SK's Double Chocolate Banana Bread (adapted)

When I see a post from Smitten Kitchen's blog, my eyes and ears perk up.  And I usually like if not love most of the things that I have chosen to make from her.

This one didn't disappoint either, it's delicious.  It's really a chocolate lover's dessert, while the flavor of the banana shines through. The only change I made was to add chopped walnuts along with the semi-sweet chocolate chips.  After all, what is banana bread without walnuts?  

Here's the link to the recipe:

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2014/03/double-chocolate-banana-bread/

And here is the picture of it right after I took it out of my oven.

And a picture of it sliced.  Yum!  Oh it's so easy to make too.

Bermuda ~

Getting away on vacation is so nice, doing it on a cruise ship is the best ~

Bermuda is gorgeous, a place to return to again and again.

Sun, surf and pink sand.

A beautiful blue lagoon.

And the most beautiful aqua blue ocean I have ever seen.

Back to reality now.... sigh!

Thai Carrot, Ginger, Apple and Cilantro soup ~

I belong to a board named chowhound.com and get many tips about restaurants, recipes and food in general.  If you haven't heard of it, just google it.

This recipe was submitted by juju, who got it from a cafetaria.  It's her favorite carrot recipe.  I needed a soup for work this week and made this little gem over the weekend.  It caught my eye because I love anything with Thai flavors.

Here's the recipe:

Thai carrot ginger soup:

3 lbs young carrots, peeled and rough chopped
1 lb onions, sliced thinly
1 stalk celery, sliced thinly
1 leek sliced thinly, washed
2” piece of ginger, peeled and chopped fine
2 cloves garlic
1 apple, ripe rough chopped with skin
1 stalk lemongrass, whole, bruised with a knife
1/8 lb butter, cubed

1 cup of chicken stock
½ tsp red thai curry paste
1 cup orange juice
½ bunch cilantro chopped
4 cans coconut milk
2 tbsp olive oil
Fish sauce to taste (around 2 Tablespoons)
Lime juice to taste

Method:
Add the butter and oil to a heavy bottom stock pot. Turn the heat on low. Add the onions, celery and leeks. Sweat out the onions, celery and leeks until fragrant and soft. Season with salt and pepper. Add the garlic, ginger and thai curry paste. Mix well and cook for two minutes. Next add the carrots and lemongrass. Cook for five minutes. Add the stock and coconut milk along with the orange juice and apple. Bring to a boil and season again with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 40 minutes. Working in batches puree the soup in a blender. When it is smooth add the chopped cilantro and fish sauce and lime juice to taste. It usually only take a tsp of each.

I halved the recipe and it made plenty.  It's really delicious,  thanks juju.

Just peachy chicken thighs, easy week night dinner ~

Oh yes, another chicken recipe.  I know, I know.... But, I really do like chicken thighs and easy recipes, so I played around and came up with this dish.  And I wanted something for a warmer weather meal, and peaches are definitely a summer fruit here. 

Although in this recipe I used peach (all fruit) preserves, peeled, chopped peaches would work just fine I think. Just adjust the sweetness by adding a little brown sugar to the peaches, if not really nice and sweet fruit is available.  Not too sweet though as you want this to be a savory meal mostly.  



6-8 bone in, chicken thighs (fat trimmed)
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup peach preserve
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. fish sauce
3 T. olive oil
1 T. kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1-2 T. fresh rosemary, rough chop



Prepare chicken:
Add chicken, rosemary, salt, pepper and 1 T. olive oil in a large bowl, stir to combine.


In a large skillet, heat olive oil on medium high heat.  Add 1/2 chicken thighs, skin side down and brown for about 2-3 minutes.  Turn chicken, and cook for an additional 2 minutes, remove chicken to a plate, set aside.  Repeat with the second half of the chicken pieces.  I do it in batches so the skin gets nice and golden brown.  Remove second batch of chicken to plate and set aside.  Take skillet off of heat and add garlic.  Stir and let garlic get golden, watching that it doesn't burn.  Place skillet back onto burner on medium heat, add wine, stir to deglaze.  Add peach preserve and stir.  Add chicken back into skillet, skin side up, turn to low and let simmer for about 10 minutes.  Turn off stove and add the fish sauce.  Stir to combine.  Served over sugar snap peas or rice, this is a great and quick week night dinner!  Yum ~


Joining Michael Lee West's Foodie Friday today
http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/

Easy Rum Cake with Yogurt ~

I keep a box of yellow cake mix in my house for times when I need a dessert yet have little time to do something more labor intensive.  And that usually happens for one of my co-worker's Birthday celebrations 

We've all heard of this cake, it's the one that PW made really famous a few years ago stating it was her MIL's Christmas Rum Cake.  Well, no offense to anyone, but I'm sure her MIL's family got it from the 70's, when everyone was making the cake as it appeared on the bottle of Bacardi Rum.  Anyhow, I believe she may have doctored it a little to call it her own.  No harm done, it's a great little cake.

But the night I went to make it, I didn't have a box of pudding mix in the house and decided to embellish this recipe myself, only in a different way.  I was a little nervous doing it, because I had made this cake for my co-workers before and didn't want a disappointing dessert for the Birthday girl.  Well this version didn't disappoint at all, and it's made with yogurt, which could be a little healthier (or not), too!  Here's the recipe.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and spray a bunt pan with cooking spray.

