Mom's Banana Bread With A Twist

I have never met a boy who doesn't love banana bread. Hint hint.

Ingredients:
*2 1/2 cups flour
*1 cup sugar
*3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
*1 tsp salt
*3 tbsp salad oil
*1 tablespoon vanilla extract
*3/4 cups milk
*1 cup ripe mashed banana
*1 egg
*1 cup finely chopped pecans

Glaze:
*1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
*1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
*1 tablespoon milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Measure all
ingredients into large mixing bowl; beat together.
I mix moist ingredients and sugar in one bowl, then add the dry
ingredients that have been mixed together.
Pour into prepared pans. Bake 55-65 minutes or until tooth pick comes
out clean. Cool somewhat before removing. Pour glaze over loaves while still warm.

Wild Rice Soup

I started making this back when I was a vegan, and even when I reduced all the ingredients to vegan-friendly ones, it was still amazing.

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked wild rice
2 Tblsp. butter
1 Tblsp. minced onions
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup flour (or wheat flour)
4 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
1 cup cream (or cow/soy milk)
1 can mushrooms, drained (only if you really want them)
1/4 cup dry sherry (optional)
Parsley or chives (a must)


Melt butter in pan and saute onion and celery. Blend in flour
gradually. Add broth, stirring constantly until thick. Stir in rice
and salt and simmer 5 minutes. Add mushrooms; blend in cream and
sherry. Heat to serving temperature. Garnish with parsley or chives.

Week Pie: Pear Raspberry Camembert Pie

This pie was amazing! I got the idea from the now defunct TV show Pushing Daisies, which was about a pie maker. They talked about baking gruyere into the crust and I started to think about how I love brie and fruit together so I picked two favorite fruits (pears and raspberries) and sort of worked out a way to bake cheese into the crust. I ended up using camembert instead of brie because I bought it accidentally instead of brie (they look totally the same!). I think I like it even better now. I had some leftover phyllo dough, so I but a layer of that between the filling and the cheese. It worked fine, but if anyone has a better idea I'd love to hear it!

Ingredients:

4 c. peeled, sliced fresh Bartlett pears
1/3 c. honey
2 tbsp. cornstarch
4 tsp. lemon juice (go easy on it. I think I used too much)
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp. ground ginger (I didn't use this)
Pastry for 2 crust (9 inch) pie (I used mom's again)
1 pound of raspberries, frozen
Half a wheel of Camembert
Phyllo dough

Toss pears with honey, cornstarch, lemon juice, peel and ginger. Turn mixture into pastry-lined 9-inch pie plate; cover with mashed raspberries. Place a sheet of phyllo dough over the filling. Cut slices of camembert with a knife heated with hot water and layer over phyllo. Cover with top crust. Seal and flute edges; cut vents into crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes or until pears are tender and crust is golden.

Week Pie: Maple Buttermilk Pie

"Maple Trees" Thierry Hennequin

I totally forgot to write about the last two pies! This one turned out alright. It was just supposed to be a maple buttermilk pie, but I like apples so I used them, and I used brown sugar instead of maple sugar (because I have no idea what that is!). I wish it would have tasted more maple-y. Maybe the maple sugar would have done that...


Ingredients:
* 1 (9-inch) baked pie shell (I used mom's)
* 6 Apples
* 2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
* 2/3 cup Grade B maple syrup
* 6 large egg yolks
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 3 tablespoons maple sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325°F. Put pie shell (in pie plate) in a shallow baking pan.

Whisk together remaining ingredients in a bowl until just combined and pour three fourths of custard and apples into shell. Carefully put pan in middle of oven and pour in remaining custard with a cup.

Bake until just set in center, about 55 minutes, then transfer pie to a rack to cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

* Accompaniment: lightly sweetened whipped cream