Banana Bread

  In my trusty box of recipe cards, there are two for banana bread. I've made them both recently, and decided to keep just this one:

3 mashed bananas

6 tablespoons melted butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large room-temperature egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 and 1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325F and grease a 9"x5" loaf pan. 

Whisk first four ingredients till well blended. Then whisk in egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, soda, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and stir just until blended. Don't overdo it. Place in greased pan.

Bake 75 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out to cool completely on a rack.

Peasant Bread

(This recipe makes one loaf. The three above were made by doubling the recipe and using smaller loaf pans.) 

 

4 cups flour

1½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoon instant yeast

2 cups warm water

 

Whisk dry ingredients together.

Add water and mix with spatula or wooden spoon till shaggy sticky ball and no dry streaks.

Cover and let rise till double; 1-1½ hours.

 

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Preheat oven to 425F.

Grease 9-inch pie plate or 8½x4½-inch loaf pan.

Put dough in pan.

Let dough rest uncovered 15-20 minutes, till slightly puffy.

 

Bake 15 minutes.

Reduce to 375%.

 

Bake 55 minutes.

Remove from pan when taken from the oven.

 

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I’ve made some adjustments to the above recipe. I use half whole wheat flour and half white; 2 teaspoons of honey instead of the sugar; I shape the loaves but it seems to me the original recipe allows you to dump the dough into a loaf pan and that works fine; and I bake at 325F for 15 minutes, then 45 minutes or 1 hour at 375F.

 I usually double the recipe and have added chopped green onions to the dough when mixing.

Aaaand ... one last tip if you're new at baking: I slash the tops of the loaves (about 1/2 inch deep) diagonally 3 times so that they can "spring" -- rise -- in the oven without the crust tearing during that first 15 minutes at 325F. 

 

Substitute for Buttermilk

 1 cup milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Let sit for 5 minutes.

Substitute for Egg

 1 tablespoon milled flax

1/3 cup water

Mix and set aside for 3 minutes.

Omelette Muffins

 

8 eggs

1/2 cup milk 

1 cup grated cheddar

1 cup bell peppers (any colour mix) 

1/2 cup baby spinach, chopped

1/4 tsp salt

2 green onions, sliced thin

 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease muffin tin.

Whisk eggs and milk. Stir in remaining ingredients.
(I had no peppers, so replaced that measure with a cup of chopped green onions. Mmmm.)
Scoop batter into tin, filling almost to the rim. You should have enough for 12 muffins. (I only got 10.)
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or till eggs are cooked.

With broccoli for supper

 I found the original recipe here: 

https://kirbiecravings.com/omelet-muffins/

Kirbie offers useful tips and more recipes, and bless their heart for this one. We loved it. 

 

Energy Bites (Melissa)

 1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix wet ingredients, then add:

1 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup toasted coconut
1/2 cup ground flax
6 tablespoons chocolate chips

Refrigerate 30 minutes so they can most easily be shaped into balls. 

That's it. Keep frozen or not, as you like. 

Almond Rocha

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1 cup butter

1 c granulated sugar

3 tablespoons boiling water

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Bake almonds on a cookie sheet in a 300F oven for 10-15 minutes, or till golden brown.

Combine butter and sugar in a heavy saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring till sugar dissolves.

Add water and syrup.

Boil over  medium-low heat, without stirring, to the hard-crack stage (300F).

Pour hot candy mixture over the almond layer on cookie sheet. 

Sprinkle chocolate chips over pan of hot candy. Spread with knife to thin layer.

Cool. Break into pieces.

Yields 1 lb / 500 g

Zucchini Patties

3 cups coarsely shredded zucchini, drained

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup grated cheese

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1 cup biscuit mix

Combine, form into patties, fry slowly in a little oil or butter. 

Makes 6 pancake-size patties.

I have only made these using zucchini that I grated and froze, 3 cups to a bag, in the fall. The first time, I didn't drain it and had to add several extra cups of biscuit mix in order to get a batter I could drop by the spoonful onto a griddle. 

