Val's Banana Bread

I love banana bread, but am not wild about bananas themselves. Don't ask me why, I couldn't tell you. So usually if I buy bananas they wind up getting black and I make banana bread out of them. On a recent visit with my friend Val, she made some bread that was really tasty and I asked for her recipe. I took a shot with my iPhone to preserve the data until I got home.

For those that can't read Val's handwriting, here's the info:

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter or margarine

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups baking mix (Bisquick or equivalent)

1 cup mashed ultra-ripe banana

1/3 cup mini-chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the rest of ingredients and mix well. Bake at 350° in a greased loaf pan for 55 minutes.

Italian-style Meatloaf (made with Angus beef)

Some recipes you create, some you find, and some just happen. This recipe is one of the latter. It started when I found ground Angus beef on sale at the butcher shop in my local grocery store. I bought a couple pounds and decided to make a meatloaf. I had originally asked the butcher for some breakfast sausage (a pound), but he misunderstood me and reached for the Italian sausage. Rather than stop him, I thought that the combination might work.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds of Angus ground beef
• 1 pound of Italian sausage
• 2 tubes (half a box) of saltine crackers
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 sprigs of parsley, chopped
• fresh pepper to taste

Preparation

Pulse the onion and green pepper in a food processor until they're moderately chopped. You don't want big chunks in your meatloaf, but you don't want them so finely chopped that they're invisible. Empty the food processor into a large bowl.

Crush the tubes of crackers with your hands, just enough so that they will fit in the food processor. Pulse the crackers in the food processor until they are smaller than half inch chunks. Mix the crackers with the onion and pepper along with two eggs and 1/2 cup milk.

The resulting mixture should be about the consistency of your hamburger. Too dry and meatloaf fall apart, too wet and the meatloaf will be squishy. Add the oregano, garlic, and parsley. I used a garlic press for the garlic, but you could also pulse it in the food processor with the onions and peppers. Break up the Angus and sausage and begin mixing with your hands. I find it easiest to use a folding motion, moving my hand under the bottom of the mass and folding it over on itself. I find 15-20 times is sufficient to mix the ingredients.

Divide the mixture in half, creating 2 roughly equal loaves. Bake in pyrex pan large enough to let the grease drain away from the loaves. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. If you like, 10 minutes before they are done drizzle the tops with ketchup. Remove from pan as soon as they are done so they don't sit in the grease. Each loaf serves four, so freeze one if you like and have it later for an easy-cooking night!

Fresh Frozen Green Beans

I haven't put up a new recipe lately, and that's my bad. But tonight I thought I'd share something I worked on. We found some fresh green beans at the grocery this week, and in order to keep them I thought I'd freeze them. Like most vegetables, green beans need to be blanched before they're frozen. Blanching is simply the process of "half-cooking" raw vegetables before you freeze or can them.

In order to blanche veggies, you need a big stock pot full of boiling water, about 1 gallon for each pound of green beans (this will work with wax beans also). You should wash the beans first and trim them, remove any strings and cut them into the size you want, usually between 2 and 4 inches. I like mine a little shorter, about 1 1/2 inches.

Once the water's boiling and the beans are ready, just dump them in and let them cook for 3 minutes. You should prepare a bowl with icy water, too. When the 3 minutes are up, scoop out the beans and dump them into the ice water bath. This is called "shocking" the beans. Leave them in the bath for 3 minutes also.

After the beans are drained, lay them out on some kitchen towels or paper towels to help soak up most of the excess water. Then put the beans in a container (I use a freezer bag), pack them closely without mashing them, leave some small amount of head space (breathing room) and put them in the freezer! They'll be good for 8 to 10 months this way.

To cook, take some beans out, put them in a pan with a little salted water and cook for 5-6 minutes. Here's a video I found over at YouTube that is only 2 minutes long that illustrates the process:

Blanching vegetables when they are in season (and less expensive) is a good way to eat fresher food at a lower cost than buying prepared vegetables. Bon Apetit!

Simple Baked Whitefish (Cod, Pollack, Whiting)

I'm a fan of fish, fixed just about any way. I like fried fish with tarter sauce, grilled salmon fillets, orange roughy, tilapia, etc. But this week I found a sale at my supermarket of simple pollack fillets and decided to go for a light, baked fish.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb whitefish fillets (one fillet/ person)
• lemon pepper
• parsley
• 1 tbl butter or margarine
• 1/2 lemon
• salt
• pepper

(Preheat oven to 325°) Begin with spraying a glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Lay thawed fillets in the baking dish after checking for stray pin bones. Either melt the butter and drizzle on or take small bits of cold butter and arrange on top to get good coverage when it melts. Lightly salt and pepper the fillets, then sprinkle some lemon pepper lightly over fish, then use some chopped parsley (fresh is nice) across them. Finish with a squeeze of the lemon down the length of both fillets.

