Brown Bananas? Yuck!

I try to keep as much fruit in my house as humanly possible because I simply cannot get enough of it. Especially bananas. I know a lot of people don't like them--don't ask me why--but I adore them. However, I have this quick I inherited from my Mama where I will not eat a banana unless it has reached a peak of perfection: solid yellow peel, even a litte green at the top, firm, no bruises and certainly not mushy.

Mushy bananas = death.

I'm serious about this. I do not joke around when it comes to bananas.
However, as it often happens, I buy more bananas than I can consume in a short period of time. My fiance does not eat them, and even if I eat two a day, sometimes they end up looking like this:

Such was the case last week with this particular bunch of fruit. I was especially unhappy because they went from dark green, to light green, to this. They never even touched the golden stage!

So what do you do when you have mushy, over-ripe bananas?

Make banana bread, of course! 

My future mother-in-law gave me the best banana bread recipe ever, which is what I turned this sad things into:

We put walnuts in our banana bread, but it's possible to omit them completely, or trade them out for pecans, raisins, seeds of some kind, or even chocolate chips if you are so inclined. As pictured above, I did make a double batch. However, my bread came out a little drier than usual. Here's the secret: if you double your batch (or if you use small bananas) throw in an extra one. All it does it make it more moist. 

Unfortunately, because I didn't ask my mother-in-law's permission, I'm not going to post her recipe for you all. But I've googled "banana bread recipes," and I believe thousands pop up. Any of them will serve your purpose of getting rid of nasty bananas.

Happy baking!

Irish Cream Brownies

Happy St. Patty's Day Weekend, everyone! Whether you are Irish or not, you can't help but indulge in some of the treats this holiday offers. My father loves Irish soda bread, other relatives enjoy Irish potatoes, and one of my best friends has a feast of cabbage and stew. I also heard that some of the bars serve green beer for the occasion.

Me?

I'm a quarter Irish, but never really celebrated it.

During my Spring break this semester, my girlfriends came over for a post-birthday celebration. One of our usual adventures involves baking--chocolate chip cookies, smoothies, and brownies.

We adore brownies.

In all forms.

To celebrate the Irish in all of us, no matter how small, I found a recipe on Betty Crocker's website for Frosted Irish Cream Brownies. You can follow the link to the recipe.

Our results looked like this:

We put a splash too much milk in the icing, which made it a little runny. Next time, we are going to cut the recipe for it in half to make less of it and leave it thicker. I used applesauce instead of oil (see a previous blog post), which gave them more of a flaky texture. Next time, I'll omit the Irish cream in the brownies themselves because we couldn't taste it anyways. 

Otherwise, our results were fantastic! The brownies were chocolaty, fulfilling and definitely Irish-y! Even though I don't celebrate St. Patty's Day, I do think these treats were a great way to indulge! 

Open Thread: Re-Baking Childhood Memories

How many of you, maybe coming home from college on the weekends, or visiting a grandparent's house for dinner, have walked into the front door and confronted a smell that automatically takes you on a magic carpet ride? Maybe it's garlic, cayenne pepper, or even chocolate chip cookies, but all of a sudden you are seven years old again and all you have to worry about is multiplication homework and your younger sister stealing your clothes; the hardest decision you have to make is whether or not to watch cartoons after dinner or a movie.

Those days were simple.

But now we have bills, midterms, jobs, roommates, and more responsibilities than we knew existed at that sweet, innocent age. I know that when I come home from a stressful day of tutoring and school, I crave the favorite dinners or desserts my mom or my mom-mom made when I was younger: chicken with mushrooms, roast beef, monkey bread, and meat stuffing. They are my comfort food.

There's one food that transports me back faster than any other.

Pizza Fritta.

Ever since I was a child, donuts and the fried dough at the pizza shops couldn't cut it. The donuts tasted stale and too sweet, while the fried dough was often hard and too sticky. Pizza fritta, on the other hand, comes out of the oil crispy and crunchy on the outside, but soft and fluffy in the middle. Dipped in powdered sugar or white sugar, they are the perfect combination of sweet, warm and fulfilling. We ate these for dinner, or breakfast or lunch; they were a meal unto themselves.

Sometimes I come home on the weekend my mom has the dough rising in a pot on the counter. When we cook them, we often cut the dough into shapes and the kitchen fills with the smell of oil. One bite and I'm ten years old again, sleeping over at mom-mom and pop-pops, frustrated by the thirteen-times tables.

Sometimes I wish life was that simple again.

Sometimes I realize all I need is a little taste of my childhood.

Now you know the one food I cherish and still love from my childhood. Now I want you to tell me about the food that takes you back to your innocent years, a food you miss or a food your parents surprise you with on the weekends. Tell us a story. And if you can, leave the recipe so I can add it to my recipe collection: it can be a dessert, a snack or even an entree.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing your responses!

A Baking Must Have

Upon scanning my fridge this past week, I realized I was missing a very important ingredient from my shelves.
I had the milk.
The eggs.
The butter.
I even had the flour and sugar (although that's located in the cabinet).

I was missing . . .

Applesauce! 

Stop looking at me like I'm crazy. I use no sugar added-natural applesauce as a substitute for oil and sugar for quite a few recipes because I grew up on homemade applesauce, applesauce bread and even just regular applesauce as a snack. It's a sweet, guilt free indulgence that can be used in a variety of ways around the kitchen. One of my favorite things to make with it is brownies. 

Yes.

BROWNIES.

All it does is make them a little cakier, but still leaves the chocolatey goodness and fudge heaven behind. One of my favorite recipes is from Weight Watchers, which is great because it's healthy and uses some ingredients college students have on hand: 

Below is a recipe that uses it:

Rocky Road Brownies:

1 package regular brownie mix, about 21 ounces

1/4 water

1/4 cup applesauce

4 large egg whites

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips 

8  medium marshmallows, chopped

·  1. Coat a 9- x 13-inch pan with cooking spray; set aside.

·  2. Prepare brownie mixture according to package directions for lower fat brownies using 1/4 cup water, applesauce and egg whites. Pour into prepared pan.

·  3. Sprinkle walnuts over top of brownies; bake according to package directions. Remove from oven about 10 minutes before the end of the baking time, and toss chocolate chips and marshmallows over top; cook 10 minutes more. Remove from oven and cool brownies on a wire rack. Cut into 24 pieces; serve.

Once I started making these brownies this way, my fiance and I have never gone back. And he's the one who tells me he hates imitation recipes, and he would rather have the original! The ones made with oil taste too heavy; I can eat two of these without feeling guilty, all because of the applesauce! Feel free to omit the walnuts, chocolate chips and marshmallows if you don't like them; I often just make regular brownies with this recipe. 

See? I'll bet your feelings about applesauce are starting to shift a little now. Below I have posted some recipe links, as well as some information about cooking with applesauce. Give it a try and let me know your thoughts! And if you have any applesauce recipes you'd like to share, I would love to know!

 Substituting Applesauce

Applesauce Substitutions

Oat Applesauce Muffins

Applesauce Cake

Applesauce recipe