Corn Pudding

With it being Thanksgiving and all, I figured this would be a good time to share my favorite Thanksgiving side dish - my mom's corn pudding!  It is sweet corn and eggy custardy.  It is made with ingredients that we normally keep in the kitchen, so it is convenient as well.  I just love it, and hopefully now you will too!

Corn Pudding!

Corn Pudding

Preheat oven to 375F.

Mix:
2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 stick melted butter

Add 3 eggs

Run through a strainer: 
2 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup milk

and add to mixture.

Mix in 2 17 oz. cans cream corn.

Pour into a 9x9 inch pan.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Coconut Rice Treats

From what I’ve read about coconut oil, it is a relatively healthy fat despite the fact that it contains a large quantity of saturated fats.  It should be stored at room temperature rather than in the refrigerator.  As it has a rather melting point at 76-78 F, it may melt in the summer months and re-solidify during the other seasons.  But whether solid white or clear liquid, it is fine.  To use it as a liquid, it may be easily melted in a warm water bath.

My interest in this new-to-me fat is due to the bottle of Extra Virgin Coconut Oil that sits in my cupboard.  We picked it up for a smoothie recipe several months ago and there it remains.  But then I ran across a recipe for Coconut Rice Treats, and so I thought, why not?

I’ve made a few changes to the recipe.  I nixed the toasted shredded coconut since I didn’t have any and the recipe had neglected to include it in the instructions, so I didn’t know whether it should be mixed in with the Rice Krispies or sprinkled on top.  And I didn’t have any cardamom, which turns out to be a pretty pricey spice (about $16 for a little jar at my local Shaw’s) so I replaced it with half cinnamon and half ginger.  I also sprinkled in a little more cereal, but not enough to make a real difference.

The results looked just like your basic Rice Krispy Treats, but to one taster, it was like “a taste of heaven!”  It also helped that I had taken it to a picnic on a warm summer day, as another commented that it was like it had just been “freshly made.”

So, if you want to make Rice Krispy Treats that are just a little special, this is a good recipe to have in your repertoire.

Coconut Rice Treats
by Chef Ann Moynihan

Serves 8

Ingredients

1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil
4 cups mini marshmallows
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
pinch salt
5 cups rice cereal
1 cup shredded coconut, toasted

Directions

1.Grease a 13 x 9 pan.
2.In a large pot, over low heat, melt the coconut oil. Add the marshmallows and stir to melt. Add the cardamom and salt, then stir to incorporate.
3.Remove from the heat and add the cereal. Stir to coat and then press into the prepared pan. Cool, cut and serve.

Source:  http://bostonchefs.com/recipe/coconut-rice-treats/

Vivian's Notes:
1) Tasted just great without the shredded coconut
2) In place of the 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom, I used 1/16 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/16 teaspoon ground ginger

ROLO Pretzel Delights

I was introduced to this yummy and easy candy recipe by a co-worker who made some for her boss' birthday; fortunately he offered me one as he passed by my cubicle.

They are sweet with a bit of saltiness, chewy with a bit of crisp and crunch.  Basically, they are yummy!  Serve at room temperature.

I made mine in the toaster oven with almonds since that's what I happen to have around the house.

ROLO Pretzel Delights

Ingredients:
Small pretzels
ROLO Chewy Caramels in Milk Chocolate
Pecan halves

Directions:
Heat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil.
Place one pretzel for each pretzel treat desired on prepared sheet. Top each pretzel with one unwrapped ROLO Chewy Caramel in Milk Chocolate.
Bake 3 to 5 minutes or until caramel piece begins to soften, but not melt. Remove from oven; top with either pecan half or additional pretzel. Cool completely.

Microwave directions:
Line microwave-safe plate with wax paper.
Place up to 6 pretzels on plate and top each pretzel with one unwrapped ROLO Chewy Caramel in Milk Chocolate.
Microwave at MEDIUM (50%) 30 seconds or until caramel has softened slightly. If necessary, microwave at MEDIUM an additional 10 seconds.* Carefully slide parchment paper and pretzels onto countertop. Top with either a pecan half or additional pretzel. Cool completely.

*Some caramels are a bit firmer and require additional heating.

