Banana Bread Recipe = The Weather is driving me bananas

This recipe for banana bread is from my well worn “Kitchen Kompanion; Recipes by the members of the Lansing Christian Reformed Church”, Lansing Michigan. This book was found thrown out by me in San Francisco in a construction dumpster, along with the very first “Tassajara Bread Book”.  It’s carried me through a lot of living.  There are five recipes for Banana Bread in the book.  Here’s one that I just made without the nuts, chocolate chips and marichinos.  Inspiration caused this divergence.  (Such an anarchist!)

Banana Bread with Coco

Ingredients for Banana Bread

by Joyce Kragt

½ cup shortening

1 Cup sugar

2 Well-beaten eggs

3 Mashed bananas

2 Cups sifted flour

1 Teaspoon of baking soda

½ Cup nutmeats

½ Cup chocolate chips

½ Cup maraschino cherries

Directions

Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs and mix.  Then add bananas.  Mix soda and flour. Save a little flour to mix with chocolate chips.  Mix remaining ingredients to first mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Notes: I used margarine.  Bananas were black on the outside and very mashable.  Here is one of the few times when fresh bananas won’t do.  Sifted the flour and soda together.

Here’s what I added:

1 Teaspoon Vietnamese Cinnamon

1 Tablespoon of cacao powder

This is a moist, tasty and an effortless banana bread recipe.  As with all banana breads it tastes better right out of the oven, but even better the next day. Try it lightly toasted!  A fun way to ignore the Frost Warnings and May snow. Go bananas!

“Resistance is futile.”

Here’s a portrait I just finished of hunting poodles Beau and Scout with Gary their owner.   This is another reason the recipes are not so often forth coming.

Gary with Beau and Scout
After the Pheasant Hunt
Copyright Ckatt 2013

Brooch bouquets – Why there are no recipes to share

Food? Recipes? Who has time? May Wedding here we come!

The impending nuptials [Noun, 1. nuptials - the social event at which the ceremony of marriage is performed. wedding, wedding ceremony · ceremonial, ceremonial occasion 

... of 2 dear friends has had my total attention for a few weeks.  I offered to make a brooch bouquet.  At the time, I only had a vague idea what a "brooch bouquet" is, when I offered to make one from the assortment of brooches that the bride-to-be had wired up.  It is a very sentimental and trending wedding bouquet with or without flowers.

After some attempts to find out a how to make brooch bouquets, I discovered that everyone,  that is the DIY bride had a different approach and solution - a lot like cooks do.  None the wiser for my research, bravely forging on without a clear methodology - no recipe - the brooch bouquet became an exercise in patience.  More frantic research as time went on, because the brooches were not cooperating by staying in place as I worked the pieces in my hand, advised that two people were needed to finish the bouquet.  (It was a revelation to see that Etsy sellers were charging anywhere from 300 to 900 dollars for one of these creations. YIKES!)

Grrrrr, after the tenth attempt to get the bouquet working, a solution arose. My dear friend, Jan came to my rescue today and we put together the bouquet.  We wired some more brooches and Jan picked brooches and decided where to add them. (Two creative minds are better than one.)

The bride-to-be supplied her grandmothers' brooches. She has lots of sentimental attachment to them.  She thinks the bouquet is beautiful.  Me too, but then ...I love a challenge.

Brooch Bouquet

Darn good thing that I did not offer to make a wedding cake!

Once upon a time, there was a cook freezing in the Northland looking for a lime marmalade recipe.

Was it just last week that it was -12º F for 3 days or was it the week before? (I really don’t know anymore.) “Winter Draws On”, as mother used to say.  Another recipe for the greenhorn cook at my house follows. (That’d be moi.)  I have the weird science project in my kitchen. It is a big bowl of inedible lime marmalade just sitting there. It looks like lime marmalade and acts like marmalade, the taste of this lime marmalade is word, unforgivable. Eeeeeew! The flavor starts out a little like lime and ends like battery acid. (Not that I have ever tasted battery acid; it’s my imaginary metaphor to describe the taste finish on this bowl of marmalade.)

After I saw the $7.00 price for a jar of lime marmalade, I thought momentarily of making some. Certainly, it can’t be that hard to make it?  I conferred with Bill who also suggested making it. (Little did I know…)

Okay, then.  Many recipes for lime marmalade later and research attached below on the best way to cut the pith from a lime, I know more than I ever wanted about limes and marmalade.  I was not confused by all the research, but there are too many ways to prepare a lime for marmalade.  (What? They don’t just come pre-sliced and ready to slip their pith and jump in the sugar all by their little selves?)

