back-to-business spiced breakfast bread

Well, I've tidied the kitchen a little, and I'm also coming to terms with the fact that our oven is apparently quite erratic.

So, it's back to business, or at least back to attempting to share some food with you. I woke up this morning, spotted an overripe banana and decided to bake something with it. In the name of inching my way to healthier eating, I mixed up Rose Levy Beranbaum's banana bread recipe with whole wheat flour, oat bran, and some veggies. Next time around, I'd go for even more carrot, nuts, and texture, adding some bulgur, rolled oats, or steel-cut oats.

Spiced Breakfast Bread
Adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible

1 overripe banana

1/2 C yogurt
1 egg
zest of one lemon
1 t vanilla
2/3 C wheat pastry flour
1/3 C oat bran
6 T sugar (preferably raw/turbinado)
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

5 T softened unsalted butter

1/2 C walnuts, toasted and chopped medium-fine
1 carrot, finely shredded
1/2 t cinnamon
generous dash of powdered allspice and/or ginger

Preheat the oven to 350^o. Grease a loaf pan with butter and set aside.

In a small bowl, peel and gently mash the banana. Add the yogurt and mix the two until their thoroughly blended, about 2 minutes by hand. Add the egg, lemon zest, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, measure the wheat flour, bran, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and stir briskly to combine, 1 minute.

To the dry ingredients, add the softened butter and half the banana mixture and blend until combined. Add the remaining banana mixture in two batches, mixing quickly and thoroughly in between additions. Mix in the cinnamon, ginger, allspice, carrots, and walnuts until just combined.

Put the mixture in the prepared loaf pan and bake 20-25 minutes or until the top of the loaf springs back when pressed lightly in the center. Remove and cool on a rack.

Yield 6 muffin-sized bars.

Happy Saturday!

time for a kitchen makeover

I'm really excited to do some cooking for this weekend, but before that happens, I must face... THIS!



Yes, I headed into the kitchen yesterday, and was so horrified by the more-deplorably-messy-than-usual state, that I had to document it. At least you can tell I've been busy! Pizza stone. Check. Bowl from mixer. Check. Mostly empty glass of white wine... check. Do I mise en place? Do I clean as I go? What do you think?

Even the sponge looks a little off-kilter. Or is he just considering ending it all?



Recipes to follow. I swear.

oven insufficiency alert

I was just avoiding work (again)--er, taking a little break--and reading this yummy brownie recipe EvilChefMom just posted and remembered:

My (rental) oven doesn't maintain temperature at all! I finally bought an oven thermometer which lead me to discovery #1: My oven runs 35-50 degrees cool.

Then! Two days ago, while baking my scones for the Strawberry Shortcake, I discovered (#2) that after 30 minutes of preheating at 450^o, the oven was still hovering around 345^o.

What to do? Anyone have any suggestions about helping my oven attain high heat? Besides moving, which is kind of in the works; or perhaps wrapping my oven in industrial-strength foil?

welcome to strawberry land, people

This dessert, while also my sister's first birthday cake, is also the namesake for one of my childhood entertainments: Strawberry Shortcake! She was just so cute with her big floppy hat and freckles. How strange is it that we had a cartoon character borne of a fruity dessert? And get a load of the other characters: Huckleberry Pie, Rainbow Sherbet, Crepes Suzette, Seaberry Delight?! (That last one was from season 2; apparently they were pulling out all the stops at that point.)

Strawberry Shortcake Cartoon *The World of Strawberry Shortcake*


Ah, I recall fondly the faintly dusty strawberry scent of my Strawberry Shortcake doll's hair, as I tucked her into her white plastic gazebo... Oh! Where was I?

Sorry, no photos of the complete dish survived my work group potluck. That, and I forgot my camera. 

Strawberry "Sconey" Shortcake
Hah. Sorry about the corny alliteration. Sounds like Shortcake's streetwise cousin from across the pond, no?

1 batch of my favorite scone recipe*, adding 1/3 C sliced strawberries and 1 t lemon zest

2 C sliced strawberries

1/3 C granulated sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

1 C whipping cream, plus more for serving

1 T amaretto liquor or 1 1/2 t Grand Marnier

1/3 to 1/2 C powdered sugar

*As an alternative, you can make the Strawberry Shortcake recipe on the Bisquick box! That's how my mom made this dessert, and I always loved it.

Step One: Slice your strawberries, put them in a bowl or container and toss with granulated sugar and cinnamon. Set aside and refrigerate for 2+ hours.

Step Two: Bake and cool the scones.

Step Two: Whip the whipping cream and liquor on high (in the bowl of a mixer or by hand), adding powdered sugar until it's the right amount of sweet for you. Adjust liquor/sugar as desired.

To serve: Place scones in individual dishes, drizzle with 1-2 T liquid whipping cream, top with 1/3- 1/2 C strawberries and juice, and add a dollop of whipped cream. 

Add vanilla ice cream, if this doesn't offer you enough varieties of sweetened dairy yet. 

Yield: 6 generous servings

I heart Texas!!

I heard some lyrics in a song today that reminded me of how easy it is for people in other parts of the country to lay the blame for the current administration on the state of Texas.

Well, I just needed to say that the next time someone makes a snide remark about how Austin's the "only place in Texas one can live" or some similarly superior and narrow-minded comment about the generally disposable nature of my state, I might go freakin' ballistic.

I wasn't even born in Texas, and I'm proud to be born in California and raised mostly on the east coast; but (dang it!) I love Texas dearly, despite the hotter-than-hell Septembers and the other obvious downsides to living in a red state!

So, the next time you think about writing off the Lone Star State, please think of me and consider giving us a chance. Thanks. Y'all. xoxo