Happy Halloween!!

I love Halloween! I love carving pumpkins, dressing up and decorating in the most tacky way I know how. Plus it's just fun going into stores in full costume to get groceries, you don't get to do that everyday. 

Banana Hazelnut Bread

 Now that I'm finally winding down from returning home, I seemed to have packed my plate full today with things to do. Why do I always do this to myself? First thing on the agenda: banana bread! I forgot to eat the last three bananas before I left to Nashville so when I returned home I had some pretty good candidates for bread. Darn.

While kind of watching football (Go Seahawks!) I started getting my hands dirty in the kitchen. I have no idea where my motivation came from..perhaps it was the three cups of coffee before 9 am. Quite possible. I also don't know where my sudden baking frenzy has come from the last few weeks but at least I have plenty of guinea pigs to feed my labors to so I don't eat it all. *Sigh* so much for trying to limit my sugar intake. 

Traditionally, banana bread is made with walnuts or almonds, but I have had this lonely jar of hazelnuts in my pantry for far too long that I decided to use instead. I never stick to a recipe anyway. Plus I have to save the rest of my almonds for the wine/cheese/almond plate that I will be treating myself to this afternoon once I get all my shit done. The only bad thing about using hazelnuts is the skins: hard to get off the whole nut and a real pain in the ass to remove from the pile after you've chopped them. Whatever. 

Here is the banana nut recipe, modified slightly from here. 

Banana (hazel)Nut Bread

1/4 c butter

1/2 c granulated sugar

1/2 c honey

2 eggs

1 1/2 c mashed, over-ripe bananas. I used three

1 1/2 c all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sal

1/2 sliced/chopped nuts 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 loaf tin, or three smaller loaf tins as I usually end up doing. The size of the tins I use is roughly 5 x 3 x 5.

Cream the butter. The original recipe said to use a wooden spoon, but I must not have the right kind of wooden spoon because it was way more cumbersome than it should have been so I just switched to a regular soup spoon.

Add the sugar and honey and beat until creamy and light.

Add the eggs, one at a time, then thoroughly mix in the bananas.

Sift together the flour, soda and salt and blend thoroughly into a mixture. 

Finally, fold in the chopped nuts.

If using more than one loaf tin, evenly distribute between pans. I found this recipe made the perfect amount to split between the three tins. 

Pop them in the oven and set a timer for 1 hour. The original recipe said to lightly cover the bread with foil so the top doesn't get too brown, but I didn't do this...mostly because I missed that part. But it turned out just fine. Plus, I'm a big fan of crispy crusts. Just makes a nice contrasting texture with the soft, moist inside of the bread. 

I think I'll make my self a pumpkin spice latte (aka drive my happy ass down to the nearest coffee establishment), grab a slice-or three- and sink into bliss before I'm off to the next, um, adventure... maybe I'll just take a bath first.

Fall, In Love

I absolutely love this time of year. The colors. The leaves. The crisp air. The rain. The food. The wind blowing through the trees. The crunch of said leaves as I stomp through a parking lot. The puddles of rain on the side of the road I purposefully drive through. This is how I know I live in the perfect place for me. I just wish more people who lived here knew how lucky they truly are.

 Today, I went to our local pumpkin patch to pick out some punkins for Halloween. I was so excited! I'm leaving for a business trip this weekend and it's just cutting it too close if I go after I get back and I'm just not doing that to myself. There's just something special for me about going to do something I remember doing as a kid. Now I begin my own tradition as an adult I can hopefully pass down to my wee ones someday. Here are some of my favorite shots while I was out enjoying the patch.

           

Plum Bread

But it should really be called YUM bread, because it's dangerously delicious. Like, I'm glad I don't have plum trees 'cause I'd eat this all the time and leave an ass groove in my couch, delicious.

I was lucky enough to get this recipe from one of my best friend's mom, after she brought over a loaf a few weeks ago that was almost instantly devoured-upon which I practically demanded she hand over the recipe. Have I mentioned this bread is delicious? Because it is. Anyway, her parents have a ca-shit-ton of plums right now because, well.. it's plum season, and they (fortunately) have plum trees. I was even GIVEN some of these detectable beauties when she brought over the recipe. Let's face it, I have some pretty awesome connections.

Because I didn't want this amazing fruit going to waste, I decided to make the plum bread today because the plums were starting to look pretty sad. And I don't want to attract fruit flies and this is practically an open invitation to invade our home. No thanks. So I took my glass of wine, grabbed the recipe, pulled out the ingredients and proceeded to make a mess of the kitchen.

I made a few variations to the recipe, like using vanilla yogurt instead of plain because that's what I had on hand. I replaced the one loaf pan with three smaller loaf pans. I also used my beloved Cuisinart (thanks Mom!) instead of an electric mixture because, again, that's what I had on hand. The Cuisinart actually worked quite well, except for the part where I had to muscle the batter out with a too-big-for-the-job spatula into another bowl to fold in the plums. Gah. I suppose I *could* have just stopped to grab a more appropriate utensil, but I was determined (or stubborn, whatever) at that point. And by god if I am going to dirty another dish. Hell to the no.


