Friday, June 29, 2012

White Chocolate Orange Banana Bread

Whew - long title. But it's got a lot in it. Including walnuts, but I left that part out of the title. This is based off of "The Best Banana Bread You'll Ever Have" from A Cup of Jo, which I had found on Pinterest. Which I followed more closely in this post. However, I had a couple bananas about to spoil, and an orange I was being finicky about eating, and thought I'd just experiment a little bit. It came out fairly well, though was quite a bit more moist. The white chocolate chips seem to melt into the batter mroeso than chocolate ones, which is not so great. Changes (full recipe at end of post):
  • Two bananas, one orange (zested orange and saved for later, peeled orange and put it in the blender
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla (in place of lemon juice)
  • 3 Tbsp rum (in place of bourbon)
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips
  • 325 F for 60 minutes
Creaming the sugar and butter, one of my favorite things :)

All the liquidy things.

Everything! You can see little bits of orange.

Ready to go - so I made the center not as high to make to top flatter.

...which was okay, and it worked, but doesn't look as good without the peak in the middle :)

See how the white chocolate kind of melted in?

Good stuff !
Here is my version of the recipe (which we will now call White Chocolate Orange Banana Bread, haha):
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 ripe bananas, mashed
  • 1 orange, peeled and blended
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons rum
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
  • 1 cup (6 ounces) white chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 325 F (for dark pan, 350 F for light pan or glass) and prepare loaf pan - I use the cooking spray with flour in it, otherwise grease and flour.
2. To prepare orange, zest (you can save this for other things, or add to the batter), peel, and puree in blender or food processor.
3. Mix dry ingredients in medium small bowl.
4. Cream butter and sugar in a medium bowl until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix thoroughly after each. Add the rest of the liquid ingredients (including banana and orange) and mix well.
5. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients, stir until just blended. Add walnuts and white chocolate, stir until they are distributed.
6. Pour batter into loaf pan, place in oven and back for 60 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool, enjoy, and save in plastic wrap.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Simple Dishes - Penne Mozzarella

Sometimes the best things are the simplest. One of my favorite dishes is very easy, quick, and has nice subtle flavors. Oddly enough, I found the recipe for this meal in Seventeen. Yes, the teen girls' magazine. For some reason I've had this unending subscription (okay, so I got some free subscriptions and picked Seventeen - when I was 22) that has been following me though I haven't updated my address. I think it may have finally stopped coming this sping, though. Haven't seen any charges on my credit card. Just Seventeen in my mailbox each month. Anyways, it was a nice little pull-out section that has exercises, food tips, and sometimes recipes. Besides being simple, I like it because it serves two. Seventeen doesn't have it posted online, but I found someone published it here. Here are my modifications and photos, but first, a salad!

Simple salad with CSA greens and strawberries, pine nuts, and (later) pomegranate vinaigrette.

Just wanted to share an obvious use for CSA (or other goods). Inevitably there are always some things you have around that you can toss on lettuce and make a salad with. Easy meal. Now for the Penne Mozzarella!

I love fresh mozzarella; I will use 1/3-1/2 a ball for a full recipe. Can also use those little round ones, baby bocconcini.

I only made half a recipe (for one) so I used half a pint of grape tomatoes, cut in half.

Instead of spinach, I used these two chard leaves.

I cut out the main vein of the chard leaves and then cut up the rest.

Everything ready to go!

I let the garlic (usually use 2-3 cloves for the full recipe) sit in the olive oil on low while I cut everything up, then turn up the heat when I add the tomatoes.

These ones got a little overdone, but tasted just fine.

Added the pasta water and chard, as well as some salt. I usually add the spinach after the pasta, but figured the chard needed more time to wilt.

I heat everything all together for a little so it's all warm.

Instead of mixing the cheese in, I add the pasta mix and cheese in layers in the bowls. This keeps the cheese from sticking into one giant mass.

So simple, so good! Simply delicious :)

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

"Marsala" Chicken and Asparagus

So, I had mushrooms and asparagus from my CSA that I thought I'd use with chicken. Marsala chicken, I thought. Well, plans changed as I realized my mushrooms had gotten a bit too fungal and probably weren't good to use any more. No matter, I forged ahead. I found this recipe using my Epicurious app, and it appears also on the website. It is apparently from Gourmet, June 1995. Here are my changes:
  • There's just one of me, so I did a third of the recipe, with one chicken breast and it made two light meals.
  • I used green onion instead of onion, and added a clove of garlic.
  • Didn't have chicken broth, so I made up that volume using half water, half wine.
  • No Marsala wine, so I used some wine I didn't really enjoy drinking, a semi-sweet rose.
  • Didn't have parsley, instead used the green onion greens.
Asparagus is pretty quick to cook; I just used some fresh garlic, olive oil, and salt for that. While the last steps of the chicken were being completed, I cooked the asparagus.

