Banana Bread

I love banana bread! It’s sweet, and if you make it right it’s moist and delicious. It is also a great way to use those bananas that are about to go bad or are sitting in your freezer. Last week I made banana Mickeys in my Mickey waffle iron! Totally appropriate for our trip to Disneyland tomorrow.

What You’ll Need…

8 Very Ripe Bananas

1 ½ Cups Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon Almond or Vanilla Extract

1 Egg

1/3 Cup Butter (Melted)

½ Cup Sugar

1 Pinch of Salt

¼ Cup Powdered Peanut Butter (Optional)

Start out by placing the bananas in a mixing bowl and mashing them with a fork or spoon. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix until everything is incorporated and the batter is like thick cake batter.

Now how you’re going to cook or bake your bread determines what steps are taken next.

If you are making a loaf, pour the batter in a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

If you are making muffins, scoop the batter into lined muffin pans, filling ¾ of the way up, and bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes. This recipe will make 16 muffins.

If you are making “waffles”, spoon the batter into a hot waffle iron and allow to cook for about 5 minutes.

Allow everything to cool slightly, and enjoy!

Homemade Butter

Butter is like bacon, it can make just about anything better. Most of the time we just pick up a box of butter from the dairy section of the grocery store without more thought than what brand we like best. Well, back in November while I was prepping food for the biggest eating day in America I realized that I didn’t have enough butter for everything that I needed it for. I did, however, have a carton of heavy cream that I was going to use to make whipped cream and for the green bean casserole. So I pulled up Google and found out how to make my own butter – maybe not as easy as going to the store, but I didn’t have to spend any more money.

Making butter is a fairly easy and quick process – it takes a total of 10-15 minutes to make it. It is also cheaper to make your own butter than to buy it. You read that right, buying the cream and making your own butter is cheaper than picking up a box of the yellow stuff in the grocery store.

The most cost effective way to go about this, if you’re really committed, is to buy a half gallon of cream, make butter from it (it will make 8 sticks), and put what you’re not going to use in the next few weeks in the freezer. Another advantage of making your own butter is that you end up with fresh butter milk, too!

I want to point out that many of you might think that they add something to butter to make it yellow, after all, cream is white. As you beat the cream you will see the color change from white to yellow, it is actually pretty cool.

Now onto the butter!

What You’ll Need… (Makes 1 Stick)

1 Cup Heavy Cream

Salt (Optional)

2 ½ Cups Water

Tools:

Mixing bowls

Hand mixer

Strainer

Paper Towels

Rubber spatula

Add one cup of heavy cream to a mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer on high whip the cream until it becomes butter. It will go from cream to whipped cream with nice soft peaks, to over-whipped cream, to butter. As it turns the color will change.

The last stage of becoming butter can get messy because of the butter milk. Once liquid starts to appear in the bowl continue to whip for one more minute. This process should take 5-8 minutes.

Once you have butter and butter milk you must separate the two. Place a mesh strainer over a second mixing bowl and line with paper towels. Pour the butter and buttermilk into the strainer. Carefully gather the edges of the paper towel and using your hands squeeze the remaining buttermilk out of the butter.

Remove the butter from the towel and place it in a third bowl. Add ½ cup of water to the bowl and using the spatula spread, knead, and move the butter around to remove the buttermilk. Pour out the water and repeat the process until the water is clear. It normally takes 5 times to remove all of the butter milk.

I personally do not salt my butter, but near the end of this stage is when you should add your salt if you choose to.

Once all of the buttermilk has been removed place the butter in plastic wrap or parchment paper and shape it to your desired shape. Wrap the butter up and store in the refrigerator.

I have never had a problem with any of my homemade butter, but problems could arise when baking because of different than commercial levels of butterfat.

You could also do this using a bottle and shaking, however the whipping process could take as long as 20 or more minutes. Be sure to get everyone involved if you’re going to do it this way. Straining and washing will still need to take place after the whipping process.

Enjoy!

Goldfish Crusted Pork Nuggets

Things have been crazy busy lately, and I sincerely apologize for that! However, I finally have a moment to sit down and share an awesome recipe with you! Sometimes you have a plan set out for dinner and then you go to your freezer only to find out that what you wanted to cook is not actually in there. That’s when you come up with a replacement and in this case the replacement is even better than the original would have been.

So, let’s get onto the recipe…

What You’ll Need…

2-3 Pork Chops

1 ½ Cups Goldfish Crackers

1 Egg

Salt (To Taste)

Pepper (To Taste)

Pre-heat your oven to 400.

Start out by crushing your Goldfish crackers either with a food processor or by placing them in a bag and crushing them with a rolling pin. Once crushed pour the crackers into a dish that is big enough to bread the pork in.

Next cut the pork. If you have bone on pork chops first remove the bone from the chop. Cut the pork into strips, and if you want smaller pieces cut them down to the size you want.

Crack the egg into a dish that is big enough to fit the pork pieces into, one at a time, season with salt and pepper and beat the egg.

Take one piece of pork at a time and coat it first in egg and then in the goldfish crumps. Place the “breaded” pieces on a greased cooling rack that has been placed on top of a sheet pan. Repeat until all of the pork is breaded.

Bake at for 400 for 20-25.

Enjoy with your favorite dipping sauce!