Plum Bread
as adapted from Mama Ardis, who originally got it here

1 1/2 cups pitted, chopped plums (I used about 15)
1 Tbs all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup yogurt, plain or vanilla
1/4 cup brown sugar
Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 
Spray a 9x5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper. I used three smaller loaf pans. The size of the tins I use is roughly 5 x 3 x 5.  
Sprinkle chopped plums with 1 tablespoon of flour and a couple generous dashes of cinnamon in a bowl, toss to coat. Set aside. 

In a(nother) large bowl, beat the butter, white sugar and vanilla extract with an electric mixer (or Cuisinart) until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. 
In (yet) another bowl, sift together 1 1/2 cup of flour with salt and baking soda. 
Stir the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, alternating with yogurt until the mixture forms a smooth batter. 
Lightly stir in the flour-coated plums,and pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan(s). 
Sprinkle the top of the batter with brown sugar.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick (or the nearest chopstick) inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. 
If you use the three smaller loaf pans, it takes 40-45 minutes.
 Remove from oven and let cool in the pan 10 to 15 minutes before removing from pan for slicing.

Needless to say, the house smelled amazing and it's a good thing they got done baking a mere 30 minutes before dinner was ready, otherwise I might have just eaten an entire loaf to myself. I mean, just look at that beautiful brown sugar crust.. *drool*

Yeah, this one is definitely going in the favorites folder. 

Can It: Stewed Tomatoes

Today I embarked on a new journey: canning! Well, technically I've made jam before but today we're canning this gorgeous crop of tomatoes I plucked from the garden today into stewed tomatoes. We have 3 different types of heirlooms, 2 kinds of cherry, Roma and some other kind of German heritage tomato whose name escapes me right now. Seriously, there's probably a good 8 pounds of tomatoes on the kitchen table right now. I'm surprised the heirloom plants didn't fall over, each one is so heavy!

I'm so excited!

I am also are using this beauty you see right there, our very first pressure canner. It's the little things (or maybe weird..? I'll get back to you on that one) that excite me. Seriously..this is coming from the girl who bought herself a crock pot with her birthday money and was excited about it. But I digress..

While the jars, lids and rings were happily sanitizing away in the dishwasher, I prepped and cleaned both sides of the sink (filling one side with cold water and leaving the other side empty), the pressure canner and the utensils. I kept the jars, lids and rings in the dishwasher until I was ready to use them so they stay nice and hot.

First, blanch the tomatoes, about 4 at a time, in a pot of boiling water for approx. one minute-or until the skins crack- then transferring them immediately to the pot of cold water in the sink. This is done  to stop the cooking... and so you'll be able to actually handle them without getting 3rd degree burns! Peel the skins off into the other (empty) sink and place the toms on a cutting board or bowl, something to retain all those wonderful juices!
Do this for all tomatoes. I think a normal person would use probably 20-30... Holy tomato.

 Once you've done this for all tomatoes, rough chop the toms, adding them AND the excess juices from chopping into a pot on the stove.
Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring to prevent burning on the bottom. All the recipes I looked at say to add salt, sugar, onions, celery and green peppers but since that's really for flavoring, we're just going to stick with the amazing flavor of the tomatoes because we'll be using these for so many different things in the coming year.

When the tomatoes have simmered for 10 minutes, begin transferring them to your hot jars. Make sure you have dish towels laid out on the counter, ones you don't mind getting stained, 'cause it'll get a little messy. (Turns out, the jars were cold when I was ready to pull them out of the dishwasher so I threw them into the oven on 175 for about 5 minutes.)

Using a large ladle and canning funnel, fill the quart mason jars, leaving about 1 inch of room at the top. Use a non-metallic utensil to remove air bubbles in the jars that may have formed. Then add 1 Tbs lemon juice to the top before placing the lids and rims on, securing only finger tight.

**Be careful not to touch the inside of the jars or lids with your bare hands as this can cause contamination.**



Using your handy-dandy canning tongs, place cans into the pressure canner. Use the instructions on your pressure canner.

According to our instructions, here's my really condensed, run-on sentence, version: add 3 qts boiling water to the pressure canner before placing the cans in, then secure the lid, place it over the burner on high, make sure the regulator is off, let the steam vent for about 10 minutes, place the regulator back on, wait for the valve to pop up, watch the pressure gauge until it reaches 11 pounds, drop the burner a little and set the timer for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, use the canning tongs to take them out and let them sit in an undisturbed area for about 12-24 hours. Voila!

It was a long process and I learned a lot today. I think it took about 2 hours start to finish.  Totally can't wait to try the next batch now that I know what the hell I'm doing!
All in all, it was a very successful day.
I used practically every single pot and mixing bowl in the kitchen! And I haven't even made dinner yet! At least I have the day off tomorrow, I'll postpone dishes until then.

For now, I'll just enjoy my glass of wine and listen to the fruits of our labor softly popping in the background.