Cooking with Bananas

I have one of those cravings that I have once every five years or so: Banana Fritter   My mom made these all the time.  I decided to give it a try.  The first recipe required mashed bananas.  The fritters came out awful.  They were like fried donut holes without even a hint of banana flavor.  They just had those strange brown and black line you have with anything that has bananas: Pancakes, muffins, bread, etc..

So I call my Mom and ask her for the recipes she used for banana fritters.  This is what she sent me:

Banana Fritters:

1 Cup Flour 

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon salt

1 Whole Egg

1 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup Oil

1. Mix flour, salt, egg, milk and oil into large mixing bowl.  Whisk into a light batter.

2. Cut and quarter 3 - 5 bananas lengthwise to form pieces that are 2 to 3 inches (5 - 8 cm)  in length.

3. Coat the prepared bananas with flour before dipping into batter.

4. With tongs or fork, dip the banana pieces into batter and allow excess batter to drip off into bowl

5. Fry in oil (Canola)  at 375°F (185-190 C°) degrees until a golden brown. Drain on a paper towel.

6.  Sprinkle with powered sugar and serve warm.

Notes: This batter makes enough to coat a bunch of bananas (6 to 10).  Watch the oil carefully.  It's really easy to burn the fritters.  You can serve brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, or maple syrup with your fritters as well.

Zucchini: The Demon Plant 

So the garden is growing like gang busters. The four zucchini plants are produce more than I could have imagined. Then looked so small when i planted them, I was worried i might not have enough. Someone should have smacked me upside the head. Next year I will stick with just 2 or three plants. I have more than enough. So what does one do when one has enough Zucchini to make 27 loaves of zucchini bread. Good Question.

Spaghetti Sauce Of Course!  If You shred the Zucchini using a fine grate the Zucchini just disappears into a nice set of tomatoes to make a great spaghetti sauce.  The shredded zucchini adds a lot of volume and moisture to the sauce so you my have to cook the sauce down a bit if you thick sauce.

Here is the most common recipes I use.  I just add the Zucchini right at the beginning.  I can usually hide 2-3 12 inch zucchini this way and no one is the wiser.   I like having this sauce with some Italian  or French bread and a couple of Italian Sausages.  I suppose this same recipes could be turned into a great vegetable soup as well (This is a repost of a recipe I posted a couple of summers ago.)

Homemade Tomato Sauce I

Ready In: 4 Hours 30 Minutes

Servings: 6

Ingredients:
10 ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 cup Burgundy wine
1 bay leaf
2 stalks celery
2 tablespoons tomato paste

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have ready a large bowl of iced water. Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel and squeeze out seeds. Chop 8 tomatoes and puree in blender or food processor. Chop remaining two tomatoes and set aside.

2. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes. Pour in pureed tomatoes. Stir in chopped tomato, basil, Italian seasoning and wine. Place bay leaf and whole celery stalks in pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours. Stir in tomato paste and simmer an additional 2 hours. Discard bay leaf and celery and serve.

DIYS Gardening: Tomato Pie
Once again if you don't eat the tomatoes you'll wake up with them under your bed. There the tomatoes will try to turn you into pod people and make you worship the Green Man.

So it's tomato pie to save your life.

This recipes come from Simplyrecipes.com:

Tomato Pie

Ingredients

* 1 9-inch pie shell (or you could make a pie crust, but that adds on more time)
* 1/2 yellow or red onion, chopped
* 3-4 tomatoes, cut in half horizontally, squeezed to remove excess juice, roughly chopped, to yield approximately 3 cups chopped tomatoes
* 1/4 cup sliced basil (about 8 leaves)*
* 2 cups grated cheese (combination of sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack, or Gruyere or Mozarella)
* 3/4 cup mayonnaise
* 1 teaspoon (or more to taste) of Frank's Hot Sauce (or Tabasco)
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper

*To slice basil, chiffonade them by stacking the leaves on top of each other, roll them up like a cigar, starting at one end slice the "cigar" crosswise in thin slices.
Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Place pie shell in oven and cook for 8-10 minutes or longer until lightly golden. If you are starting with a frozen crust, you'll need to cook it a little longer. If you are using a homemade crust, freeze the crust first, then line the crust with aluminum foil and pre-bake it for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

2 Squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the chopped tomatoes, using either paper towels, a clean dish towel, or a potato ricer.