1 box of yellow cake mix
1 cup of plain yogurt (I used Fage)
1 cup of vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs

1 tsp. almond extract
In a large bowl, add all ingredients.  With a hand mixer, blend for 2 minutes on medium speed.  Pour mixture into the bunt pan and smooth with a spatula.  Place in the oven on a rack in middle of oven.  Let bake for 55-60 minutes, until cake is done.  It should be pulling away from sides and spring back when touched.  

When the cake is baking, more so at the end of the baking time, I made the rum glaze.  

1&1/2 sticks of butter

1/4 cup water

1 cup of sugar

3/4 cup dark rum

Add the butter to a medium sauce pan and on medium heat, melt the butter.  Add the water and sugar and stir.  Bring to a boil, while stirring and cook for 5 minutes.  You can't leave it by itself, as you want to make a caramel sauce/glaze.  Let it cook for the full 5 minutes, keeping the heat on medium high to high.  I cook it on high, while I continually stir with a spatula.  Turn off heat and add rum, continually stirring as well, as it will steam and puff up.  Turn the heat back on for 1 minute and the glaze with be thin and caramel colored.

Remove cake from oven and poke a few holes all over the bottom of the cake, with a cake tester, or a long toothpick.  Then spoon some of the glaze all over the cake, even down the sides and middle tubular part.  Wait five minutes and invert cake onto a cake plate.  With the cake tester or long toothpick, poke lots of hole all over the top and top sides of cake.  Spoon the rest of the glaze over the cake, letting it run down the sides.

Let cake cool and marinate for a couple of hours before serving.

  

Meatless Mondays.....

I've been doing a lot less meat in my dinners lately.  I usually have enough protein by adding legumes instead.  But, this is my favorite vegetarian dinner by far.  It's easy and filling too.  Just delicious.  It takes about 15 minutes for chopping and you can literally add any vegetables you want.  Although, if you have things like broccoli and cauliflower on hand, just blanch them for a minute before stir frying them.

2 cups of chopped or sliced vegetables (kept uniform in size) 
1 T. olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 jalapeno, diced finely
2 compari tomatoes, or 1 medium tomato, cored and diced
1/2 cup cooked white or brown rice
1 tsp of kosher salt
1/2 tsp. of black pepper

My favorite mix of vegetables for this dish are red pepper, mushrooms, pea pods, onion and zucchini.  

Place skillet on stove top, turn to medium heat.  Add oil and let heat until hot and add vegetables, sitr. Turn heat to medium low after 5 minutes.  Add in jalapeno, stir again.  Let cook for another 2 minutes.  Add garlic and toss.  Add chopped tomatoes and turn stove off.  Add rice, salt & pepper, and stir again.  Let sit another minute and transfer to plate.

By the way, this is a very low calorie dinner.  But, by no means does it taste low calorie.  Does it look like you'll be deprived?

It's yummy and filling too~

Make ahead Bacon and Cheese Potato Gratin ~

If you are like me and are having guests for either dinner or a Holiday, you love dishes that you make ahead. And there aren't many successful potato dishes to make ahead though, but this is one of them.  I've made this dish for a few years now, and it works wonderfully!


I bake this dish half way the night before, covered in aluminum foil and then let it cool to refrigerate overnight.  Then take it out of the refrigerator for an hour to let come to room temperature.  Then I place it back in a preheated 350 degree oven, uncovered for 1 hour.  No fussing, no trying to get everything done at the same time.  It fits all of my categories, easy and excellent!  The gruyere and bacon take it over the top too!



I don't recommend doing it more than one day in advance though.  The color of the potatoes may turn brownish on you.

If you have a food processor, this dish is extremely simple to make. If not, you can either thinly slice the potatoes or use a mandolin on a fine setting.

Here's the recipe:

4 cups of thinly sliced red bliss potatoes, (I don't peel them)
2 cups of grated cheese, Swiss or Gruyere (even cheddar will work)
3 cups whole milk or light cream (I use whole milk)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 lb. bacon, finely chopped
2 T. butter
1 T. vegetable oil
3 T. flour
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 T. kosher salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Place a dutch oven on medium heat on stove top, add oil.  Add chopped bacon and render fat, until almost gone and you are left with brown bacon meat.  Turn heat down to low and remove bacon, set aside on a paper towel.  Add chopped onion and cook for about 5 minutes to soften.  Add butter and flour, stir and cook for just a minute.  Add milk and stir, then add salt, pepper and ground nutmeg.  Turn stove to medium heat while stirring and bring to a simmer.  Add cheese a little at a time, stirring in between so it melts into sauce.  Turn off heat.
Put cleaned potatoes into your food processor until all are sliced and add into the cheese sauce.  Stir with wooden spoon until all potato slices are covered.  Stir in bacon bits.  
Pour potato mixture into a 9 x 13 (or similar) size baking pan and sprinkle with grated cheese.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour.  Take out of oven and let cool.  Place into the refrigerator overnight.
Two hours before serving, bring potatoes out onto counter to bring to room temperature.  One hour before serving, remove foil from potatoes and place into a pre-heated, 375 degrees oven for one hour.  Take out of oven and let rest for 5 minutes.  

You can do this dish all at once, but it will need to cook for 2 hours.  Remove foil the last half of baking though.


Adding this post to Rattlebridge Farms, Foodie Friday!