SOURCE: http://www.hersheys.com/rolo/recipes.aspx?id=8631&name=ROLO-Pretzel-Delights

On the Side - Dipping Sauce

At a baby shower, you expect to see your pregnant expectant mother (nope - the baby decided to grace the world with her presence early), a display of dainty finger foods (the hostess outdid herself with a wonderful and filling spread), and cutely packaged gifts about to be torn open with gusto (yup!)... you don't expect to go home with a new recipe.

However, there was this creamy, cheesey-looking, red-tinged sauce standing at attention beside the shrimp skewers, so of course I helped myself to a plop. But not only did I dip my shrimp into it, I also enjoyed it with my couscous and roasted veggies, and finished it off with some nice crusty bread.

The hostess was more than willing to share, and I found out it was from a page she tore out of a Taste of Home Magazine (December January 2011 issue), and that there is NO CHEESE in it. Wow, really? And it consisted of only two ingredients: mayonnaise and Thai red chili paste.

But with a such a simple recipe, each ingredient plays a starring role. So with the hostess' permission, I raided her fridge for the precise brand of ingredients she had used: Spectrum Naturals Organic Mayonnaise made with cagefree eggs (I think she shops at Wholefoods...), and Thai Kitchen Roasted Red Chili Paste.

Spicy Mayonnaise (although I have trouble thinking of it as such, since I didn't find it particularly spicy...)

2 Tbsp. mayonnaise

2 tsp. Thai red chili paste

Combine mayonnaise and chili paste in a bowl.

Source: Taste of Home Magazine, December January 2011

Yup, that's it! Simple, yet delicious! Definitely an example of when the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts!

Dun Dun Dun...

Boston isn't known for having wonderful Chinese food. No, that honor goes to New York, or Toronto, or Vancouver, among many other possible cities. We're just not one of them.

One of the treats I had to have during our recent trip to a suburb of Toronto (Markham to be more precise) was "dun dan" or basically a steamed egg dessert. If you are a healthy eater, please, do NOT get the all white version... it is so much better with the egg yolk included.

Since we don't have a local shop that offers such a treat, I took a peek online and found the following recipe that I hope to try sometime:

Steamed Egg with Milk

2 eggs

1 cup milk

2 1/2 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)

Beat the eggs. Warm milk in the microwave oven a bit. Don’t boil it.

Add warm milk into the beaten eggs first, then add sugar. Mix well. You don’t need an electrical mixer. A fork can do. Use a spoon to get rid of the foam on the surface of egg mixture.

Cover the mixture with foil. Steam it for 12 minutes in a wok with a lid on. Every 4 minutes, lift the lid up a bit and let some steam release. Done! Serve hot.

Source: http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2008/06/steamed-eggs-with-milk-dessert.html

Sounds simple and delicious to me! Can't wait! (Well, actually, I probably will, but you get the jist!)

Apricot Sour Cream Scones

I'm no longer sure where online I had initially picked up this recipe since the wording differs from the versions that that I have been able to locate recently. However, the reason under which I originally sought it out is still clear...

Several years ago, I ran into a sale of Sunsweet Apricots (16 oz) at CVS for $1.99 a carton (regular price probably being over $4) and I had a coupon(!) so I picked up two for about a dollar each. DEAL! But only if I could manage to do something with them before they went bad. What to do?

Since I was about to host a tea with a friend, I decided to bake up my first batch of scones as one of my contributions. They turned out great! Moist and flavorful, the ladies gobbled them up without the addition of any spreads!

In fact, this is one of the few recipes of my collection that my mom will actually request that I make. :)

Today, I made these scones again, by special request of that same friend for a potluck tea/lunch! Even the ladies who claimed to not like scones liked them!

Apricot Sour Cream Scones
The River Street Inn, Sun Valley ID

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2/3 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1 large egg, beaten
Sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400*F (205*C).

Mix first 5 ingredients in large bowl. Add butter and combine with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Make a well in center of mixture. Add sour cream and vanilla to well. Using fork, stir sour cream mixture into dry mixture until dough forms. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Sprinkle apricots over. Knead dough until apricots are incorporated, about 10 turns.

Flatten dough into 8-inch round on lightly greased baking sheet. Score into 8 wedges. Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 8 scones.

Vivian's Notes:

1) Use extra sour cream (but still under a cup) for extra moistness - about 3/4 cup perhaps

2) Add extra fruit - I tend to dice 14-16 apricots into 6ths

3) One envelope of Sugar In The Raw is great for sprinkling the tops of the scones!