3 Sprinkle the bottom of the pre-cooked pie shell with chopped onion. Spread the chopped tomatoes over the onions. Sprinkle the sliced basil over the tomatoes.

4 In a medium bowl, mix together the grated cheese, mayonnaise, Tabasco, a sprinkling of salt and freshly ground black pepper. The mixture should be the consistency of a gooey snow ball. Spread the cheese mixture over the tomatoes.

5 Place in oven and bake until browned and bubbly, anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes.

Serves 6.

Some Suggestions

1. Cut the amount of cheese in half.

2. You can caramelize the onions before placing them into the pie shell.

If you want to make the Technomage heart attack version of this pie try this:

1. Add 1 pound of cooked bacon, crumbled to form a layer between the tomatoes and cheese.

2. Instead of mayonnaise add some more milk and an egg to the cheese mixture. This will make the pie more quiche like. I haven't try this yet, but it is next on the list of the things to try.

DIYS Gardening: Tomato Sauce
Last year I had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with. One of the reasons? I was unwilling to peel my tomato. It seems a little to much work. Then I found this wonderful YouTube video on blanching and peeling tomatoes. This video change my cooking life and let me try a different tomato sauce from the one I posted last year.




This sauce is pretty good. It just takes hours to cook. Start this one after lunch. The sauce is a little sweet, but that could be due to the Big Girl tomatoes from my garden. Try cutting the sweetness with more wine, wine vinegar, or salt. Try adding small amounts while cooking and tasting the results.

Homemade Tomato Sauce I

Ready In: 4 Hours 30 Minutes

Servings: 6

Ingredients:
10 ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 cup Burgundy wine
1 bay leaf
2 stalks celery
2 tablespoons tomato paste

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have ready a large bowl of iced water. Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel and squeeze out seeds. Chop 8 tomatoes and puree in blender or food processor. Chop remaining two tomatoes and set aside.

2. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes. Pour in pureed tomatoes. Stir in chopped tomato, basil, Italian seasoning and wine. Place bay leaf and whole celery stalks in pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours. Stir in tomato paste and simmer an additional 2 hours. Discard bay leaf and celery and serve.

Recipes Courtesy allrecipes.com

DIYS Gardening: Eggplant
I'm growing two type of eggplants: Purple Blaze (Shown here) and Little Fingers. I avoided eggplant in the grocery store, but I don't know why. Maybe it's because the only purple foods I've eaten are grapes and blueberries, so a purple vegetable puts me out of sorts. However my eggplants have been growing like gangbuster! So what to do? Eat them! I heard of Eggplant Parmesan in every cookbook I've ever had, so why not give it a whirl.

Eggplant is a bit of an annoy vegetable, which is probably why people avoid it. The eggplant taste great, but you must prepare it properly. Eggplant needs to be drain of excess water before you can cook it. Usually this mean slicing the eggplant and putting it into a colander in between layers of kosher salt for 2 hours. That what makes most recipes for eggplant stretch past the three hour mark. After drain my eggplant, I found it helpful to give the eggplant a good rinse to get rid of the extra salt. Then press the eggplant dry between paper towels. When your eggplant is dry and rubbery (Not the word I want but it fits, and the eggplant taste so much better than rubber), you are ready to cook.

I find that eggplant chips battered and fried like onion rings can be quite yummy.

Eggplant Parmesan
Ingredients

* 2 lbs (about 2 large) eggplants
* Kosher salt
* 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes
* 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
* Olive oil
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
* 4 large eggs, beaten
* 1 1/2 lbs of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
* 1 cup grated high quality Parmesan cheese
* 1 packed cup fresh basil leaves

Method

1 Cut eggplants lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices. Arrange one layer in the bottom of a large colander and sprinkle evenly with salt. Repeat with remaining eggplant, salting, until all eggplant is in the colander. Weigh down the slices with a couple of plates and let drain for 2 hours. The purpose of this step is to have the eggplant release some of its moisture before cooking.

