Banana Bread

Who doesn’t love banana bread? Especially when it is hot and fresh. With coffee or with ice cream, it’s one treat that is hard to say no to.

With all the ripe bananas accumulating in our freezer, we needed to make room and use them up. One of my co-workers, Tammy, often makes delicious banana bread and brings it in to share with everyone at the office. I decided it was time to ask her for her recipe so could free up some of our freezer space. Luckily enough for me, she was happy to share her recipe.

At the end of the recipe, I’ve included a few other additions/substitutions that i found recommend on a few recipes sites. I haven’t tried any of them, so I can’t attest to how good or bad they are. As we get a chance to make them, I try to come back and report how they worked out. Until then…. Enjoy!

Banana Bread

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Course Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine American
Servings 0

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups Sugar
  • 1 cup Shortening can substitute vegetable oil
  • 4 Eggs tempered, soak in hot tap water for 5 minutes
  • 2-6 Bananas very ripe
  • 2.5 cups Flour
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 2 tsp Baking Soda
  • .5 cup Nuts optional
  • .5 cup Chocolate Chips optional

Instructions
 

  • Mix sugar and shortening until light and fluffy. Add well beaten eggs. Add bananas
  • In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add nuts to dry ingredients. Stir then add to the banana mixture. Mix gently – folding the flour in, only until combined.
  • Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes for muffins or 45 minutes in multiple loaf pans. (I bake for 55 minutes for 9 x 13 pan.)

Notes

For the optional nuts and chocolate chips, can mix-and-match, use up to 1 cup total. 
Other optional additions to try: 
  • 1/2 cup plain/vanilla yogurt or sour cream to make it more decadent
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • pinch of cloves and/or cinnamon
  • substitute rolled oats for half the flour
 
Keyword Bread, Muffins
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Category: Appetizers & Snacks, Breakfast & Brunch, Desserts | LEAVE A COMMENT

Lucky Charms Treats

Most people enjoy Rice Krispies treats. That crunch of cereal and held together by deliciously sweet marshmallows… It’s enough to make you momentarily feel like a kid again for a few seconds.

Speaking of kids, we made these homemade Lucky Charms Treats to coincide with our St. Patricks’ Day gender reveal. We were announcing the gender of our child on St. Patricks’s Day and thought that these would be a perfectly themed sweet treat. We also had A LOT of boxes of Lucky Charms since we separated all of the cereal marshmallows by boy/girl colors to use in filming our announcement video, so now we needed a plan to use them up. They were a hit with our friends.

They are fast and simple to make, “magically” deliciously, and will disappear faster then a leprechaun!

Lucky Charms Treats

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 0

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups Marshmallows if jumbo size, use heaping cups
  • 4 cups Lucky Charms cereal
  • 1/4 cup Butter, Salted

Instructions
 

  • Melt butter in a large pot on medium heat.
  • Add in the marshmallows and and stir constantly until they are fully melted.
    Note: You may see a slight browning. If your marshmallows aren't fully melted as the sugar browns, remove them from the heat and keep stirring, as they should melt from the residual heat still in the pot.
  • Add your Lucky Charms into the pot and stir well to combine.
  • Pour entire mixture into a well greased casserole dish and let cool.
  • Once it has set, cut into pieces and enjoy!

Notes

Recipes makes an 8×8, we doubled the above recipe to fill a full size casserole pan.
 
Original recipe: https://sweetcsdesigns.com/homemade-lucky-charms-treats/
Keyword Cereal, Lucky Charms, Marshmallow, Treats
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Category: Desserts | LEAVE A COMMENT

Pecan Pie Cupcakes

Traci is an amazing baker. This year for Thanksgiving she made some pecan pie cupcakes to take to our friends’ house where we were celebrating, and they were awesome! They were perfect size morsels of pecan pie in the form of a cupcake. I’m salivating now just thinking about them. To top them, she made a delicious boozy maple bourbon buttercream frosting. Needless to say, they were a hit and did not last long.