Cranberry Swirl Cake

Whenever canned whole cranberry sauce is on sale, I stock up. I also keep an eye out for when sour cream goes on sale - the full fat variety only, if you please! And the reason I do these things is a certain cranberry cake recipe that a co-worker shared with me oh so many moons ago.

She's shared this recipe with other friends, but they've always come back and told her that theirs was good, but not as good as hers! After a while, she finally realized that she always made the cake with a large 16 oz. can of cranberry sauce rather than the 8 oz. can prescribed by the recipe. A ha!

Beginning with the holiday season 2009, I noticed that the large can of cranberry sauce had shrunk. :( Yup, it was down to 14 oz. per can. Fortunately it was still enough for this recipe, since my mom always thought that the cake was a bit too moist (or wet!) when I used the content of the entire can, but still... first it was the incredible shrinking ice cream, then the single serve yogurt cup... now this!

So here's the recipe my co-worker once found printed in a newspaper, and now cries out "Holidays!" to me in a loud delicious voice...

Cranberry Swirl Cake

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ pint sour cream (8 oz.)

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 large 16-ounce can of whole cranberry sauce

½ cup crushed nuts

Cream butter, add sugar gradually. Add unbeaten eggs (one at a time). Use mixer at medium speed.

Reduce mixer speed and add dry ingredients that have been sifted together, alternately with sour cream, ending with dry ingredients. Add almond extract.

Grease 8 inch tube pan. Put a layer of batter in bottom of pan, then swirl around some of the whole cranberry sauce. Add another layer of batter and more cranberry sauce. Add remaining batter and swirl the remaining cranberry sauce on top. Sprinkle nuts on top. Bake at 350F for 55 minutes.

Topping:

¾ cup confectioners’ sugar

1 tablespoon warm water

½ teaspoon almond flavoring

Dribble over top of cake after it is taken out of pan. Turn cake out of pan in about 5 minutes and frost while warm.

Vivian's Notes:

1) I omit the nuts because I don't usually have any around the house, as well as out of consideration of allergies.

2) For two 9-inch round cake pans, layering only twice each, bake for about 35 minutes.

3) For 2 large loaf pans, layering only twice each, bake for 40-42 minutes.

Corn Casserole in a Jiffy!

I stopped by the supermarket on the way home for one sole reason - Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix. I knew just where to go - the baking aisle, the section where the mixes are, up on the top shelf... and there I saw... nothing! Like a child's lower jaw with a missing tooth, there was a gap among the line of Jiffy mixes where the corn muffin would have stood.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, it being the Sunday before Thanksgiving and all. But I needed this key ingredient for one of my absolute favorite potluck recipes - Corn Casserole.

It is a super-simple recipe that I had found online many years ago from who knows where. It only has 5 ingredients (I've never added the optional egg), one of which is one of my favorite foods - corn, is pretty much just mix and bake, and tastes great!

The first time I made it for a potluck, I was asked whether it was a side dish or a dessert. Yeah, it is sweet, but not THAT sweet! ;) It bakes up puffy and rich... just try it!

Corn Casserole

1 stick butter, melted (may lessen butter if add egg – haven’t tried this yet myself)
1 can corn kernels (17 oz.), drained
1 can creamy corn (17 oz.)
1 egg (optional) (richer with)
1 cup sour cream
1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Melt butter. Mix in both cans of corn. Slightly beat egg before adding it to the corn. Mix in sour cream. Mix in the Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix.

Pour into a 9x9 inch baking pan. Bake for 1 hour (or more if necessary).

Vivian's Notes:

My lazy woman's method is to stick the butter in the oven in the pan just till it melts, then to stir everything directly in the baking dish. Of course you have to be careful of the hot pan!

Kaddo!

When you think of pumpkin, maybe you think of pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, or pumpkin pancakes... but me, first thing to come to mind is kaddo - a yummy Afgahni appetizer made of a sweetened baked pumpkin, a tomato based ground meat sauce, and a cool creamy yogurt sauce. Mmmmmm....

Recently, I had the pleasure of enjoying kaddo at two different local restaurants: Helmand of Cambridge, MA fame ($7.50), and the newbie Ariana of Allston, MA ($5.95). Feel free to guess which one's which!



Both were tasty, but Helmand's version was sweeter.

