Banana Bread

Tip: Let bananas turn almost black then put it in the freezer and save until you are ready to make the bread.

• 1/2 c Crisco (or other solid shortening)
• 1 c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 c mashed bananas
• 1 TB brown sugar
• 1 ts baking soda
• 1/2 ts salt
• 1 1/4 c flour
• 1/4 c pecans
• 1/4 c macadamia nuts
• 1/4 ts cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9x5x3 inch loaf pan with Baker's Joy, Pam, or other oil spray.

Using an electric mixer, cream the shortening and sugar.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing at medium speed.

Add bananas and mix well.

Add baking soda, salt, flour, nuts, cinnamon.

Mix thoroughly (dough will be sticky)

Pour dough into pan and bake for about an hour, until the center is brown and set.

Sissie's Beans

Sissie is my grandmother. She died about 4 years ago, but I think of her every day. She loved birds, gardening, and cooking. Birds scare me, and I have the opposite of a green thumb. But I do love to cook. Sissie's signature dishes were biscuits and gravy for breakfast and brisket and beans for super.

Biscuits and Gravy.... I can't make the gravy. I have tried and it just hasn't worked out. My mom makes GREAT gravy that tastes just like Sissie's, so she is going to have to teache me how to do that.

Brisket.... my cousin Dana and Aunt Nita make brisket just like Sissie's, they will have to teach me that. I have a lot of learning to do!

Beans... I can say, I make Sissie beans almost as well as Sissie used to. The most important part of making beans is the pot. I am lucky enough to have Sissie's special pot. It needs to be BIG, have a cover, and seasoned.

The ingredients are simple...

• dry pinto beans (small or medium package)
• 4-6 slices uncooked bacon
• sugar
• salt

The steps are also simple...

1. Pour beans into a colander and pick through them, taking out all the rocks and "bad beans" (the ones that look wrinkled and old, etc)
2. Rinse and put into a BIG pot. Fill pot with water enough to cover the beans plus a little more
3. Bring to a boil
4. Reduce heat to medium, put in uncooked bacon, sprinkle sugar and salt on top. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring often.
5. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 2-3 hours on low. You may need to add more water so the beans do not get too dry and burn.

Serve on white, Mrs. Baird's bread.

Agave Lemmonade

From Gwyenth Paltrow's GOOP

SERVES: 4
TIME: 5 minutes

1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup light agave syrup
1 quart of water
a few lemon slices for garnish

Mix everything together, adding a bit more of any ingredient, if necessary, so it’s just the right mix of sweet and tart for your taste.

FREE SAMPLES!

I love free samples. They are always miniature, and so much fun. I also LOVE getting mail (mailbox... REAL mail). It's so nice to pull something other than a bill out of my mailbox. I started going to http://www.shop4freebies.com/ about once a day and they have TONS of links to free samples for everything from shampoo to bbq sauce, paint to tshirts. YAY mail!

Fun with Breads

Homemade Croutons

• 6 slices of bread (any kind)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp oregano,
• liberal sprinkling of garlic salt (to taste)
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cube bread into desired size and toss into a bowl. Sprinkle all of the seasonings on top of your bread cubes. Drizzle olive oil over the cubes and then toss gently with your fingers. When all pieces have been coated, put cubes into a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for twenty minutes. Allow to cool. Place in an airtight container and these can be stored for up to weeks in this container.
  

Make-Your-Own Stove Top Stuffing

• 6 cups cubed bread
• 1 tbsp parsley flakes
• 3 tbsp chicken-bouillon powder
• ¼ cup dried minced onion
• ½ cup dried minced celery (or fresh celery may be sauteed and added just before cooking)
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp pepper
• ½ tsp sage
• 1/3 tsp salt
  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the cubes on a cookie sheet and bake for eight to ten minutes, turning to brown evenly. Cool. In a plastic bag or bowl, toss the cubes with the rest of the ingredients until well coated. Store in a tightly closed container in the pantry for up to four months, or in the freezer for up to a year. To use: Combine two cups stuffing mix with ½ cup water and 2 tablespoons melted butter. Stir to combine thoroughly. Warm on the stove top or in a microwave. Stir again just before serving.
  

