Julie's Banana Nut Cookies

So I posted on facebook that rotten bananas + nuts and boredom = banana nut cookies with caramelized frosting, and my dear friends want the recipe so here goes.  This recipe came from my Sister in law Julie West Christiansen, she is an amazing cook and never ceases to amaze me with the wonderful things she comes up with.  These cookies are soft and have a wonderful texture and the frosting is fabulous!

Banana Nut Cookies

½ Cup Butter                                                ½ Cup Shortening

1 cup Sugar                                                  2 Eggs

½ Cup Buttermilk                                        1 cup mashed Banana

3 Cups Flour                                                ¼ tsp Salt

1 ½ tsp baking soda                                     1 Cup Pecans

(If you don’t have buttermilk, use 1 Tbsp lemon juice with ½ cup milk).  Cream butter, shortening and sugar.  Add eggs, milk and banana.  Add dry ingredients. (I added about 1/2 cup of extra flour because I used the 1 Tbsl lemon juice added to regular milk instead of buttermilk)  Drop by tsp onto greased cookie sheets and bake at 375 for 10 minutes.  Cool and then frost (see frosting recipe below).  And actually if I am in a hurry I don't even worry about how cool the cookies are since the Frosting is warm to begin with anyway.

Frosting:

½ Cup Butter                                                 

1 Cup brown sugar

¼ Cup milk                                               

Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes

Pour into large mixing bowl and with electric beaters add:

2 Cups powdered sugar

I added slightly more than 2 cups, it turned out delicious.  These cookies are a big hit.  I took them to work and they disappeared very quickly!  I think everyone must have liked them.   

Note: Next time I make them I will take pictures and add to this post

Super Duper Beef Pepper Steak

Today has been a beautiful day.  I discovered after much introspection that as of the last few years I am really happy.  Not just the occasional good day but all around happy!  It is a great thing and today, to celebrate I decided to just find a pepper steak recipe on line and make it, not even sure if I would like Pepper Steak.  Most of the recipes I found called for green peppers only and although a tiny bit of green pepper is OK, that much green pepper seems kind of like over doing it and then I came across Easy Beef Pepper Steak with Rice.  In this recipe she talks about using Red, Yellow and Green peppers, now that sounds really good, I love Red and Yellow Peppers!  So I gave it a try and it is absolutely wonderful.  I think when I make it again I will add a tiny bit of spice, maybe a tiny bit of garlic chili sauce.  But exactly the way it is was delicious.  For the rice I used a cup of jasmine rice with a cup of wild rice and it was great. 

Ingredients: 

1 pound sirloin steak (or other steak), cut into thin 2-inch strips
1-2 Tablespoons oil
2 onions, sliced into 2-to-3-inch slices
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 green bell pepper, sliced into thin, 2-inch slices
1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin, 2-inch slices
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced into thin, 2-inch slices
1 cup beef broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup cold water
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
3-4 cups of hot cooked rice

Instructions: 

1. In large skillet or stock pot, fry steak, onions, and garlic in oil over medium heat.

2. When onions are starting to turn translucent and steak is partially cooked (still some pink), add tomato, beef broth, salt, and soy sauce. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, until meat is tender.

3. Add bell peppers and stir to mix them in. Cook for about 10 minutes, until peppers are crisp-tender, or almost as cooked as you prefer.

4. In small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Use only as little as necessary (I only used about 1/2 of what I made up) Add to pepper steak pan, stirring to avoid lumps and cook until mixture thickens. (Boil/simmer for about 3 minutes.) Serve over hot rice.

I discovered Spark Peoples Nutrition Calculator and ran this recipe through, if you use 1 Cup of white rice mixed with 1 Cup of Wild Rice and a setting of 4 Servings you get the following nutritional values only 367.4 calories per serving, that is a great meal!!! I will eat this more often, like for lunch tomorrow!