Also, earlier this month, a Facebook buddy of mine posted in her status her adventures in making kaddo (she used the recipe found here) for the first time, which resulted in a late night dinner for her and her man. This brought back to mind my own personal experience with the dish.

A few years ago, I took on the challenge of making kaddo myself after I ran across a recipe on Chowhound as posted by Allstonian - this sometime after having tasted kaddo at Helmand for the first time. I picked up a nice fresh sugar pumpkin from a local farmer's market, stopped by the market for some plain yogurt, and selected a Saturday for my culinary goal.

Making the sauces, both the yogurt and the meat, were simple enough. The tough part, both literally and figuratively, was the pumpkin with its super hard shell. I didn't have one of those Y-style peelers as recommended by Allstonian, so I had to go at it with my hearty chopping knife. The results, however, were worth it in my opinion and that of my lucky guests of the evening.

Kaddo bowrani (Afghani pumpkin)

This dish came up on the Boston board - it's one of the standouts on the menu at the Helmand. I adapted my recipe from one I found on boston.com - don't know if it came from an article about the restaurant or not, but that's where I found it.

We eat it a lot in the fall and early winter when sugar pumpkins are available. I've done it with other winter squashes such as acorn or butternut - it works, but it's best with pumpkin. Butternut, especially, makes for a notably wimpier dish. (Nonetheless, we've been known to do it with butternut squash after the fresh pumpkins disappear from shops.)

One 2 to 2.5 pound sugar pumpkin
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, crushed
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 pound lean ground beef
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup water

Set the oven at 350.

Cut the pumpkin into quarters. Remove seeds and strings, peel the skin with a vegetable peeler, and cut down into about 2-inch chunks. [DH, who usually gets this job, points out that a harp-style (or "Y-style") peeler works best on the hard pumpkin - the straight vegetable peeler is much more difficult to use.]

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a skillet [I actually use a cast iron dutch oven, which saves transferring to a different pan later on.] Brown the pumpkin pieces, turning frequently, until golden brown (about 5 minutes.) [I brown the pumpkin pretty aggressively in this step, while taking care not to scorch it.]

Transfer pumpkin to a roasting pan. [Since I use the dutch oven, I don't do this!] Mix sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle over pumpkin. Cover [with foil if using a roasting pan] and bake for 30 minutes, or until tender.

[This seems like an awful lot of sugar, but go with it - the dish doesn't really come out sweet in the end, and it just isn't as tasty if you cut down on the sugar.]

While the pumpkin is baking, make the yogurt sauce and the meat sauce.

Yogurt sauce: mix together yogurt with one clove of crushed garlic in a bowl; season to taste with salt & pepper.

Meat sauce: in a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and cook the onions until lightly browned. Add ground beef, the second clove of crushed garlic, and salt & pepper. Mix well and cook until beef is browned. Add tomato sauce and water, mix thoroughly and bring to a simmer, lower heat, and cook about 20 minutes until it cooks down to a thick sauce.

To serve: spoon yogurt sauce onto dinner plates, add a portion of the cooked pumpkin, and top with meat sauce. Serves 4. I usually make a bulgur pilaf to go with.

This is so tasty, and really easy. It's one of those meals where the different steps fit together really well - knocking out the yogurt sauce and the meat sauce fits just perfectly into the time that the pumpkin takes to cook in the oven.

Allstonian, Aug 2006:
Most of my changes are noted in my bracketed comments above, and have to do with technique. There is one ingredient change - the original recipe specified browning the pumpkin in 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and the onions and ground beef for the meat sauce in 1/4 cup canola oil. I couldn't see any reason for specifying two different neutral cooking oils for the two items, and 1/4 cup of oil to brown 2 onions and a pound of ground beef seemed like WAY more cooking fat than was actually needed.

Vivian's Notes:
1) Give yourself a LOT of time to deal with the pumpkin
2) I lessened the amount of sugar used to sprinkle on the pumpkin, but it was still good.

3rd Annual Epicurious Farmers' Market Tour

Epicurious is one of my favorite recipe sites (another one is Allrecipes.com) ever since I discovered it back in my college days, because it allows people to review and rate the recipes, and it has photos.

City Hall Plaza was just a walk away, so since I heard that Epicurious was going to be stopping by our very own City Hall Farmers' Market this very day, I decided to do a little stopping by myself!

