Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Come autumn, there are always tons of recipes popping up everywhere whose main ingredient is pumpkin. Pumpkin bread. Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin cookies. It's all good fun for those who love pumpkin, but I've never been a fan of the taste :/ Don't get me wrong! Coming home from school the day before Thanksgiving to the smell of fresh-baked pumpkin pies will always be one of the strongest holiday memories from my childhood. I love the smell, just not the taste. So, I thought I'd give the others like me an alternative for a hearty bread :) Chocolate Chip Banana!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 C sugar

1/2 C butter

2 eggs

1/2 C milk

3-4 mashed bananas

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 C flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 or 1 1/2 C chocolate chips (depending on how much you like chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Cream butter and sugar in a mixer. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. 

Mix in milk, mashed bananas and vanilla.

Mix in dry ingredients.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into a greased loaf pan.

Now, the baking time can get iffy. I usually set it for an hour, and then check it. It always takes different times. I think it may have something to do with how many bananas you use and how ripe they are. Anyway, the center is usually rather uncooked once the hour is up, and I just set the timer for small increments until it's more solid :)

Enjoy!!

Vegetable Beef Soup

As the saying goes, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." Well, in this house, I've added another line. "The way to my man's stomach is through his wallet." :) For the first 6 months of our marriage, Seth insisted that he didn't like soup. Now, me, I'm a huge soup person, but I went a whole fall without any soup! So, I needed a plan. I finally convinced Seth to agree to a batch of vegetable beef soup. He'd had the recipe at my parents' house before, and he did like it because it was more on the stewy side than soupy. But, he was still a little apprehensive. Until he realized that we were able to stretch the soup to last several dinners in the week. Seth was happy about anything that can stretch our grocery budget :) Plus, he says it tastes pretty good ;)

This week has been rainy and gross, so I thought it was time to pull out the recipe for the cold season.

Ingredients:

-1 chuck roast, cubed

-med onion, diced

-6 small bouillon cubes

-1 C barley

-1 bag mixed veggies

-4 or 5 potatoes, cubed

-1 can diced tomatoes

-1 can tomato sauce

Fill a large pot 3/4 of the way with water. Add meat and onion, a little salt, a little pepper and several bouillon cubes.

Bring to a full boil and then turn down to a soft boil. Add 1 C barley.

Cook for 1 hour.

Add veggies, potatoes, tomatoes and sauce. Stir and check consistency. (Optional: 2 tbsp bacon grease)

Bring to real soft boil for 20 minutes or so.

Add more bouillon cubes to taste.

I also like to sprinkle Old Bay in my bowl, because it gives it a little spicy kick. Perfect for rainy and cold weather!

Tilapia Milanese

A few days ago, I had not even heard of Tilapia Milanese. But, that's what we ended up making for dinner last night :) We usually get tilapia pretty often because ShopRite has a pretty good deal on the frozen stuff when it goes on sale. However, even though we eat it a lot, I haven't branched out a lot in terms of flavors. Most of the time, we make it fried with an Old Bay cornmeal crust, but I wasn't in the mood for spitting grease last night. I have also tried a soy sauce-brown sugar marinade, but that resulted in a small oven fire, so I'm not trying that again :) So, I searched the internet and found Tilapia Milanese! I usually wouldn't go for a breaded recipe, but I'm so glad I did! It was delicious, and it's definitely becoming a staple in our house!

Ingredients:

4 tilapia fillets

1 1/2 C milk

I C all-purpose flour

3 eggs

6 slices white bread, torn into pieces

1/3 C freshly chopped parsley

finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

5 to 6 ounces extra-virgin olive oil

4 tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 425.

Soak the tilapia in milk and a cup of ice for 15 minutes. While the fish is soaking, mix the flour with 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper. Beat the eggs in another dish.

Use a food processor to pulse the torn bread, parsley and lemon zest until it's little crumbs. Put this into a third dish.

Remove the fish from the milk one at a time. Dredge them through the flour, then egg and then bread crumbs. Repeat with all the fillets. 

Heat 2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp butter in a pan. Add the fillets and sear them for 3 minutes on each side until golden. Repeat with more oil and butter. 

Put the fillets on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until cooked through.

Enjoy!!

