Category: Bread

Three Things I’m Grateful for: Cheddar, Garlic and Butter

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Enough said right?! What can possibly be better than cheesy, garlicky, buttery goodness? Well probably lots of things, but still…When we asked Mr. N what he wanted to go with his fried chicken, he didn’t have any good ideas. Then dad suggested biscuits – a good southern side dish. Mr. N considered this for a while and then said, “I know! I want Red Lobster’s biscuits! Mommy can you make me Red Lobster biscuits?” How could I refuse, even if I had no idea how to replicate those tasty little evil biscuits (I say evil because I could sit there and eat them all night long).

After a bit of glancing around for ideas on-line it seemed that the majority of copy-cat recipes included the same things – bisquick, garlic seasoning, cheddar cheese, dried parsley and butter. But I thought we could do one better…homemade biscuits with garlic, cheddar, fresh parsley and butter. For our biscuit recipe, we used one from Manna & Quail that I had made a while back with rave reviews from dad and the kids. Then we added the Red Lobster twist.

We started by combining the dry ingredients for the biscuit dough – flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, garlic salt and shortening. Continue reading →

Third Time’s the Charm? Quest for the Best Banana Bread.

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Tonight the kids and I whipped up the third banana bread recipe for our quest. This particular version is adapted from Martha Stewart’s banana bread and was sent to me by an old high school friend. Thanks Liz! The major differences in this recipe compared to the first two are that it uses only white sugar and replaces the oil with sour cream. Until now, I had never seen a banana bread recipe with sour cream, so I was intrigued.

We started by mashing the bananas – Miss A was on hand to help in what has become her new favorite outfit (a princess nightgown), worn both day and night.

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Walk Like an Egyptian

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Okay, now I’m dating myself and getting another song stuck in my head. So now that we’ve had a few layovers for Royal wedding celebrations and fiestas, we’re back on track for our next international cooking destination and dad is taking us to Egypt! Tonight we had a great Egyptian dinner that began with a homemade Wheat Pocket Pita.

Both Miss A and Mr. N were big helpers today. Miss A and I began in the morning by dissolving the yeast and sugar in warm water.

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Quest for the Best Banana Bread 2

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I had every intention of posting this delicious banana bread recipe yesterday, but the day just got away from me. It was a wonderful Mother’s Day spent with my little ones and was topped off with a special dinner that dad whipped up for me. It was the perfect day. It was also a great day to try a new banana bread recipe for our challenge. This time I picked the recipe that I’ve been dying to try – Bananas Foster Bread from Cooking Light magazine. I’m a huge fan of bananas foster. It was my favorite dish at a local New Orleans themed restaurant that sadly went out of business, so I was hoping that his recipe would fill the void.

We started by cooking the butter, brown sugar, bananas and cognac in a skillet over medium heat until bubbly.

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The Quest for the Best Banana Bread

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ChefMom hiking with her little sister and dad circa 1984-ish

While Mr. N eagerly awaits his prize drawing this afternoon, we thought we’d share our latest adventure. One of my earliest memories of cooking is with my dad. We used to make Big Bird’s Banana Bread from one of my old Sesame Street books. After Mr. N was born this memory kept resurfacing and I knew I had to find the same series of books (my old set was ruined in a flood years ago). I was fortunate enough to find them on eBay and acquired the whole set once again. I knew this was a recipe I wanted to share with Mr. N as he got older.

I made the recipe a few years ago and it didn’t quite live up to the hype in my mind. The memory is far sweeter than this particular version of the tasty snack. Then while we were living in Minnesota my friend Doree brought over her banana bread. Now this stuff tasted much more like my memory of banana bread! In fact, this was and so far still is the best banana bread I’ve ever had in my life. So since banana bread holds a special place in my heart we’re going to test out some new recipes as well as some old recipes until we find our favorite. Don’t worry dad, I’ll make sure to bring you a piece of each of them! Continue reading →

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

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This past Sunday we all spent the afternoon in the kitchen busy with several different recipes. I wasn’t planning to make dinner rolls, but after I saw the “Bunny Backsides” on Frieda Loves Bread, I knew we had to give them a shot. The kids were definitely game, and having quite the giggles about getting to make (and then eat) “bunny butts.” Now I’m admittedly not a great bread maker. I typically let my bread machine do the work for me, but for these cute little spring treats, I thought I would again try my mom’s dinner roll recipe (to-date I have yet to pull this recipe off correctly).

We began by scalding the milk and then stirring in sugar, salt and shortening. We then set this aside to cool to lukewarm. In the meantime, we sprinkled the yeast into hot water to dissolve and then slightly beat two eggs with a fork. Next we combined the milk, the yeast and the eggs into a large mixing bowl and began to stir in the flour a few cups at a time.  

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