Author: Sadie

Bananas Over Bananas

Sadie3 Comments

Before our regularly scheduled post today, major shout out is in order.  Carrie’s bakery (The Bread and Cheese Cupboard in Stone Harbor, NJ), was highlighted by South Jersey Magazine in a Best Of article about the Jersey Shore.  If you’re in the Stone Harbor area this summer, the bakery is a required field trip for coffee and morning treats for the fam.  She also has a ton of cheese (obvi), and gourmet packaged food like chip dips, snacks, spreads, the list goes on…  Ok now, back to bananas:

The opportunity to bake with bananas is contingent on poor planning.  I rarely get extra bananas at the grocery store, so I never have really ripe bananas that are only good for banana bread.  This week, I bought extra bananas so I could wait for the extras to get too ripe to eat. And then I made banana bread.  I forget where I got this recipe, but I think it’s a good one.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Yields 2 8 x 4 loaves, or 4 mini loaves

Ingredients

  • 2 1/4 cup AP flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/4 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
  • 2/3 cup plain yogurt
  • 8 oz chocolate chips
  • 1 cup walnuts (chopped and toasted)

Method

  1. Preheat over to 375.  Prepare loaf pans with non-stick spray and/or parchment.
  2. Cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs, banana, yogurt, and vanilla.
  3. Add flour and the rest of the dry ingredients.  Fold in chocolate chips and nuts.
  4. Portion the batter evenly into prepared loaf pans of choice.
  5. Bake 35-40 minutes for mini-loaf pans.  Longer for larger loaves, until tester comes out clean.

I’m curious, do you prefer the mini loaves or an 8 x 4?

I go back and forth between the two.  Mini loaves if I’m giving them to friends, larger loaves if I’m making it for a breakfast crowd at home.  My pet peeve, however, is when recipes just say “loaf pan” and they don’t specify the size: 8 x 4, 9 x 5, mini?  Godspeed…

Double Trouble

Sadie1 Comment

What do you know about Hartford, Connecticut?  My answer is: not much.  Which is interesting because that is where I am spending the summer.  I got a great summer internship in Hartford, so I had the fun task of finding a place to live for 10 weeks.  I hate apartment hunting, I seem to do it too often.  This is my 6th apartment since college, which doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but I had my five year college reunion this year.  That means I average less than a year in each apartment (not to mention a few stretches at the parents house between places).  At this point I can move with the best of them.

Pack the apartment? easy.

Cancel my utilities and start the new utilities?  no problem.

Deal with the cabel guy(s)? with pleasure.

Forward my mail? duh.

Change addresses for everything important? no sweat.

Hand over the old keys and get the new keys? ok.

Corral my brothers to do the heavy lifting and UHaul driving?  I’m going to need back up:

Dark Chocolate Cookies with Espresso

From Martha

Yields about 2 dozen (maybe less)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs at room temp
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbs espresso powder
  • 8 oz bittersweet chocolate (4 oz to melt, and 4 oz to chop)

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Sift together dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt), and set aside.
  3. Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer.  Add eggs and vanilla.
  4. Add espresso powder to melted chocolate and combine with wet mixture.  Make sure the chocolate is not too warm because it will cook the eggs.  Combine slowly and keep mixing to avoid this problem.  Slowly add in dry mixture.  Finally, fold in chopped chocolate.
  5. Spoon dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. Remove cookies and allow to cool.

I’ve concluded that there is no such thing as an “easy move,” and my brothers will be in bad mood reguardless of the baked goods provided.  But these are certainly a step in the right direction and a much needed shot of sugar/chocolate/energy, during a long day of moving.

Do you have any good tricks or advice to make a move easier?

South, But Not Too South

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When I was stopping at Cracker Barrel for lunch on my way out of Virginia (a tradition for me) I saw a shirt that said something to the effect of: Virginia: South but not too South.  An interesting concept.  Virginia is indeed below the Mason-Dixon line, but it would be inaccurate to lump it in with many of the states below it.  It is pretty diverse as a state with some serious and important urban areas near DC, then some western wilderness if you will, and my neck of the woods which is pleasant and residential and beachy out towards Virginia Beach.

There is, however, one difference I noticed when I moved there that has to be a Southern thing.  The salads.  I grew up with the concept of a salad being mostly composed of greens, plus a few accessories.  I have learned that greens (lettuce, that is), is not even a required ingredient in southern salads.  There are salads of many varieties that don’t involve lettuce at all: cucumber, chicken, potato, pasta, bean, tuna…  I’ve heard of and experienced some of these variations in the past, but have not experienced the pervasive nature of these dishes until moving to the south.  They are everywhere you look!

I’m torn because though there are some nutritious aspects to these dishes, I’m pretty sure that they remove a lot of the healthy benefits of the green salad.   I’m not so thrilled with the abundance of dressing and starch if I’m looking for a light option.

But as the saying goes: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!  Below is pretty healthy version of a bean salad that was actually passed along to me by a nutritionist I’ve seen in the past.  Don’t quote me on the nutritional facts, but with the lighter dressing and several healthy components, it’s hard to go wrong!  It’s a great side dish for a backyard barbecue!

Black Bean Salad

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 1 Tbs lemon juice
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 15 oz. can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
  • 1 cup corn (frozen niblets is easiest)
  • 1 chopped bell pepper
  • 10 chopped cherry tomatoes
  • parsley to garnish
  • salt and pepper to taste

    Most of the characters in this story

Method

  1. Wisk together vinegar, oil, garlic, lemon juice, and sugar.
  2. Combine beans, corn, tomatoes, bell pepper.  Toss with dressing.  Garnish with parsley, and add salt and pepper to taste.

PS- My favorite summer commercial.  I can’t get enough of it!