No siree. Nope. Gotta’ cut those limes between 1/4 or 1/8 of an inch in width.  (Note to self: buy a sharp knife for fruit someday. Bread knife is now really dull from cutting limes.)

It’s a two-day process to make lime marmalade and I am nothing, if not a recipe follower.

Cut limes with pith removed for a marmalade

So my friends and readers, I cut this recipe in half and followed the directions. Yes. I even heated the sugar.  The limes took the shine off my enamel pan!  I had looked on line if it was okay to use it and someone wrote that it was…not with these limes, baby. They were organic limes. While I sawed through the little green darlings, the fragrance was like summer beach party or something that I imagined again.  Hey, it’s still winter here.

The purpose of the lime marmalade was to make this recipe that I saw in March Better Homes and Gardens.  It sounded good to me!  Whether this recipe will ever be made is a big “?”.

Lime Marmalade Recipe for Making Coconut Lime Bread Recipe

(Better homes and Gardens Recipe March 2013)

How to Slice Fruit for Marmalade:

http://hitchhikingtoheaven.com/2010/02/how-to-slice-citrus-fruit-for-marmalade.html Retrieved March 23, 2013.

Lime Marmalade Recipe from http://www.food.com

Ingredients

2 1/4 lbs fresh limes

7 cups water

3 1/2 lbs sugar, approx

Directions:

The Method

“1

Wash limes thoroughly, dry; using sharp knife, slice as finely as possible; retain any juice from limes; remove seeds (if there are any, as you slice).

2

Place sliced limes, any reserved juice and water in china, glass or plastic basin, cover, stand overnight.

3

Next day, pour lime mixture into large boiler, bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer covered for 30-45 minutes or until rind is tender. It is important to cook fruit gently at this stage.

4

Remove lime mixture from heat; using measuring jug, measure mixture into large basin, return lime mixture to large boiler. Allow 1- cup sugar for each 1 cup of measured lime mixture.

5

Place sugar in large baking dish, place in slow oven for 10 minutes, stir several times. (Heated sugar will dissolve in the jam more quickly, resulting in clearer jam). Bring lime mixture to boil, add sugar all at once, (its better to add the sugar off the heat).

6

Stir until sugar is dissolved completely – do not allow to boil again until this happens; do not stir after marmalade boils. (It is important, once sugar is added that there is not too much mixture in the boiler; it should not be more than 5cm (2in) deep; this will allow maximum evaporation of liquid, resulting in a marmalade which will jell as quickly as possible.).

7

Bring marmalade to the boil; boil rapidly, uncovered. Place a saucer in the freezer for 10 minutes, before testing marmalade. After marmalade has been boiling rapidly for 12 minutes, remove from heat; allow bubbles to subside, drop a teaspoonful of marmalade on to a cold saucer, return to freezer for a few minutes to cool. If marmalade is not jelled enough, return to heat, cook further 3 minutes; test again in the same way. Marmalade should be jelled within 20 minutes; stand 5 minutes to allow fruit to settle. Pour into hot sterilized jars, Store in cool dark place.

8

Makes about 2 litres (8 cups).”

Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/lime-marmalade-128848?oc=linkback

For really precise metric here’s my researched conversion.

1020.58 g fresh limes

1656.13 ml water

1587.57 g sugar, approx

En Fin 

Oh, yeah, you want to know the story’s end?

Conversation excerpt between the food experimenter and Bill the seasoned cook about the Lime Marmalade, ehem, fiasco.

“Maybe you could have added more sugar, said Bill. (gak! I’m thinking.) Bill laughed.

“Bill, did you ever make marmalade?”

“I made orange marmalade years ago in San Francisco.” Bill replied.

“How did it turn out?” I said meekly.

Bill makes a strained and thoughtful face and says, “It was awful.”

[Right. Shoulda', woulda', coulda'...will I ever learn to ask questions up front?]

Lime Marmalade

The Apple Cake Is Very, Very Easy = Sabina Posthumus’ Recipe

Sabina Posthumus’ Apple Cake Recipe – straight from the chef.

Apple Cake with powdered sugar topping

This apple cake was made for the duck dinner. I used lemon zest and a little vanilla. I added the US measures and rounded up to make it easy for me.