The second time, I drained the zucchini. The batter still wasn't thick enough to form by hand into patties, so again I dropped it by spoon onto the griddle and spread it a bit to flatten it. This is what you see above.

I don't buy commercial biscuit mix, and used the homemade Master Mix instead. It's so handy!

For Egg

 1 tablespoon milled flax

1/3 cup water

Mix and set aside for 3 minutes.

For Buttermilk

 I cup milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Let sit for 5 minutes.

Crustless Quiche

10 large eggs

1 and 1/2 c milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Any assortment of mix-ins, for example:

2 c fresh greens like spinach

1 c cooked veggies like zucchini or eggplant

1 c fresh hash browns or shredded potatoes

1 c finely grated cheese

1 c cooked meat like bacon, ham, sausage (optional)

1/4 c finely chopped herbs such as Italian parsley or chives

Can add garlic powder, onion, cumin, 1/4 c chopped tomato

Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking pan.

Whisk eggs. Whisk in milk, salt & pepper till frothy.

Add mix-ins. 

At this point you can refrigerate overnight or freeze. If freezing, thaw overnight before cooking.

Bake 45 minutes, till puffed around edges and tester toothpick in centre comes out clean. 

Sesame Broccoli

 Fancy up your broccoli a little:

Cook till boiling and slightly thickened, then drizzle over 4 cups of steamed broccoli:

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp soya sauce

2 tsp vinegar

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

2 tsp sugar

Grandma Benson's Crescent Cookies

 1 c butter

1/2 c icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 c flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 c finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Cream butter and add sugar gradually. Beat until real fluffy. Add vanilla. Sift flour and salt; add to creamed mixture. Fold in the nuts.

Take 1 tbsp dough and shape into a crescent. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325F for 30 minutes. 

While warm, roll them in icing sugar. 

Cauliflower Chili (Instant Pot)

• 
  
  I was searching online for recipes using cauliflower and green pepper and came across one that sounded good and would be fast with the instant pot. Everything on the ingredients list wasn't available in the kitchen, so I made do with what was here and it turned out fabulous; I'll be making it again. 
• I can't say I followed the instructions for setting the instant pot exactly either; I don't use it often enough to be confident and it doesn't do what I want when it comes to setting the timer; the last two times I used it, I ended up just unplugging it when I wanted it to stop cooking. So I've left most of the original recipe instructions here, and added the link below so you can see the original ingredients and all the other goodlooking recipes posted there. I've bookmarked the page for myself; there are quite a few I might try. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tbsp butter 
• I tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground chili
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 19-ounce can diced tomatoes with their juice 
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp sweet teriyaki sauce
• 1 small cauliflower head, cut into florets (about 4 cups florets)
• 3 carrots, sliced thin

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1. "Set the Instant Pot to sauté. Add the oil. Once hot, add the onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the onions start to caramelize and become soft. Add the turmeric, chili, cumin, and salt. Continue to cook for another 2 minutes, stirring regularly to make sure it doesn’t burn. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and scrape the bottom to make sure nothing is sticking to it, this will prevent the Instant Pot from giving you a 'burn' message.
2. Add the tomatoes and sauce, honey, teriyaki sauce, carrots and cauliflower. Secure the lid and close the vent to Sealing. Press the Pressure Cook button and adjust the time to 2 minutes. The Instant Pot will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure, then cook under pressure for 2 minutes.
3. Once the program is finished and you have heard the beeps, wait 1 minute and release the pressure. 
4. If your diced tomatoes don’t have much juice, add 1/2 cup of water."

Original recipe:
https://fullofplants.com/instant-pot-cauliflower-tikka-masala/

But really, what's the reason for using the instant pot for this? Ten minutes to power up to pressure cook, three minutes to cook, for a total of 13 minutes if you don't include the time it takes to release the pressure so you can open the pot. On top of the stove in a regular pot this could be cooked in a half-hour. You don't have to lug the heavy instant pot off a shelf and find a place to park it and plug it in. I will try this in the ordinary way and see if the instant pot made a difference. Maybe the flavours meld together better in the I.P. because two minutes of pressure-cooking are equivalent to stewing for a longer period. 