Bake uncovered in oven for 20-25 minutes. Fish is done when it the thickest part of the fillet will flake easily with a fork. Be careful removing fish from pan to plate, it will be fragile. But oh so light and flakey!

Serve with lemon wedge. Serves 2

Kevin's Oven-BBQ Ribs

I love ribs and being unable to smoke them during the winter doesn't stop me from making them in the oven.  I rub them down with a rub that is based on one by Emeril Lagasse, but mine is a little milder - his were HOT.  These were a particular favorite of Pete's.

Here's the rub:

Ingredients

• 1 Tbl salt
  
• 1 Tbl cumin
  
• 1 Tbl paprika
  
• 2Tbl Emeril's Essence
  
• 3 Tbl brown sugar
  
• 1 tsp black pepper
  
• 1 tsp cayenne
  

I usually rub the ribs down the night before and let them sit in the fridge overnight.  If you have a lime, squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lime over the ribs for some tanginess and to help break down the connective tissue.  Otherwise, I use a little wine vinegar, just a few splashes.

I cover them with foil and bake them at 300° for 2 1/2 hours, or until they begin to fall off the bone.  Then I take the foil off and brush with barbecue sauce, turn on the broiler and leave the ribs under the broiler until they begin to brown (usually 5 -10 minutes).

Sourdough Bread (And Buns!)

Mom always made sourdough bread.  We weren't rich folks, and that was a way that she could keep us in bread without having to buy yeast.  I still remember the hot loaves coming out of the oven, gently sliced and then loaded with real butter.  WOW!

This is my recipe, a combination of methods I've cobbled together from other bakers and several cookbooks.  It works well for me, I hope you like it.

I won't cover making your original starter, there are so many ways to start that it really doesn't matter.  Just start with a cup of starter and go from there!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of starter
  
• 2 cups warm water
  
• 2 cups flour
  

Mix all three and let proof for 8-10 hours (overnight).

Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
  
• 3 tbl sugar
  
• 3 tbl oil or melted shortening
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
  

Mix in most of the flour and the other ingredients until you can't beat with a spoon any more. Then dump onto floured work surface and knead in the rest of the flour. It may take more or less flour depending on how wet your dough is. Work about 10 minutes or until it quits sticking to your hand right away.

Put in greased bowl, cover, and put in out-of-the-way area (dark is best, with no drafts) for 1 1/2 hours (or until it doubles in size).

Punch down, divide in half an let rest for 10 mins. Then shape each loaf into a ball (for loaves) or 6-8 balls (for buns). Put into loaf pan or on greased (or non-stick) sheet and slice 3 quarter-inch grooves in the top to allow better rising. Let rise for 45 minutes or until double again.

Bake loaves @ 375° for 40-50 minutes. Spray with water before baking and then every 10 minutes. Cover during last 10 minutes with foil to keep crust from over-browning.

Bake rolls/buns @ 400° for 15-20 minutes. Spray before baking and at least 1 time during.

(Replenish starter with 3/4 cup milk and 1/2 to 1 cup flour, allow to work for 12 hours before refrigerating.)

Kevin's Oven-fried Chicken

Pete usually deep-fried his chicken so I came up with this recipe so that I wouldn't be trying to imitate his. It turned out that he loved this recipe and often requested it when he wanted chicken but didn't feel like making it!

Ingredients:

• 3-4 lbs of chicken, cut up (legs, breasts, or whole chicken)
  
• 2 C flour
  
• 3 Tbs BAM
  
• Oil for frying (Olive oil or other cooking oil mixed with some bacon grease tastes best! Don't use shortening because it has a low smoke-point.)
  

Soak chicken for at least an hour (overnight if possible) in 1/3 cup of seasoned salt and cold water, enough to cover all pieces. Drain. Finish trimming pieces (cut off excess skin, etc.) and flour each piece in the flour and BAM mixture.

Heat the oil in a large skillet (about 1/4 inch of oil in the bottom) until it froths when you toss in a smidgen of flour. Add chicken pieces, dark meat first (thighs, then legs, then the white pieces about 5 minutes after). Brown each piece, turning to get the entire piece brown.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Now you have 2 options for finishing the bird:

Option 1(original method):Toss the entire frypan in the oven on the center rack. This only will work if the pan is not non-stick and the handle isn't plastic! A cast-iron skillet works best.

Option 2(low fat method): Put chicken pieces on a wire rack over large cookie sheet. Cover sheet in foil, if desired. Place the sheet w/racks and chicken in the oven.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a thigh or breast cut open at the bone is no longer red.

If desired, make chicken gravy in the used fry pan. Drain all but a couple tablespoons of the grease and mix with 1/4 cup flour (use the flour & BAM mixture if you like it spicy). Heat on high, adding milk (about 2 cups) and stirring constantly until boiling.