Homemade Shake & Bake

• 4 cups flour
• 4 cups ground inexpensive crackers
• 4 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 3 tbsp paprika
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
  Mix well and store indefinitely in the refrigerator in a covered container.

Shrimp (Not Fried) Fried Rice

Super-Duper Easy Dinner!!

• 5 TB evoo
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 pound raw, shelled and devained shrimp (thawed if frozen)
• 1 (8.8oz) package Uncle Ben's Ready Rice Pilaf, cooked
• 1 (8.8oz) package Uncle Ben's Ready Long Grain and Wild Rice, cooked
• 1 ts ground ginger
• 1 lb bag frozen peas with pearl onions, thawed
• 1 TB soy sauce
• 1 TB oyster sauce
• 1 (5oz) can sliced water chestnuts, drained
• 1 TB butter
• 3 TB water
• salt
• pepper

Heat 2 TB EVOO in wok. Crack eggs into oil, scramble on medium heat. Set aside

Heat 3 TB EVOO in wok and add shrimp, salt, pepper, and butter. Cook until shrimp are done, about 3 minutes on medium heat, turning and mixing almost constantly. Set aside with eggs.

Add rice, oyster sauce, ginger, water, soy sauce and peas with onions to work. Stir and cook on medium a few minutes, then add water chestnuts. Stir and cook until well heated. Add egg/shrimp mixture and cook until well mixed and heated.

Serve in bowls, with extra oyster and/or soy sauce as needed per taste.

Pepper (Spaghetti) Sauce

I love making Spaghetti Sauce. I love getting out my biggest pot on a lazy Sunday and making enough for 4 or 5 meals. This recipie is based on one of Paula Deen's (my idol), so she should get more credit than me. I pretty much just added/subtracted from her's to what I happen to have in my pantry at any given time. I put it in small Tupperware containers in the freezer and just pop one out when I need dinner another night. Sometimes I add a bit of bottled sauce to it to stretch it out even more.

John also gets credit for this recipe. He has had to suffer through the "test" recipes, make last minute trips to the store and so on. Poor thing, he had to learn the hard way that there are 98753298393 kinds of canned tomatoes (sauce, paste, diced, stewed, etc) and they all look exactly the same.

This is calledPepper Sauce because Pepper sits on my feet as I make this, waiting for me to spill and get a chance at having a treat.

• 1/2 lb ground beef


• 1/2 lb ground Italian sausage or pork


• 1/2 lb ground turkey


• 1 large white onion, chopped


• 1 green bell pepper, chopped


• 2 - 6 oz cans tomato paste


• 1 - 8 oz can tomato sauce


• 1-14 1/2 oz can stewed tomatoes


• 1 TB Italian seasoning


• 1 TB thick Worcester sauce


• 2 TB sugar


• 1 ts salt


• 1 c water


• 1 large clove garlic, minced


• 1/2 ts rosemary, crushed


• 1/2 ts brown sugar


• 1 ts sweet basil

1. Brown the meat in a large skillet. Drain. Pour into large pot.

2. Turn burner on Medium heat and add onion, green pepper, and garlic. Saute until onion and peppers are tender.

3. Add all remaining ingredients and stir A LOT. Place lid on pot and simmer on low or low/med for at least 30 minutes.

Creme de la Cookie

So, here is my blog :) I don't really know if I do enough in life to warrant a blog, but I figured I would give it a try!

Today I went to my new favorite place. I have lots of places in Dallas I like but only a few get the coveted love title. These include...

• Tart
• i heart yogurt
• El Fenix downtown
• Wildflour
• Inwood Lounge

And now Creme de la Cookie. It's only other location is in Huntington Beach, CA (which is the most fabulous Surf City in the world). Today was opening day and I was there pretty early. I tried to wait until later in the afternoon, but I woke up and couldn't help myself.

First, the staff is AWESOME. So nice, more than I could ever explain. The owner's husband let me try 2 different kinds of tea and have a few "tastings" of their favorite items.

The strawberry cupcakes were a perfect balance of strawberry and cake. The whoopie pies are so light and fluffy and too much fun. The screaming o's are tiny little chocolate on chocolate on chocolate cakes. The cinnamon cookies were great. My favorite is the Da Bomb cupcake. Pure chocolate. Pure Awesome.

If you are in Dallas... go there now!

If you are not in Dallas... check out their website, they ship worldwide!