Banana Nut Bread

So, this past weekend, I made 2 different kinds of banana jams. I did a bananas foster type jam and a banana nut bread butter. They both came out yummy and you can check them out on my other blog…the link is over to the right. I lucked out when I went to the store for the bananas and found that half the display was filled with the black banded bananas which means they are fully ripe and need to be used in a day or so. They may have a bruise or two but the price can’t be beat. They are almost half the cost of the greener, under ripened ones. I went ahead and bought a few more than I actually needed, just in case some of them were too bruised to use after I peeled them. Turns out they were all perfectly ripe and ready to be used the next morning and not one was unusable. I realized I had about 5 medium to large sized ones left after I was finished with the jams and they needed to be used soon. I was too tired to make my 3^rd batch of jam on Saturday, which was going to be a spicy, ancho chili, apple butter, so I decided to wait till Sunday to make that and I would also make a loaf of my homemade banana bread to use up the bananas. The banana nut bread butter recipe had called for diced walnuts and I had a half cup of them left over.

I typically make just banana bread loaves but since I had the walnuts, I decided to add them this time. Here’s the recipe, as I made it on Sunday.

Banana Nut Bread

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

2 lightly beaten eggs

5 medium bananas, mashed

¼ cup butter, melted

½ cup diced walnuts

Grease and flour (I use a baking spray with flour added) one standard loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, soda, salt and sugar. Mix in the lightly beaten eggs and mashed bananas. Slowly stir in the melted butter and walnuts until just blended. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 1 hour 5 minutes at 350 degrees or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool, completely, in the pan then remove it and wrap it in foil.

This loaf came out better than ever before! I don’t know if it was the walnuts or that I used 5 bananas this time (I usually use 3 or 4) or that I let it cool completely in the pan, but whatever it was it is GREAT! I enjoyed a piece earlier with a light layer of whipped cream cheese spread top of it. I wonder what the banana nut bread butter would taste like on top of the banana nut bread??? Hummm, I’ll have to try that for breakfast.

I have always loved banana bread and even requested it as my birthday cake one year for a childhood birthday party, My friends made fun of me for not having a real cake that year, but it didn’t matter, I had my favorite…my Grannie Winchester’s banana bread. Her sister, Aunt Etta (pronounced Aint Etter) was known for making the best in the family, but I always thought Grannie’s was best, no matter what the rest said. This loaf made me think of Grannie and all the times we shared in her kitchen…I miss her so much!

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I am.

　

Cowgirl Candy (aka Whoa Nellie! Candy)

A little over a week ago, while visiting the local community organic garden, we were gifted with a whole bag of hot peppers from a friend. I didn’t think to ask exactly what kind of peppers they were, I was just so thankful for the bounty. There were a few sweet bell peppers included, too. So, when we got home I began to wonder just what I was going to do with these peppers, there were so many of them. I then remembered hearing about a recipe that called for fresh jalapeno peppers so I figured I would just substitute these…hot is hot right? (too bad you can’t hear the sarcasm right about now in my voice)

A few weeks ago I saw reference to something called “Cowboy Candy” and after doing what I do best (can you spell Google dot com!) I found dozens of recipes all over the web and they were pretty much identical. I should have noticed, though, that NONE of them used anything other than jalapenos. Anyway, I needed something to do with these peppers so why not?!? Now, since I was substituting a different kind of pepper I decided to call mine Cowgirl Candy (I may eventually rename Whoa Nellie! Candy, we’ll see). Here’s the recipe…

Cowgirl Candy

1 ¼ cups sliced (into rings) fresh Tabasco peppers (seeds removed)

½ cup sugar

¼ cup water

1 drop green food coloring (optional)

After peppers are deseeded and sliced (I recommend wearing gloves) place them in a small saucepan and add the rest of the ingredients. Cook over medium heat until it comes to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer until liquid is reduced and syrup-like, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat, and, after they have cooled completely, place them in a jelly type jar and store the jar in the refrigerator.

Serve on crackers topped with a dollop of whipped cream cheese and one of the pepper rings.

Now, remember the original recipe calls for jalapenos…keep this in mind. As I sat at the kitchen table slicing the peppers my son comes in the room and wants to try one. I remind him that they are probably really hot and try a tiny bit for myself…yep, just a teensy nibble and my lips and mouth are on fire. He tries a tiny nibble and takes a whole cup of crushed ice with him back to his room. I know what you are thinking, ice won’t kill the heat, he knows this, we talked about it. It just gave him an excuse to get away with crunching a cup of crushed ice chips. I went ahead and made the recipe and it came out beautiful in the jar. It did continue to thicken as it cooled, so don’t overcook it. Now the jury is still out on how it tastes…we are all afraid to try it! I picked up some cream cheese today. Maybe I’ll get my nerve up soon. I’ll let you know when I do. Maybe I’ll try half a ring chopped in small pieces first.

Before I sat down to type this I decided to try to find the exact name of the type of pepper that I had used. I am surprised by what I have learned! Did you know peppers have a heat scale they are rated on? It’s called the Scoville Heat Index and it ranks peppers from zero (Green Bell Peppers) to one million (an extremely rare Ghost Pepper is rated at over one million and is the hottest pepper in the world). Usually one of the hottest that is used on a day-to-day basis is a Habanero Chili which rates at 150,000 - 350,000. Jalapenos usually rate around 2,000 to 8,000. I looked at a few sites that had pictures and confirmed that the peppers I had were Tabasco peppers and their rating is between 30,000 and 60,000!!! This is why I’m afraid to try the ones I made, ouch! I think this would be great as it was originally written for the Jalapenos. I plan to make it again as the original Cowboy Candy, which I‘ve heard can be very addicting. I’ll let you know when I do make it again and how it turns out.

Good luck, either way you decide to make it, and mainly, enjoy!
　

My son is the Fan of the Week...

Check it out...my son is on the front page of the Betty Crocker FB page this week. He is their "Fan of the Week" and is pictured with the cake we made for his Cub Scout to Boy Scout Crossover Banquet back in February. He won that day for Best Scout Theme for acknowledging the 100th year of Scouting. Click on the pic to get to the comments for it and show him some love!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=4849883&id=10081584315&ref=fbx_album

And here are some other pictures of the cake.

As you can see it was a basic devils food cake with milk chocolate frosting that I made from scratch (it was my first time).  The trees were upside down sugar cones piped with green frosting.  We had planned on mounting them on big fat pretzel sticks (for the trunks) but stabilization was an issue for transporting it and they wouldn't stay so we ditched the trunks and just used the cones alone.  He used mini marshmallows as a border around the outside.  Single strands of black licorice define the river banks and we found a beautiful blue gel that had sparkles in it that was in a decorators tube and it made the water almost glisten!  There are broken Life Savors along the river to represent boulders.  The tents are graham crackers (Cub Scout colors used on them) with little mini pretzel sticks legs and black jelly bean feet sticking out.  The campfire was ringed with Tootsie Roll logs, there were red hots for the embers and the little mini pretzel sticks were the logs.  We were going to use red and yellow Fruit Roll Ups to cut little flames from but when we went to the store we actually found some that were tye-dyed and were red-yellow-orange in color...they were PERFECT!

We had a blast as a family working on this.  My son baked the cake part all by himself then we did the decorating all together.  I can't wait to do it again sometime!