Bo-Nanny Banana Bread

 It's pretty hard to keep banana bread around in my house. Either my friends visit and eat it, someone finds outs I made it and asks me to bring them some, or hell, I've eaten a whole loaf in less than 24 hours.

This is my Mamma's recipe which is my Nanny's recipe, but this time its all me. My Nanny likes hers plain, my Mamma likes chocolate chips in her banana bread, but I love walnuts . . . in everything. And lately, since my affair with Fried Bananagins, brown sugar is a new favorite ingredient. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. And I THOROUGHLY do.

You will need:

• 1 3/4 cups sifted flour
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1/4 tsps baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsps salt
• 1/3 cup butter (room temperature)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2-3 bananas)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (plus a handful for the finish!)
• 1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small bowl, combine sifted flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix together butter and sugar until soft and fluffy in a medium sized bowl. Next add eggs, mix well. Alternately add flour mixture then bananas then walnuts to the butter and sugar. Mix thoroughly after each addition.

Sprinkle the top of the banana bread with walnuts and brown sugar.

Pour into a well- greased loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Before the last 10 minutes, I like to pull the pan out of the oven and put a little extra brown sugar on top.

Please, for your own sake, wait like 15 minutes before you cut into this piece of fantastic. Then, slather on a pad of butter and wait for the addiction to settle in.

 

Love,

Liz

Pasta Sauce RE-RE-RE-RE-MiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiX!!!

It's been over 4 years since I started this blog and since then I've matured, and so have my recipes. Tonight I'll tackle the pasta sauce. I've definitely changes things around and updated ingredients. I hope you'll enjoy this new version as much I do!

Believe me once you realize how easy it is to make you own really good marinara sauce, you'll never eat it from a jar again.

This time, you'll need:

• 1 14 oz. can whole tomatoes peeled (with or without basil)
• 1 14 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 tiny can tomato paste (you only need half the can)
• 1 whole tomato (diced)
• 1 giant onion or 2 medium sized onions (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (diced)
• 2 fresh basil leaves or 1 TBSP or chopped basil
• 2 TSP oregano
• 1 hot pepper (diced) or 1 TBSP hot pepper flakes
• 1 lb. ground sirloin (browned and drained)
• 4 TBSP olive oil
• 2 TBSP salt
• 2 TBSP sugar
• 2 TSP black pepper 

Fist, heat up a medium sized frying pan, then add 2 TBSP oil. Once the oil is hot, sautee theonions until the are almost tender, then add garlic. When the garlic is golden brown, stir into the onions and remove from heat. While this is going on, pour the rest of the olive oil into a medium cooking pot and brown the ground sirloin.

Next, combine crushed and peeled tomatoes, diced tomato, onions, garlic, basically everything, into the pot with the browned sirloin. Bring to a boil and stir. Then, reduce heat and simmer, stir regularly. For hours. On end. Make sure you mush up those big chunks of tomatoes and onions once they tender. Unless you want it to be chunky, then leave it be and simmer for at least an hour.

The changes I've made, such as the quality of beef and extra herbs are definitely noticeable from my earlier attempts. Trust me, the ground sirloin apposed to beef is RIDICULOUSLY striking.

Love,

Liz