2 While the eggplant is draining, prepare tomato sauce. Combine tomatoes, garlic and 1/3 cup olive oil in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper to tasted and set aside.

3 When eggplant has drained, press down on it to remove excess water, wipe off the excess salt, and lay the slices out on paper towels to remove all the moisture. In a wide, shallow bowl, combine flour and breadcrumbs. Mix well. Pour beaten eggs into another wide shallow bowl. Place a large, deep skillet over medium heat, and pour in a a half inch of olive oil. When oil is shimmering, dredge the eggplant slices first in the flour mixture, then in the beaten egg. Working in batches, slide coated eggplant into hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides, turning once. Drain on paper towels.

4 Preheat the oven to 350°F. In the bottom of a 10x15 inch glass baking dish, spread 1 cup of tomato sauce. Top with one third of the eggplant slices. Top eggplant with half of the mozzarella slices. Sprinkle with one third of the Parmesan and half of the basil leaves.

5 Make a second layer of eggplant slices, topped by 1 cup of sauce, remaining mozzarella, half the remaining Parmesan, and all of the remaining basil. Add remaining eggplant, and top with the remaining tomato sauce and Parmesan.

6 Bake until cheese has melted and the top is slightly brown, about 30 minutes. Allow to rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 8.


Recipe courtesy of Simply Recipes

DIYS:  Gardening - MORE Tomatoes!

I've got more tomatoes and I don't quite know what to do with them.  I leaning toward a food dehydrator so I can make "sun" dried tomatoes, but Technowitch has been dying to do some cooking with them.  She came up with a salsa recipe from Great-Salsa.com

It's pretty good, but it help to know what Tomatilloes look like before driving all over the city to find them. 


Mild Homemade Salsa

8 Fresh vine ripe right from the garden Tomatoes, chopped 4 small Tomatillo, remove the papery skin and chop ½ cup of fresh cilantro, chopped 2-4 whole green onions, including the green part; chopped Jalapeno peppers to taste. ½ bell pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped 1 lime, juiced ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt

Combine all the chopped ingredients into a bowl stir lightly. Squeeze the lime juice over the homemade salsa.

This flavorfuly mild homemade salsa can be served immediately, but its flavor will be enhance after allow the salsa to season for about an hour or over night in the refrigerator.

DIYS Gardening:  I've got Tomatoes, now what?!?

My tomatoes are growing like gangbuster, along with the rest of my garden.  I think a good garden should provided at least one dish you can eat regularly.  This year doesn't quite do the job, because I need to grow some spices.  Maybe that what i should do for next year.

This year, it's what to day with 3 dozen tomatoes.   Actually, I all ready had a plan.  The High Priestess like to make pasta dishes, so tomato sauce seems to be a good choice.  I've asked friends and combed the internet looking for a simple recipe that had fresh tomatoes and could be prepared with little effort.  This is what I came up with, courtesy of allrecipes.com.

Fresh Tomato Sauce
Prep time 2 hours ( the website say 30 minutes, but they lie).  It took me ahile to chop everything and I just threw them in the pot as I went.  I forgot to add the oil first then toss in the veggies.  I am willing to bet that the hot oil would have brought on more of the flavors in the tamotoes and peppers.  It's a ver sweet sauce and kind of soupy.  I added 2 (6oz) cans of tomato paste to thicken the sauce up a bit.  It's pretty good, but lack the Itallian spices.  Next time, I'll add more garlic, basil and oregano.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil 6 tomatoes, chopped 3 onions, minced 2 green bell peppers, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced 3 tablespoons white wine salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.	In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat; add tomatoes, onions, green bell peppers, garlic, white wine and salt and pepper to taste.
2.	Mix ingredients well; cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve.

Spring Rolls

2 1/2 pounds ground meat (beef, pork or whatever)
3 bundles of Silver Noodles
3 large carrots sliced (sliced fine or shredded)
1/2 medium cabbage shredded
Oyster sauce
3 whole eggs
1/2 cup flour (for sealing eggrolls)
Spring roll/ egg roll wrappers

Instructions
Soak noodles in warm water until soft, then drain them. Place carrots, cabbage, and noddles in a large bowl. Cook and drain meat. Allow meat to cool and place in bowl with carrots, cabbage, and noodles. To the same bowl add 1/4 cup of oyster sauce. Add 3 eggs in the same bowl. Mix everything together.