Pecan Pie Cupcakes

Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 0

Ingredients
  

  • cooking spray
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup butter melted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or to taste

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  • Line a muffin tin with paper liners and coat liners with cooking spray.
  • Combine brown sugar, pecans, and flour in a large bowl; make a well in the center.
  • Beat eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer until foamy, 3 to 5 minutes. Fold in butter and vanilla. Pour into the center of the brown sugar mixture. Stir until batter is well mixed.
  • Spoon batter into the muffin tin, filling each cup 2/3 of the way.
  • Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

Notes

Original recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/256113/pecan-pie-cupcakes/
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Category: Desserts | LEAVE A COMMENT

Caramelized Tomato Tarte Tatin

This is one hell of a treat! Traci has made this a few times, and it’s quite delicious. A caramelized tomato has such a neat savory flavor. 

If you want to amaze someone at your next potlock or get together, try this. It really is amazing. It sounds complicated, but overall it isn’t too difficult, it just takes a bit of time. The bright acidic pop of flavor from the tomato, that mixes with the caramelized sugars and sherry vinegar, and that gets rounds out with thyme. I’m salivating as I type.  

Carmelized Tomato Tarte Tatin

Print Recipe
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Course Side Dish
Cuisine French
Servings 0 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 package All-butter puff pastry 14 ounces
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3 red onions halved and thinly sliced
  • ¼ cup plus a pinch of sugar
  • ½ teaspoon sherry vinegar
  • ¼ cup Kalamata olives chopped pitted
  • 1 ½ pints Cherry or Grape tomatoes (about 1 pound ) a mix of colors is nice
  • 1 tablespoon Thyme leaves, fresh chopped
  • Kosher salt to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Unfold puff pastry sheet and cut into a 10-inch round; chill, covered, until ready to use.
  • Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and a pinch of sugar and cook, stirring, until onions are golden and caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons water and let cook off, scraping brown bits from bottom of pan. Transfer onions to a bowl.
  • In a clean, ovenproof 9-inch skillet, combine 1/4 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons water. Cook over medium heat, swirling pan gently (do not stir) until sugar melts and turns amber, 5 to 10 minutes. Add vinegar and swirl gently.
  • Sprinkle olives over caramel. Scatter tomatoes over olives, then sprinkle onions on. Season with thyme leaves, salt and pepper. Top with puff pastry round, tucking edges into pan. Cut several long vents in top of pastry.
  • Bake tart until crust is puffed and golden, about 30 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes, then run a knife around pastry to loosen it from pan, and flip tart out onto a serving platter. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Notes

Original recipe:  https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017616-caramelized-tomato-tarte-tatin
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Category: Desserts, Side Dish | LEAVE A COMMENT

Homemade Whipped Cream

How do you pronounce Cool Whip? While typing up this recipe, all i could thing of is the show, Family Guy, and Brian making fun of Stewie for how he says cool whip.

Whipped cream is so easy to make that it’s easy to forget and just buy the tub fro the store. However, like most things, nothing beats the homemade version. Same holds true for whipped cream. It’s incredible what difference the freshness makes between the stuff you buy in the store and what you can whip up at home.

Sure you could put it on top of berries. Or add to some to your hot cocoa. But my favorite way to enjoy it is simple by the spoonful right out of the container i made it in. lol.

Homemade Whipped Cream

Delicious homemade whipped cream. Great on anything!
Print Recipe
Prep Time 18 minutes
Total Time 18 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 8 cups

Ingredients
  

  • 1.5 cups Heavy Cream cold
  • 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Instructions
 

  • Place a medium-sized bowl (preferably metal) in the freezer for at least 10 minutes to chill.
  • Once bowl has chilled, remove from freezer and add heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
  • Using an electric mixer, beat ingredients on low speed, gradually increasing speed to high, and beat until stiff peaks form. Don't over-beat, but don't stop beating it until the cream has reached cool whip consistency.
  • Keep unused whipped cream refrigerated in an air tight container. 
  • Note: Recommend using an electric mixer for this. IF you're using a KitchenAid or stand mixer, use the whisk attachment for best results.

Notes

Original recipe: https://sugarspunrun.com/homemade-whipped-cream/
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Category: Desserts, Side Dish | LEAVE A COMMENT