I wandered past several stands of fresh and pretty produce and flowers, some delicious looking baked goods, jams and honeys, even popsicles!, and made my way to the last in the row (or first, depending on how you count them). Since I was already pretty familiar with their brand, there wasn't much for them to show me, so I walked away with a free tote, some sample Ghirardelli chocolates, and the realization that I had missed the noon food demo, and that Ken Oringer was scheduled to demo at 2pm... which was too late for me as well. :(

I ran my errand and stopped by the Epicurious table at 2pm for a quick photo op of Ken with some lovely tomatoes as I made my way back to the office.

City Hall Farmers' Market

Boston City Hall Plaza (Government Center)
1 City Hall Plaza

Boston, MA

Monday: 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Wednesday: 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
May 24 to November 24, 2010

Time for a Dip!

A few years back, I picked up a couple of cans of crab meat for at sales price of $1 a can. Hmmm... what to do with this bounty? Off to the internet I went and dug up a simple yet yummy sounding recipe for Hot Crab Dip consisting of a selection of basic (well, mine anyways) kitchen ingredients. Great!

Due to sheer laziness, I decided to eyeball the mayonnaise so I wouldn't have to clean a greasy measuring cup. I approximated the lemon juice and the Parmesan as well, added extra chopped onions (love onions!), and drained the crab meat of its packing juices.

Spread in a pie plate and baked to a bubbling browned loveliness, the hot creamy results were taken to a potluck along with a box of crackers, and was really well received!

Hot Crab Dip

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1 can crab meat

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Blend cream cheese and mayonnaise together until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Spread mixture in a 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 375 degrees F. for 18 - 20 minutes, until heated through and lightly browned. Serve immediately with crackers.

Source: http://www.donogh.com/cooking/appetize/hotcrab.shtml

Vivian's Notes:

1) I tend to eyeball the ingredients in this recipe

2) I always add extra chopped onions

3) As a personal touch, I like to add drained canned corn kernels to the mix

Chewy Yumminess! Coconut Mochi Cake

Mochi (glutinous rice flour) tends to lend a chewy consistency to the product that I happen to enjoy. Coconut milk adds a particular flavor and richness to the dessert. The first time I made the baked coconut rice cake shared by Chowhounder jbeaux for a potluck, five individuals asked me for the recipe. :)

Butter Mochi or Sweet Rice-Flour and Coconut Cake
Makes 24 squares

3 cups mochiko (sweet rice flour--1 lb bag)
2.5 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 (14-oz) can unsweetened coconut milk (not low-fat)
5 lg eggs
1/2 stick (1/4 c) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350.
Whisk together mochiko, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a lg bowl.
Whisk together coconut milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla in another bowl. Add coconut mixture to flour mixture, whisking until batter is combined.
Pour batter into an ungreased 13x9 in. baking pan, smoothing top, and bake until top is golden and cake begins to pull away from sides of pan, about 1.5 hrs. Cool cake completely in pan on a rack, about 2 hrs.
Cut mochi into 24 squares before serving. (Mochi keeps, covered and chilled, for 3 days).

Source: Gourmet, May 2005, adapted from *The Food of Paradise* by Rachel Lauden.

Chowhound notes:
1) My aunt usually uses a plastic knife to cut the squares, and adds a little veg oil to the knife to ensure it doesn't stick. She uses Blue Star Brand Mochiko Sweet Rice flour, which I've seen both in my local grocery store and in the Asian market here in California.
jbeaux Sep 30, 2006
2) I made it and really liked it, but then I like my sweets sweet. The texture is nice. The only thing is that you can't keep it at room temp for more than a few days and after you refrigerate it, it is never the same. I recommend freezing portions and just taking pieces out before you want to eat it. I don't know about cutting the sugar.
alex8alot Feb 16, 2007

Vivian's Notes:
1) I measured a 1 lb bag of mochiko and discovered that it contained approximately 3-1/2 cups, so I've taken to measuring out the rice flour.
2) For my house, 2 cups of sugar is plenty.
3) The unsweetened coconut milk I pick up from the supermarket is only 13.5oz, so that's what I use.
4) I bake this for 1 hour 10 min. It comes out about an inch high in a 13x9 inch pan.

Dying Bananas, Revived!