For the VERY, Very easy recipe

You need:

100 gram butter = 8 tbsp

2 eggs

100 gram sugar = 1 cup

100 gram flour = 1 cup

1–2 apples

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tbsp Baking soda

½ tsp Salt

Directions

The butter has to be out of the freezer and very soft, as soft as clay. You beat the butter with a mixer until the colour changes. It goes from yellow to white. It takes a little time, but you have to be patient. Than you mix in the sugar, Then the two eggs and then the flour. Add a little baking soda for a better cake, and a little salt. You can also add vanilla if you like that, or some lemon juice and zest, but that is all optional.

The dough is ready when it is soft and fluffy and it will stay in the bowl. (Een beetje stevig, maar wel luchtig.)  “A little bit stiff, but light” Grease up a pan and sprinkle with flour. Then you scoop the batter in the pan and even it out a bit. Peel the apples and put the slices on the cake. You push them in a bit. Then mix a tablespoon of sugar with some cinnamon and cover the apples with that. Put in the oven for an hour on 180 Celsius.  (350F).

Apple Cake ready for the oven

To see if it is done, you stick in a fork or a skewer. If it comes out clean and dry, the cake is done.

If you cannot do the measures in grams, it just is equal measures of butter, sugar and flour. It doesn’t have to be that precise.”

Notes : Sabina made the cake while I watched her, she cut and cored the apples and the slices were pretty thin.  These slices she actually pushed into the cake with the curve of the slice peeping out of the cake.  The apples become part of the cake.

After the cake was done I sprinkled sparkle sugar and powdered sugar on top, because it was still warm the sugars melted into it.

Conversion chart for US and Metric baking:

http://www.recipegoldmine.com/kitchart/kitchart2.html retrieved March 14, 2013

It is an easy cake to make a lot of, so it is good for parties too. You can make it on a big tray. Just the peeling of the apples is a bit of work, but hey, rien sans peine!

Roast Duck with Sauerkraut and Apples Recipe

Last Sunday the duck roast was pretty good.  After months of discussion  of what kind of duck recipe to use. Richard kept repeating duck with orange sauce. (I don’t care for that much.)  I found what I thought would be a simple recipe for roast duck from  250 Poultry and Game Bird Recipes;1949.

Roast Duck with Sauerkraut

Richard trussed up the duck, after I prepared Gala apples that he stuffed with currents into the bird.

Roast Duck

5 lb Duck

Salt pepper, clove of garlic

3 cups of pared quartered apples

1 cup seedless raisins

1 cup oj if desired

Wash, singe and clean duck season and rub with garlic and fill with apples mixed with raisins; place in a pan a roast uncovered in a slow oven 325 degrees. Baste with OJ every 10 minutes using 1 cup of OJ each time.

Allow 20-30 minutes per pound. Baste every 10 minutes.

  Notes: I used apple juice instead of OJ to baste the bird. Depending on the reliability of your oven bake the bird 30 minutes per pound. The duck was underdone in parts. Quickly we returned it to the oven. Over protests and whining: “I am so hungry.” (My bad. Forgot to emphasize 20 to 30 minutes per pound! Also, forgot to cover the bird – too hurried reading the recipe. Apples were under-cooked too. Gak! )

The wild rice was perfect! Tasted fabulous. (Real Minnesota wild rice is preferred over the commercially grown from California. )  Richard’s shaved salad with sunchokes, carrots and other fun vegetables was a nice addition.

Carrot Shaver & Wild Rice cooking on the stove.

Next time: have a clay roasting pot for the duck. Rinse the sauerkraut to eliminate salty flavor.

With Sauerkraut

6 lb duck

Salt, pepper and clove of garlic

2 quarts of sauerkraut

1 cup water

3 tablespoons of sugar

Prepare duck for roasting as above. Place in pan, add sauerkraut, water and sugar. Cover and bake in a moderate oven (325F) until tender and brown, allow 20-30 minutes per pound.

SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/catherinekatt/Documents/duck%20roast.doc

Take a look at Richard’s Table

Zheezheeb & Manoomin (Duck & Wild Rice)

For more photos and commentary.

P. S. Here’s a website with the How to answer on duck and all other culinary how to questions. http://www.helpwithcooking.com/cooking-poultry/roast-duck.html

I am going to book mark this one.