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

Week Pie: Coconut, Peaches & Cream Pie

I messed around with this pie a little, which was supposed to be just a Peaches & Cream pie, but I was walking around an Asian market and kept seeing coconut, coconut, coconut (and I love coconut), so I coconuted it up.

I kind of messed up by adding about 1/2 cup coconut milk (not light) to the filling and it made the pie way too soupy when it was still warm, but after sitting overnight in the fridge it solidified perfectly and it tasted way better cold anyway. I also should have listened when they said "ripe" peaches. Mine were not and never got soft soft. USE RIPE PEACHES.

Ingredients:

* 6 medium ripe peaches, peeled and sliced
* 1 unbaked deep-dish pastry shell (I used mom's recipe again)
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
* Small can of coconut milk
* Flaked coconut

Directions:
Arrange peaches in the pastry shell. In a small bowl, combine sugar, flour and salt; stir in cream until smooth. Pour over peaches. Sprinkle flaked coconut on top.
Cover with foil and bake at 400° for 40-45 minutes or until filling is almost set. Serve warm or cold. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Week Pie: Makes Its Own Crust Coconut Pie

I didn't get a chance to write about last Sunday's pie, so I'll add it now. I made mom's famous Makes-Its-Own-Crust Coconut Pie. I had a paper due and this is a super easy pie so it worked out perfectly.


Ingredients:
4eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 cups milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup coconut
1 tsp vanilla

Mix in order given into large bowl. Pour into a 9" buttered pie pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
Put a pan under the pie as it tends to run over;
my suggestion would be to pour a small amount into a small (1/2 cup) container and cook as well.
The flour floats to the bottom to makes the crust and coconut float to the top.

Week Pie: Popover Apple-Cranberry Pie

So trying to do metric conversions in a country that doesn't like to stock as much sugar free products as I'm used is more than a little annoying. Had some issues with the pie this week but instead of completely ruining everything I got two wonderful pies out of my six Golden Delicious apples.

I started out attempting to make a Popover Apple Pie, which is made by baking a one big popover (or Manka's Babies) in a skillet or pie pan. And making the filling in the microwave. The problem was that the apples and stuff are supposed to be mixed with sugar free cook-and-serve vanilla pudding, and they don't have sugar free pudding at my grocery store, so I got regular cook-and-serve, and then the measurements were off because of grams and ounces, ugh. So! I added 7 tablespoons of the dry pudding mix to the filling instead of a .8 oz package and used the rest to make pudding on the stove. The popover turned out to be way smaller than I expected, so I put the pudding on the base of the popover and poured a much as I could of the apple filling on top of that, and then sprinkled with toasted walnuts and powdered sugar. It was delicious! Try it. Then because the popover was so small I had so much extra filling, so I made mom's pie crust again (note 1) and put it in there.

So here's the original recipe for Popover Apple Pie:

TIME: Prep: 20 min. Bake: 30 min.
Ingredients:

* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 eggs
* 2 egg whites
* 3/4 cup 1% milk
* 1 cup cold orange juice
* 1 package (.8 ounce) sugar-free cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix
* 3/4 teaspoon apple pie spice
* 6 large peeled tart apples, sliced
* 1/2 cup dried cranberries
* 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
* 1 teaspoon confectioners' sugar

Directions:
In a bowl, combine flour and salt. Combine the eggs, egg whites and milk; whisk into the dry ingredients just until blended. Pour into a 10-in. ovenproof skillet coated with butter-flavored cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° (do not open oven door). Bake 10-15 minutes longer or until deep golden brown (do not underbake).

In a microwave-safe bowl, whisk the orange juice, pudding mix and apple pie spice. Stir in apple and cranberries. Cover and microwave on high for 5 minutes, stirring once. Cover and cook 3-4 minutes longer or until apples are tender, stirring once. Spoon hot apple mixture into crust. Sprinkle with walnuts. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve immediately. Yield: 8 servings.