Nutrition Facts User Entered Recipe

4 Servings Calories 368 Total Fat 8.8 g Saturated Fat 2.2 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.8 g Monounsaturated Fat 4.4 g Cholesterol 64.6 mg Sodium 493.4 mg Potassium 1019.9 mg Total Carbohydrates 40.9 g Dietary Fiber 4.1 g Sugars 1.2 g Protein 31.9 g

Wow, I have been slacking - Stew today!

It has been a while.  I haven't stopped cooking, but my blogging has suffered recently too much Facebook/Zynga games.  Cooking is such a wonderful thing.  You get to enjoy creating something new and then you get to enjoy the fruits of your labors by eating what you cooked.  Today we are having beef stew, a really great comfort food.  There are so many different recipes out there for stew everything from Chili Verde (a Mexican pork stew) to the typical meat and potatoes based stews.  Last night David (my husband) heard we were having stew today and asked if we could make a thicker stew, apparently my last stew was more of a soup to him so I am giving it a try, we will see how it turns out.

Well, the stew was a hit with David.  It was thick and delicious.  I wouldn't change a thing...I think I finally have my stew down to a science!

Cathy's Crockpot Beef Stew

INGREDIENTS:

2 - 2 1/2 pounds beef stew meat                  1 large onion, chopped

1/2 Cup flour (to dredge meat in)                2-3 tbsp olive oil

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced                        5 large carrots, chopped

2 Tbsp tapioca (for thickening)                   1/2 cup Quinoa (optional)

1/2 cup lentils (optional - didn't use)          1/2 cup barley (optional - didn't use)

32 ounce bottle of V-8 or Tomato Juice      1/2 cup red wine

2 potatoes, cubed                                         2 cups frozen corn

1 cup peas                                                                                

DIRECTIONS:

Add garlic and olive oil to large skillet, dredge meat in flour and then quickly brown on all sides remove to crockpot you may have to do this in batches.  Once all meat is in the crockpot pour wine into skillet and loosen all little bits left behind, pour into crockpot.   Pour V-8 over the top and cook for 1 hour. Add all ingredients except potatoes, corn and peas.  Cook on low for 3-4 hours.  Add potatoes and corn.  Cook an additional 2 hours.  In last 10 minutes before serving add peas.  Serve with homemade corn bread.  Enjoy!

Today I am serving my Stew with a  Corn Bread recipe that I found on Taste of Homes website.  This recipe looked delicious.  Here it is:

Buttery Corn Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1-2/3 cups 2% milk
• 2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 4-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Combine the eggs and milk. Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with egg mixture.
• Pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake at 400° for 22-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cut into squares; serve warm. Yield: 12-15 servings.

This cornbread is perfect, it is moist and sweet almost cake-like.  I have always used honey butter when eating cornbread, but with this recipe I just ate it straight.  It is delicious, a compliment to any meal!

Mexican Hamburger Casserole

 Hi everyone!  So I have a been a bit under the weather lately, so today after a nice afternoon nap I grabbed my laptop and started looking for something to have for dinner that would be fast and easy and hopefully taste good.  My search brought me to Cooks.com where I found several options.  I decided on the one that looked the easiest.  I made a few minor modifications.  First I made the whole thing in one pan, from frying the burger to baking in the oven I used a large cast iron skillet... once again I think I love cooking with cast iron.  It also called for 4 pounds of kidney beans, I cut that down to 2 cans and then I added 2 cups of frozen corn. Finally, I omitted the butter and used a tiny bit of EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) instead.   In the future, I think I will add more corn and more cheese.  But this turned out to be a pretty good dinner, it was quick, had good flavor and David said to keep the recipe which is a good sign that it was liked!  So next time you need something quick and easy, give this one a try!

MEXICAN HAMBURGER CASSEROLE

COOKS.COM

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Read more about it at www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,191,143163-233202,00.html
Content Copyright © 2010 Cooks.com - All rights reserved.