Here's the ingredient list I used for the chicken:
  • 1/2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1-2 garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp butter plus 1/2 tbsp
  • 3 green onions - tops for garnish
  • 3 tbsp wine
  • 1/3 cup water + wine
  • salt to taste
When prepping green onions, I cut off the rooty bit and any sad-looking ends of the greens.

Here you can see where I separate the denser more onion-like part from the green leafy part.

Veggies prepped! Again, kept the greens and whites of the onions separate, one garlic clove for the asparagus.

Since I live alone, I usually divide up my meat and freeze part. Rolling down the baggies helps keep them open, and helps keep meat juice from the outside of the bag (bit of a germaphobe here). Putting a single serving in a bag makes things quick and easy when I want to defrost one in the fridge.

To the right: On low heat I melted the butter with the garlic in it.
To the left: Garlic in olive oil for asparagus. I put this on very low heat to let the garlic infuse into the oil.

I cut the breast in half, as directed, and tried to make all pieces about the same thickness. I used lemon pepper and salt to season.

Chicken just lightly browned - wanted to keep it juicy!

Here's the wine I used; sadly did not enjoy drinking, but excellent for food!

I believe I left all the fat in the skillet after the chicken, and cooked the onions until they were transparent.

Added chicken back, and cooked some more.

The lovely sauce - it was so good!

Here's the asparagus, just rinsed.

Added into the slowly heated garlic in olive oil during the second chicken cooking.

Just takes 5 or so minutes to cook on medium heat. Right at the end I added half of my green onion greens.
 
Used the second half of green onion greens to garnish chicken - how pretty is this? And so tasty!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Sweet Orange Cupcakes

I had some oranges that were nice and ripe, but I was being finicky about eating them. Since I also had a desire for some kind of baked good, I decided to make orange cupcakes. I used a yellow cake recipe from the grand old Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. Magically enough, the recipe is also online! For the frosting, I used a recipe from Woman's Day (April, 2007) for their Chocolate Orange Blossom Cake, also online! I, of course, made a few adjustments based on my desires and kitchen stock (below). Overall, the cake was a little dense, but tasty, and didn't have a strong orange flavor. I think next time would add twice as much zest. The frosting was perfect. It was sweet and orangey, and had a pretty glossiness from the marshmallow fluff.
  • I made half the cake recipe, which resulted in 11 cupcakes.
  • Instead of milk, I made up that volume with about half soy milk, half orange juice from the orange, and a couple tablespoons vanilla to make to full volume.
  • I added about 2 teaspoons orange zest to the cake batter.
  • I only made half the frosting recipe.
  • Instead of orange juice, I just added more vanilla to the frosting.
  • I used about 3 tablespoons orange zest in the frosting, and about 2 tablespoons honey.
Butter and sugar - a favorite step of mine. I use a whisk to help get bubbles to make it fluffy.

Orange zest! This was from one orange.

Batter ready to go - to the right you can see t cookie scoop I used to put the batter in the pan.

Mmm.

I made largish cupcakes; two scoops using my cookie scoop which is about 3 tbs. per scoop.

So sweet!

After baking - I baked for about 12 minutes.

Ingredients for the frosting.

I ended up adding a bit more powdered sugar to stiffen the frosting a bit more.

It was so good!

I love the sheen the marshmallow fluff gave the frosting.

Yum!

And again :)

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Simple Stir-Fry

One of my most common uses for CSA goods is stir-fry. It's easy, and you can put all kinds of veggies in it. Here is a stir-fry I made a little while ago with beef, garlic, celery, green onion, and oyster mushrooms. It serves two (or dinner for one, and leftovers for lunch!) and I cook 1/2 cup dry rice to go with it. I used about a single serving of meat (deck of cards-size).

First off, this is something I do with all skillet dishes that have garlic - I let the garlic (fresh garlic made small with garlic press) sit in the oil I am going to use on low heat. I feel like the oil absorbs the flavor this way. I suggest sesame oil for the most Asian flavor, but vegetable/canola works, too.

I suggest cutting all your veggies before you do anything. It makes everything easier. I put everything on a "prep" plate - this one was a bit small, but still good. Notice I separated the the denser part (mostly white) of the green onion from the thinner "leaf" part (green).

Cut my beef into little pieces, I like to do this so I can get a bit of beef in every bite - this was some kind of steak. It was a bit freezer burned :(

Beef cooking up in the garlic oil! I do this on medium-high heat.

When beef was just about done, I added the denser part of the green onion.

When the onions were cooked (relatively transparent), I added the mushrooms.

And, once mushrooms were a bit soft, added my celery. I add this near the end so it maintains some crunch.

Let the celery cook just a bit, then add sauces. For two servings, I add 2 tbsp. oyster sauce and 3 tbsp. soy sauce. That may be a bit salty for some, so perhaps add less soy sauce.

Finally, right before serving, I add the green part of the green onion.

Okay, so this photo obviously makes it look rather unappetizing, but I swear it's edible and at least semi-delicious, haha.

Final tip: When I save stir-fries, I put the saucy part on the bottom and the rice on top, so the rice doesn't get soggy. Heat in an appropriate container, and then turn over onto a plate and it's perfect :)