Sunday, August 11, 2013

Blender Banana Bread



   My girls always want me to buy bananas, but it just seems in these summer months they go brown pretty quick.  So when my bananas go brown, what do I do?  That's right make banana bread.  I love banana bread...warm and toasted, with butter! I had pinned a recipe for Banana Bread a couple years back and I have referred to it often.  But one of the problems with Pinterest that I have found is sometimes you get the message "the page you are looking for no longer exists.  That's what happened to me today. When I went to find my recipe on Pinterest, it was gone!!!
    Luckily I was able to figure it out from some other recipes I had.  I am blogging about it, so I can share it with you because it's super easy and so good!
    Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
In A Blender:
    Place: 1 stick of butter
             2 eggs
             1 cup sugar
             3 cut bananas
             and 1 tsp. vanilla.
    Blend together.  You will likely have to stop it and push down the ingredients several times so that it blends well.




In a Separate Bowl:
Mix together: 2 cups of flour
                     1/4 tsp. salt
                     1/2 tsp. baking soda


Pour into the blender and blend well.



If you want chopped pecans in the bread, then this is the time to add them. Add about 1/2 cup of chopped pecans and stir with a spatula throughout...don;t blend or you won't have nut chunks.  Pour your mixture into two greased small loaf pans or one larger bread pan.  Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 50 minutes to an hour.  Just check it and it is done when you can stick a toothpick in it and it comes out clean...or when the top starts to slightly darken.


Thursday, August 1, 2013

Mama Trimblini's Spaghetti

I was excited when I saw that the next country to be covered in the Kids' Culinary Passport was Italy. I love Italian food and I knew that this would have to be a two-parter in terms of what I was going to have Lily cook with me. I decided to introduce her to my mother's famous "Mama Trimblini's Spaghetti."  My mother wasn't much of a cook.  Her motto was always stick to 5 ingredient recipes if you could.  She was probably the original Sandra Lee Semi-homemade.  My mother always made this spaghetti for me when I was growing up and I just wanted Lily to learn about it since her grandmother isn't alive to teach her.  I felt this would be one way she could have some connection to my mother.

To make the Spaghetti Sauce is quite simple. You use Lawry's Spaghetti Sauce Seasoning Packet, 2 1/4 cups of water, 1 tbs. unsalted butter, and 1 (6 oz.) can of tomato paste.  My mom would add in 1 pound of ground beef, but we use ground turkey and 2 cups of sliced mushrooms.


First, brown the ground beef or ground turkey.


Next, in a 2-quart saucepan, combine the water, tomato paste, butter, and seasoning packet.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Once it comes to a boil, add the ground turkey and mushrooms.  Reduce heat to low and simmer covered, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes.



One of my favorite things about making this spaghetti sauce when I was younger, was getting a loaf of fresh crusty French bread and tearing a little piece off  and putting a little butter on it and dipping it into the sauce while it simmered.  I honestly think I could just eat it that way without the actual spaghetti.

And of course you can not forget the garlic bread!

On Sunday, I am going to teach Lily another Italian favorite..Eggplant Parmesan.  This is my own version of a Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade type recipe. Then she will get to add the Italy stamp to her passport.