1 pound ground beef                              2 tbls butter
1 large chopped onion                          1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp chili powder                                 1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin seed                                  1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp oregano                                        Dash pepper
2 Cans kidney beans                             1 can tomato sauce

2 Cups frozen Corn                                           

3/4 cup crushed corn chips
1/3 cup Burgundy wine (optional)
1/3 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Brown meat in heavy skillet; spoon into a 2-quart casserole. Melt butter in skillet. Add onion and garlic; sauté until onion is clear. Add spices, beans, tomato sauce, corn chips and wine. Mix thoroughly and spoon over meat. Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake in oven (350°F.) for 30 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly.

Makes 4 servings.  This is a pretty good quick casserole.  I would add a bit more corn when making it again and a bit more cheese.

Today, Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Today's new recipe turned out wonderful and there is a surprise inside!  Thanks to Cupcakerecipe.com for this fun recipe and boy are they red.  I put them in red cupcake liners and they turned out beautiful.
They have a delicious, moist slightly chocolate flavor and the cream cheese frosting was very rich and yummy...   Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting!

Ingredients -

24 Chocolate Kisses Batter: 3/4 cup Butter, softened 1-1/2 cups Sugar 1/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder 1 teaspoon Baking Soda 1 teaspoon Salt 1 teaspoon Vanilla 2 Large Eggs 1 cup Buttermilk 2 tablespoons Liquid Red Food Color 2 teaspoons White Vinegar 2-1/2 cups Cake Flour Frosting: 2 (8 ounces each) Cream Cheese, softened 1/2 cup Butter, softened 1 1/2 cups Confectioners Sugar 1 teaspoon Vanilla

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. 2. Line 24 regular size muffin cups with foil liners. 3. Put 1 kiss in the center of each. 4. Beat the butter, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla in a large bowl for 2 minutes or until creamy. 5. Beat in the eggs until blended. 6. Stir in the buttermilk, food color and vinegar in a 2 cup measuring bowl until blended. 7. Beat in the flour alternating with the buttermilk mixture. 8. Beat until blended. 9. Spoon 1/4 cup batter over the kiss in each cup. 10. Bake for 25 minutes or until done. 11. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes. 12. Remove from the pan and cool completely. Frosting: 1. In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy. 2. Add the confectioners sugar and vanilla. 3. Beat until smooth and fluffy. 4. Frost the cupcakes and garnish as desired.

Tomorrow I am going to make a Lemon Cream cupcake and later this week I am making Rachael Ray's Roasted Pablano Chili with nachos on top.  I watched her make it on the Cooking Channel and it looked delicious.  I think I will also make cheese filled italian rolls on wednesday and another batch of Creamy White Chili!

Creamy White Chili

I found this wonderful recipe on someones blog, I would love to give credit to whomever posted it, but the link I had for it is no longer working and after searching high and low I still can't find it so if this is your recipe, my compliments to the chef it is now one of my very favorites!!!  (Please let me know so I can give you credit).  I made it a couple of nights ago and have to admit I was skeptical, wasn't sure anyone in my house would eat it, let alone like it.  Wow was I surprised, they emptied the pot and Joyce even grabbed 2 bowls so we could take it for lunch the next day.  Thanks Joyce best lunch I have had in a long time.  My advice is don't skimp on anything in this recipe, I used the hot variety of canned green chili's which gave it a bit of a kick, but I like spicy.  Last night my husband asked for a bowl of left over "Chicken Chili" and I had to tell him it was all gone, needless to say he was very disappointed so this recipe just became a permanent fixture in my list of menus.  Enjoy!   Cathy

Creamy White Chili
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon oil
2 cans (15 1/2 ounces each) Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
2 cans (4 oz) chopped green chilies (for less kick, add just one can, more kick use the HOT version)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whipping cream

In a large saucepan, saute chicken, onion and garlic powder in oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add beans, broth, chilies and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in sour cream and cream. Garnish with fresh cilantro, if desired. Serve immediately. This is especially good served with tortilla chips. Makes about 6 servings.