First Day of School Double Feature :)

Seth was back to teaching yesterday :) I swear, having him home for the summer really spoils me. The house feels really empty, and I'm bracing myself for another year of nights home alone while Seth is off having parent-teachers conferences and late night practices or matches. At least I'll get more done around the house! :)

Anyway, this year, first day of school meant two things for me in the kitchen: chocolate meringue pie and calzone. I have made a tradition out of making the pie for Seth on the first day of school, and Seth requested calzone for dinner this year. Both look and taste fantastic when they're done, and they sound a whole lot more complicated than they actually are!

Chocolate Meringue Pie

Here's what you need:

1 C sugar

1/4 C cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

3 C milk

3 egg yolks, beaten

2 T butter

2 tsp vanilla

3-4 oz chocolate (This really depends on how much you like chocolate. Seth likes his a little on the less chocolatey side)

4 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

2 T sugar per egg white

1 9-inch pie crust (I didn't give you a recipe for this, because it all depends on what kind of crust you like. We use a pat-in-the-pan type, but you can pretty much use anything)

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. Stir in milk, blending until smooth. Cook over medium heat until mixture boils, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Blend a small amount of hot mixture into beaten egg yolks. Return to pan, mixing well. Cook just until mixture starts to bubble, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in butter, chocolate and vanilla.

Cool mixture slightly, then pour into cooked pie shell.

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat until egg white form stiff peaks.

Spread meringue over the chocolate filling. Make sure you spread the meringue all the way to the edges of the crust so that it completely covers the filling. 

Cook pie at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes until the meringue browns slightly. 

Ham and Cheese Calzone

What you need:

2 frozen loaves of bread dough

1 lb pepper ham

1 bag shredded mozzarella

1 pkg sliced provolone

1 onion, chopped

2 tbsp butter

On the morning before you make this calzone, take the frozen bread dough out of the freezer and place in bread pans. Cover loosely with wax paper. During the day, the dough will defrost and puff at the same time. When ours was done, it was quite a few inches above the pan. 

Melt the butter in a small frying pan. When butter has completely melted, throw in the chopped onion. Toss it around with a spatula, and be careful not to burn any pieces. At this point, you are only caramelizing the onion to make it softer and give it a more rich flavor. You will know the onion is done when it becomes slightly transparent and smells really fragrant.

Take one puffed dough and pull it to make a round or rectangle shape, depending on the pan you have available. We have a cookie sheet to make it on, so we make it rectangular. However, Seth's mom has a large pizza pan,  so she makes her round. Pulling the dough may take a while and may get frustrating as the dough may rip in some places, but persevere! 

Once the dough is pulled into shape, spread the onions in an even layer on top. Put down a layer of mozzarella, a layer of ham and a layer of provolone. Pull the second ball of dough to put on top. Pinch the sides tight so no filling can get out.

At this point, make one hole in the top of the calzone, about the size of a quarter. This hole lets air out while the calzone is cooking, but any more holes and the inside will dry out.

Cook the calzone at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until dough is done.

Enjoy!

Dali Chicken

Warning: This dish is very spicy! As in burning lips and runny nose spicy! Eat at your own risk :)

I am a huge lover of PF Chang's. The chicken lettuce wraps. The coconut ice cream and fried banana dessert. The kung pao chicken. However, my favorite dish is the Dali Chicken. It's a very spicy chicken dish (the waitress called it the spiciest thing on the menu) with chili pods and sliced potatoes.

Seth and I went to PF Chang's in the Harbor around mid-July, and I was very distressed to find that the Dali Chicken is no longer on the menu. While there were still a lot of yummy things to choose from, I had a craving for Dali Chicken that I hadn't fulfilled! So, I searched the internet for a recipe that I thought could match it as closely as possible. And I found it!

Ingredients:

(This is the exact measurements for the meal I made for Seth and me, but there was about one serving left over)

-3 boneless skinless chicken breats, cubed into bite-sized pieces

-3 or 4 medium sized potatoes, sliced thin

-bunch of scallions, chopped

-3 tsp cumin powder

-3 chili pods, halved

(The potatoes and chilis were actually harvested from our garden. No better feeling than using food grown in your own backyard!)

Stir Fry Sauce:

-6 tbsp chicken stock

-3 tbsp rice wine

-3 tbsp soy sauce

-6 tbsp chili sauce (We use the Kikkoman brand)

-3 tsp corn starch

Heat either wok oil or veggie oil in a wok or wok-like frying pan. When oil is so hot that it's almost smoking, add the chicken. The trick with chinese food is to keep the food constantly moving in the pan so as not to overcook it. Cook chicken for 3-4 minutes before adding the sliced potato. Move around for another 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle the cumin over the mixture and add the halved chili pods.