Make a water and flour paste that is very thick. Fill and Wrap mixture into spring roll wrappers. Seal with flour paste. Deep fry in vegetable oil until rolls are a golden brown.

This is the recipe that Technowitch made for her Girl Scout troop. I ate all the left-overs!

I like to spend Christmas at my parent's house. The High Priestess and I have been doing this ever since the kids were born. I try to get the kids to see their grandparents when ever I can. I lost three of my grandparents before I was five so I don't remember them. My last grandmother died when I was 30, but she had a stoke years before that so I remember her being sick. My best remember of her was when she brought a whole bag of toys one Christmas when I was about ten years old. So I am doing everything I can to get my kids to know their grandparents.

My mom goes all out every Christmas. I swear I gain 5 to 10 pound and my blood sugar number go into the toilet every year I am here. These are candy cane cookies sprinkled with crushed candy canes. I tried finding the Betty Crocker recipe in the "Cooky Book" but the page seems to be missing. Not to mention the book is falling apart from use. These cookies are wonderful with tea, coffee or milk. Just ask Santa. These are all that is left from my Mom's baking.

Lemon Pressed Cookies: GONE
Cherry tarts: GONE
Lemon Tarts: GONE
Christmas Bread: GONE

Dinner/Snack items
Eggrolls: GONE
Roast Beef: GONE
Green Beans: GONE

I feel like such a pig! My left arm is numb. I don't think that is a good sign.

Candy Cane Cookies (from Cooks.com)

1 c. sugar
1 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. milk
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. peppermint extract
3 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. red food coloring

TOPPING:

2 tbsp. crushed peppermint candy
2 tbsp. sugar (Personally, I'd skip the sugar)

Mix sugar, butter, milk, egg, vanilla and peppermint extract. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Divide dough into halves. Tint 1 half with food color. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take 1 teaspoon dough from each half and shape each into 4 inch rope by rolling back and forth on floured surface. Place 1 red and 1 white rope side by side; press together lightly and twist. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, curving down top of cookie to form handle of cane. Bake for 9 minutes and immediately sprinkle with topping mixture.


My Willpower: GONE

Stained Glass Cookies

Technowitch has been making cookies. She got this recipes from American Girl magazine. Since I didn't bring the magazine with me. Here is another version. They are just simple sugar cookies with different shapes cut out of the centers. The "glass" can be any hard candy but I think Jolly Ranchers work the best.


Stained Glass Cookies
From Food Network

1 package (17.5 ounces) sugar cookie mix (recommended: Betty Crocker)
1/3 cup cream cheese, softened in microwave for 45 seconds
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon extract
3 tablespoons cake flour
8 ounces hard candies, assorted colors (recommended: Jolly Ranchers or LifeSavers)

Special Equipment:
Baking sheets
Aluminum foil and cooking spray
Mixing bowl
Flour
Rolling pin
Oversized (4 to 5-inch) ornament-shaped cookie cutter
Smaller cutters, round or square
Cooling rack

Line baking sheets with aluminum foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. Alternatively, you can use a silicone baking mat.

In a large bowl, stir together all ingredients, except hard candies, until dough ball forms. Split dough in half and form into disks.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thick. Cut out cookies with oversized (4 to 5-inch) ornament-shaped cookie cutters. Place cookies on prepared baking sheets spaced 1-inch apart. On each of the large cookies, cut out 3 or 4 smaller shapes using 1/2 to 1-inch cookie cutters. If cookies are to be used as ornaments, make a hole at the top with a straw. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

While cookies chill, place unwrapped hard candies, sorted by color, in separate zip-top resealable bags. Squeeze air from bags and seal; crush candies with rolling pin. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Remove cookies from refrigerator and fill centers of cookies with
crushed hard candies.

Bake for 9 to 12 minutes or until edges just start to turn golden. Cool completely on baking sheet on a rack.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Store completely cooled cookies separated by waxed paper in an air-tight container for 1 week.