Noodle Curry

8 oz (or 250g, or 3-1/3 cups) medium egg noodles, uncooked
2 tsp salt
Boiling water

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. I often skip the salt.

3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1-and-1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1-and-1/2 c milk

1/2 c sour cream

Melt butter, mix in flour, curry, second amount of salt, and pepper. Stir in milk till sauce boils and thickens.

Stir in sour cream, then mix sauce with noodles. Voila, eat it now! 

*Original recipe from Jean Pare's Company's Coming Pasta cookbook.

Russian Borscht

Click image to enlarge

Give me this kind of borscht any day! Fabulous.

Cracker Jack Cookies

I didn't use white sugar (added all brown sugar instead) and didn't have any coconut, so added an extra half-cup each of the cereal and the oatmeal. Normally I don't buy Rice Krispies but lately there was something else I wanted to make that called for them and I needed to use the rest of the box, so these cookies were a start. I rolled these into little balls and then flattened them with a fork, but I bet they'd be quite nice dropped from a spoon, as the recipe recommends.

Helen’s Oatmeal Cookies

1 c. butter

1 c brown sugar

1 egg

Beat well, then add:

1½ c flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

2 c oatmeal

1 c. raisins (optional; very good in this recipe)

Mix well and bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 350F for 15 minutes or until nicely browned.

Mediterranean Cabbage and Potato Soup

INGREDIENTS
 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds 
2 potatoes, scrubbed clean and sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
 1-1/2 lb green cabbage (about 1/2 head of cabbage), cored and chopped
 2 medium-sized onions, sliced into half moons
 2 garlic cloves, minced
 1 bay leaf
 1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp sweet Spanish paprika (I didn't have any, used a Cajun spice mix instead)
 1/2 tsp ground coriander
 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
 Salt and pepper
 1 cup tomato sauce
 7 cups vegetable broth (I made a broth with beef bouillion packets instead)
 Zest plus juice of 1 lemon
 1/2 cup fresh dill
 Extra virgin olive oil
 Pinch crushed red pepper (optional)

 INSTRUCTIONS

 Place carrots, potatoes, cabbage, onions and garlic in the bottom of a 6-quart crock pot.
 Add bay leaf, spices, salt and pepper.
Top with tomato sauce and broth.
 Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours.
(This wasn't enough in my slowcooker. I cooked it four hours on high, then another couple hours on low.) Occasionally stir to mix.

 When soup is ready, add lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir in fresh dill. (I forgot to do this but the soup was fabulous anyway.)

 Transfer hot soup to serving bowls and top with a generous drizzle of olive oil (Didn't do this either).
Add a pinch of crushed red pepper if you like. Enjoy with warm pita bread or your favorite crusty bread. (We had rye crisp with ours.)

I licked mine right up!

Source of Recipe: https://www.themediterraneandish.com/mediterranean-vegan-cabbage-soup/

Tomato Salsa Sauce

1 c chopped onion
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic, or to taste
3 tbsp olive oil or cooking oil
5 c. tomatoes, coarsely chopped, with juice
1 5-and-a-half-ounce can tomato paste
2-3 bay leaves
1-and-a-half tsp basil
1-and-a-half tsp oregano
2 tsp granulated sugar
1-and-a-half tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Saute onion and garlic in oil.
Add the rest, stir, bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for one or two hours, till it's the consistency you like. Discard bay leaves.

We use this as a salsa, as a bruschetta, and as a sauce for pasta. I've added various peppers to it sometimes too.

Original recipe: Jean Pare's Company's Coming Pasta Cookbook. Her recipe tells you to remove the skin from the tomatoes; I don't do it. She says you can make Super Sauce by scramble-frying a pound of lean ground beef and adding it to the sauce with a half-teaspoon of salt.