There's a saying: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

Well, when your bananas are black speckled... or wait even longer... if your bananas are yellow speckled (with a black base!)... no, don't toss it! You can now make banana bread! Dying bananas, as I call them, make for yummy sweet banana bread. =) Trust me!

I do tend to cut off the softer spots, but then today's banana seems to be different from the bananas I grew up with. Recently, I peeled the blackened skin off a small bunch of bananas and found perfectly nice looking still firm banana underneath, with maybe one or two soft spots. In the past, the banana inside would be sweet and mushy, with a few excessively soft darkened spots that I would proceed to cut away.

Well, I found a brand new (to me!) banana bread recipe online earlier this year on elise.com. It was a recipe that Elise's friend Heidi had begged from a ski friend's mother (Mrs. Hockmeyer), so we can call this Mrs. Hockmeyer's Banana Bread for (relatively) short! Elise called it a simple but perfect banana bread.

Well, I tried out the recipe as written (using the 3/4 cup sugar option), and it is simple, with the exception of the melted butter (because having to melt anything isn't simple in my book), due to the hand mixing/one bowl/one measuring cup structure of the recipe, however, my resultant banana bread had issues with tiny clumps of white powder found scattered here and there. I didn't like that.

Other than my speckled powder issue, the bread was moist and sweet with a great banana flavor and an interesting texture reminiscent of recipes using glutinous rice flour. The especially dark crust turned out to be a plus, being an extra sweet chewy with a slight crisp (until the bread gets stored in an airtight container) treat!



Banana Bread Recipe
Posted by Elise on Jun 15, 2006

Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method
No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Source: http://elise.com/recipes/archives/001465banana_bread.php

I baked the bread in 3 mini loaf pans (I feared the batter would overflow 2 pans) for 35 minutes. To combat the speckled powder issue, which I suspect was the baking soda, I think I'll try either try A) sprinkling the powder over the mixture through a sieve (which however sort of defeats the idea of a simple recipe) or B) pre-mixing the baking soda (and while I'm at it, the salt) into the flour in the measuring cup.

But that'll just have to wait for a fresh new batch of dying bananas!

Baking with... Pears!

Apples... yes. Pineapple... yeah. Cranberries... yup! Bananas... most definitely, YES! But pears? Really? No, I've never baked with pears till just a couple of months ago. I had originally plucked a pear tart recipe from one of my favorite food sites, Chowhound... hmmm... maybe a couple of years ago now. If you are a frequenter of that site, I'm sure you've run into the Sir Gawain cake vs. the galleygirl tart debate. Both recipes are well received by the general Chowhound community, both consist of ingredients I normally have in the house (except perhaps the fruit), and both seemed pretty simple to make, so I saved both, but only just got around to baking galleygirl's friend's Laurie's Pear Tart, and I've already garnered a mass of compliments! Not to mention, I love it too! The key, as noted by galleygirl, is to underbake it, that way the center is sort of custardy around the sweet pear slices. When fully cooked, the batter bakes up into a rich butter cake, which, while still yummy, is less special.

The Recipe verbatim from Chowhound:

Laurie's Pear Tart

3 or 4 ripe juicy pears. (doesn't matter what kind, juicy and ripe are KEY!)
Peel, core, and cut into sixths or eighths

Cream 1 stick butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 teasoon vanilla

Add
2 eggs, one at a time...

Combine
1 c. flour
1 teasoon baking powder
1/2 t. salt...

Add to butter mixture.

Spray an 8" (important) spring form pan with Pam. Spread the batter in it. Now, in a pinwheel pattern, press the slices of pear, peeled side up, into the batter. Cram in as many as you can; since the batter rises and covers the pears, there's no points given for style here(g). The more pears, the moister the cake will be. Sprinkle with handful of sugar before baking. Bake at 350 degrees til a skewer comes out clean, about an hour(Start checking at 40 minutes!). If you have any doubts, UNDERBAKE. This is a whole different animal if it dries out. Then it's just a cake; correctly done, you'll love it. It's just one of those recipes that is greater than the sum of it's parts. really. Ask my Dad. ;)

Vivian's Notes:
1) Personally, I could only fit 1-1/2 pears into my 8 inch round pan.
2) Another Chowhound noted that she used 1.5 times the batter for her 9 inch pan - I tried this, but it was a touch too much batter for my short 9 inch round cake pan.
3) It was still wonderfully moist and yummy days after baking.