If you just need a sugar cookie recipe instead of sugar cookie mix, just use this and follow the the above instruction. Or you can just make and eat the cookies plain.

Simple Sugar Cookies
From allrecipes.com

* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

I have a Late summer/fall/back to school ritual I do. The last week in August or the first week of September I head to Wilson's Apple Orchard. Last year was a wash, because of weather. This year there were some apples on the tree, but I only pick a few for eating. The rest came for the cooler in the Wilson's Orchard store. All gathered by professional pickers.

My apple of choice is the "Song of September" and this weekend I finish the ritual by baking them into a pie. I get to use my Apple peeler/corer, so it take no time at all. Serve warm with Breyers' All Natural Vanilla Ice Cream and I'm in Heaven.

Here is the recipe I used today:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
a dash ground nutmeg
6 cups thinly sliced peeled "Song of September" apples (8 medium apples)
1 tbsp butter

I cheat and use a ready made pie crust. Cover the edges with foil. Bake at 375 Degrees for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Cool.

Cranberry Walnut Scones

( These are quite good and moist too. Servered warm, fresh with a little butter and a something warm to drink...heaven.... In the morning with warm bunny slippers. )


2 Cups Flour
2 tablespoons Sugar
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoons Salt
1/2 cup Butter or Margarine
1/2 cup Sweetened Dried Cranberries
1/2 cup Chopped Walnut
3/4 Buttermilk*
1 egg (separated)
2 teaspoons Sugar

(* To Substitute Buttermilk, use 2 teaspoons Vinegar or Lemon Juice plus milk to make 3/4 cup)

1. heat oven to 375F. Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. Lightly spoon flour into mearsuring cup; level off. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, baking soda , and salt: mix well. With a pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add Cranberries and Walnuts; mix well.

2. In a small bowl, combine buttermilk and egg yolk; blend well. Add to flour mixture. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. turn dough out onto light floured surface, knead lightly 12 times. Divide dough in half; place on greased cookie sheet. Pat each half into a 6-inch circle. Cut each into 6 wedges. Do not separate.

3. In small bowl, beat egg white slightly, brush over top of the scones. Sprinkle lightly with 2 teaspoons sugar.

4. Bake at 375F for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 10 minutes. Serve Warm. Makes 12 Scones.

(High Altitude - Above 3500 Feet: No Change)

Ok So I'm Lazy..... Another recipes... My Spouse would cook this all the time before we had kids. So I miss it. Try the recipe plain before you start messing with it. This is so cool because it makes it's own crust!

Yummi :)



Impossible Bacon Pie (Fake Quiche)

12 slices of bacon (Fried and Crumbled)
1 Cup Shredded Swiss Cheese
1/3 Cup Chopped onion
2 Cups milk
1 Cup Bisquick
4 Eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Sprinkle Bacon, cheese, and onions in greased
10 x 1 1/2 inch pie plate. Beat remaining
ingredients until smooth. Pout into pie plate.
Bake until a knife inserted halfway between
the the center and the edge comes out clean,
about 35 - 40 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Hint: This recipe you can play around will and
not screw it up. Try adding mushroom, fresh
spinach, or other veggies. Think "dry" ingredients
Try a little salsa on top.

There is never a bad time for French Toast

Panther's French Toast

3/4 Cup milk
2 Eggs
1/2 to 1 tsp. Cinnamon (Ground)
1/4 to 1 tsp. Nutmeg (Ground)
2 to 3 tbsp. Sugar

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with a flat bottom.
Beat with a wisk so that the mixture is well aired.
You can tell if it is when it gets foamy. (You May need
wisk the mixture again after each batch of toast)
Heat a skillet to 375 - 400 Degrees F. Make sure the
skillet is well greased with butter. Dip both sides of
the bread into the mixture and place in the hot skillet.
Cook until golden brown. Makes 8 - 12 pieces of
French Toast.

Hints: The secret is having the skillet hot enough to really
toast the bread, but not hot enough to burn the butter.
Also don't dip the bread too long or it will get soggy.
Having the mixture foamy really helps here. It coats the
bread without make it too damp. You can play around with
the spices and sugar to taste.