Don't Judge a Restaurant by its Cover

I heard about this restaurant just Northeast of Fort Worth in Watauga, TX a few months ago.  It had appeared on Diners, Drive-in, and Dives on the Food Network, which obviously made us a little curious.  The food was delicious with complex flavors and extreme richness.

We started our meal with What Nots, which are cheese stuffed mushrooms in a garlic butter sauce.  Hubby and I savored every bite of the decadent morsels.  Then hubby had a Stuffed Brave Heart New York Strip, which is stuffed with Canadian bacon and smoked cheese.  It came with roasted potatoes and mixed vegetables, which were fresh and cooked to perfection.  Although the steak far exceeded expectations, hubby was a little jealous of my choice, the Blackened Stuffed Chicken that was filled with pepper jack cheese and crab meat before being topped with an asiago cheese sauce all set over angel hair pasta.  It was outstanding!  The sauce was creamy and complemented the subtle heat of the blackened chicken.  I obviously could not eat it all in one sitting given the size of the portions, so I shared a bit with hubby.  We finished the meal with bread pudding, which I was looking forward to most.  It was moist and tasty, but I feel like it was missing texture and depth... but I am bit picky after living in Louisiana.

Our cheesy stuffed mushrooms were the perfect start to the meal.

This was hubby's meal... a healthier choice than mine.

My asiago sauce drenched dish was out of this world.

Although we thought the bread pudding could use a little something more, we finished every last bite.

After seeing the pictures of the food and hearing the description of the dishes, you might think we were in a fancy restaurant.  While Chef Point Cafe does serve fine dining food, it is located at a gas station.  When hubby and I drove up to the Conoco station, we knew we were in the right spot.  There is obviously a story behind this unique pairing of gas and fine dining, which had sparked our curiosity.  The owner married an American and came to live in the States with dreams of opening his own restaurant.  When they went to the bank to get a loan, the bank would not give them a loan for a restaurant... but they would give them a loan for a gas station.  They opened up the gas station and started a fine dining restaurant where you would normally find day old hotdogs and fritos.  It was a crazy but delicious experience.

The Holidays and New Year's Empanadas

It's been much too long since my last post.  Hubby and I spent the remainder of our December catching up on things and getting ready for the holidays... I'm sure I still have a few posts up my sleeve from the end of the year to share with you.  Hubby and I spent our first married Christmas with my family in South Florida.  He spent his time there enjoying the warm outdoors while I helped my mom cook up a feast.  Then we flew up to Connecticut to enjoy time with hubby's family and continue to eat well.  Now that we are back in Fort Worth, we are getting ready for things to get back to normal and starting off the new year on the right foot... and what better to start a new year, than with a new blog post!

I loved helping my mom cook while I was home... I always love a chance to cook for a crowd and try new recipes.  Unfortunately for you, I lost the pictures on my phone and won't be able to share with you all the great food photos... but lucky for you, the websites have photos, and you could always give the recipes a try yourself.  Our Christmas Day menu included:

Cheese Straws
Proscuitto Dijon Gruyere Puffs
Ana's Spanish Tortilla
Tomato Red Pepper Jam
Classic Meat & Cheese Lasagna
Fanciful French Macaroons (gracias Abuela!)
Knock You Naked Brownies (a reader request)
Strawberry Shortcake Cake

It was definitely an ambitious menu that took us a few days to put together.  The cheese straws were cheesy and crunchy, though I thought there were best right out of the oven rather than stored for a day.  The puffs were a great party find because they were easy to put together and were delicious.  My mom made a Spanish tortilla, which is a potato and egg pie that you might see on a tapas bar menu... so simple but so good and the perfect appetizer snack.  I made the tomato red pepper jam for all my aunts and uncles and had some left over to serve with crackers (see the recipe below). 

Tomato Red Pepper Jam
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 of a red pepper, diced
3 cups seeded and diced cherry or grape tomatoes (taking the seeds out isn't super necessary but taking the excess juices out helps)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Sweat the garlic in oil in a large saute pan over medium-low heat until soft, about 3 minutes.  Stir in red pepper, tomatoes, vinegar, and brown sugar.  Increase heat to medium-high and simmer mixture until tomatoes break down, about 20 minutes.  Season the jam with salt and pepper to your liking.  You can serve the jam warm or at room temp.

The main event on Christmas Day was the lasagna.  We spent Christmas Eve slowly cooking up the sauce and building the lasagnas so they would be ready to bake the next day.  The only tweaks (yes, there are always tweaks) I made was using butter to saute the onions and adding garlic and a little bit of sugar.  The sauce was meaty and delicious, and the lasagna as a whole was like being hugged by an Italian grandmother.

I'm not sure how many people really made it to dessert after all the food leading up to it.  I had been wanting to try the macaroon recipe since my Abuela sent it to me with stories of her own success.  We added a little red food coloring to make them pink and used berry jams as the filling.  My mom wanted to make a layer cake in order to use her cake stand, and I found this recipe that I thought would be light and fresh.  We doubled the recipe and used 9 inch pans.  It really only made two layers, instead of the four you might expect from doubling the recipe.  The strawberries and juices soaked into the cake (I kept the strawberry chunks fairly large) making it very moist.  Then I decorated it with strawberries on top of the cream cheese icing.  It was the leftover I was most sad to leave behind when we flew out.

I'm full all over again just thinking about all that food.  And before I end this very long post, I wanted to tell you about our New Year's Eve.  Our good friends invited us over for a small house party.  Since they were hosting (and had just hosted a holiday party), we all brought some food and drinks.  After spending my time in Florida in the kitchen, I was determined to think smart about delicious but easy snacks to bring.  I actually made the strawberry shortcake cake again (so good and easy) but wanted to also bring something savory.  My mom had made baked empanadas a few months ago, and this was the perfect opportunity to give them a try.  The key to making the recipe easy is buying the dough discs already made.  After that, you just have to make the filling, which in this case was a simple picadillo recipe.

 I cooked up a batch of turkey picadillo and beef picadillo to make sure the guests had options.

 Once the filling had cooled and the discs had defrosted, I filled them up.

 I used a fork to crimp the edges, which made them look fancy and kept the filling from spilling out.

Then I baked them in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  They were delicious straight out of the oven (with a little time to cool) or at room temperature.

And on that delicious note, I wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year!