When the cumin smell as become really pungent, spread the bits around until there's a bare circle in the middle of the pan. Pour the stir fry sauce directly into this space. Leave the pan sit for a 2-3 minutes before moving the bits around again. Cook until sauce thickens and add scallions when the sauce is just about to thicken. 

Serve over white or brown rice.

This meal was fantastic! Seth actually said it was the best experimental meal since we've been married. So, if you like PF Chang's and spice, I would definitely give it a try :)

Chicken Flatbread

Out of every recipe that Seth has experimented with since we got married, Chicken Flatbread has got to be his favorite. I have eaten it many more times than I can count, and there are countless times when I ask Seth what I should make for dinner only to hear a very hopeful answer of "Chicken Flatbread?" He would have it every week if I let him :) It actually is really good, and it was the first meal Seth made that shocked me. Thankfully, since Seth is so passionate about it, I was able to get him to agree to do a cooking show demonstration of how to roll out and actually cook the flatbread ;) Scroll to the bottom of this post to see it :)

We make three different kinds of chicken that pair well with this flatbread. We make a cajun seasoning, a taco seasoning and a greek seasoning. My favorite is the taco, so that's the recipe you will see below. 

Ingredients:

-1 tbsp chili powder

-1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

-1/4 tsp oregano

-1/2 tsp paprika

-1/2 tsp garlic powder

-1/2 tsp onion powder

-1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

-1 tsp salt

-1 tsp pepper

-2 or 3 boneless chicken breasts

-1 tbsp olive oil

Cube the chicken breasts, and cook them in a pan with the tbsp of oil. Mix the seasoning together in a bowl, and add it to the chicken once it's fully cooked.

This seasoning is also good with regular tacos with ground beef :)

Now for the flatbread!

Ingredients:

-1 pkg active dry yeast

-1/2 tsp sugar

-1 3/4 cup flour

-1 tsp salt

-1 1/2 tsp thyme

-3/4 cup water

-1 tsp oil

Pulse all the dry ingredients in a food processor bowl. Add the water in a steady stream until the dough forms into a ball. Knead the dough until springy.

Place the ball in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise for an hour until doubled.

Watch the video for the rest ;)

Once the chicken and flatbread is made, I like to fold the bread over with lots of shredded cheese and press it like a panini with our Foreman :)

Cheesesteak = Yum! :)

Seth can be very random when it comes to taste and recipe choices. Each week, he wants to try something even more different from the last. One week he's making Cajun flatbread. One week he's making chicken fra diavalo. One week he's making chicken gyros. His palette jumps all over the place, but at least it makes for interesting experiences :)

This week, his hurdle of choice was cheesesteaks. Or in his case, just steaks :) We wanted something with slightly more flavor than the typical cheesesteak that would still pair well with cheese (for me) and still taste good on bread. We found it :) Here is our recipe:

-2 lb thinly sliced beef

-salt and pepper

-1 tbsp red pepper flakes

-1 tbsp garlic powder

-1 tbsp chili powder

-1 tsp cayenne pepper

-a few splashes of Worchestershire sauce

-1 tbsp chili sauce

-1/2 an onion, diced finely (We only used a 1/4 onion because Seth isn't a huge fan of onion. Actually, he likes the taste of onion, but he doesn't like to see onion pieces in his meal. So, I would have used more, but I stuck with a 1/4 to keep the peace)

-shredded cheese of choice (I used a mixture of mozzarella and provolone because the flavor of the meat paired well with the lighter cheese. However, if you're more of a fan of a stronger cheese, be my guest)

-sub rolls

The actual cooking of this recipe is really easy. We just threw everything in a pan and browned the meat until there was no more liquid left. Then, I put the meat in the roll, covered it with cheese and browned it in the oven until the cheese just started to turn brown and bubble. This also gives the roll a nice toasting.

Seth had originally planned on making his own French baguettes to put the cheesesteak on, but he learned an important lesson in reading a recipe all the way through before attempting it when he had too much fun punching down the dough when it was done rising, only to later realize that he was supposed to leave the gases in the dough so the bread would be airy. The bread did end up being 

tasty, just a little on the dense and crispy side. He's having another go tomorrow with Italian bread though, so hopefully we'll be successful, and you'll see the recipe soon!