Award Winning Banana Bread

It is a constant source of pride that I can call my Banana Bread "Award Winning".  Granted the award it won was just a high school club competition and not some reknowned culinary thing, but I'll take it.  It's been awhile since I've been able to bake a lot and since baking is my favourite way to warm up the house when it's cold, I figured it was time.  Anyway, here is the recipe for my banana bread...

• 2 ripe medium bananas
• 1 8oz pkg cream cheese
• 3 eggs
• 6 tbsp butter
• 1 c. flour
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 375.  This first part is my favourite...at least the way I do it anyway.  I don't have a standing mixer, so I put the bananas, cream cheese, and butter into a bowl and pulverize it with a potato masher!  Yeah, I'm a crazy person...  So you're gonna beat that untill it's soft and add the eggs and vanilla.  Once this is completely mixed, it'll kind of look like a custard if you did it right.  Next add the sugar and mix it in completely.  Then the soda, powder, and salt.  Last add the flour.  Pour the fully combined mixture into a greased bread pan (the ones I use are glass) and bake for somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour and twenty minutes.  I've had a lot of angry ovens in the past, so I've just always had to keep an eye on it and check often with a toothpick.

Experiments...

I made the best damn marinade/sauce ever.  Ready, go!

• 1/2 c. mustard
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. lime juice
• 3 tbsp. sour cream
• 1/2 c. cream
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. curry powder
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

In a bowl.  Oh yeah.  I also gave this recipe a shot on Thanksgiving and it was fan-bloody-tastic.  Nom nom. Although, it's pretty important to use the same size pan they recommend.  I used a pie pan and all the batter barely fit and it kind of cracked from the bad ratios.  I didn't use the crust recipe.  I used a simple graham cracker crust.

•  2 c. graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 c. salted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 c. brown sugar  

That turned out pretty well.  I must off to clean house.  

Lasagna. I write this down.

This is the red lasagna.  The one we keep making.  The one we never write down.  I write it down.  (I put what I use in parentheses.)

1 lb. Sweet Italian Sausage
2 c. Tomato Sauce (Contadina w/ Italian Herbs, 1 can)
2 c. Diced Tomatoes (Ro-Tel w/ Lime and Cilantro, 1 can)
1/2 c. Tomato Paste (Heinz w/ Basil, Garlic, and Oregano, 1 can)
4 c. Italian Blend Shredded Cheese (2 packages)
1/2 c. Mushrooms
1/2 c. Diced Bell Peppers
1/2 c. Artichoke Hearts
1/2 c. Diced Onions
9 Lasagna Noodles
1 tbsp. Olive Oil
2 tbsp. Sugar
1 tbsp. Minced Garlic
Spices (Follow your heart):

• Caribbean Jerk Seasoning
• Garlic Powder
• Curry Powder
• Basil
• Oregano
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Paprika

Instructions:  Put the olive oil in a saucepan on medium heat.   Add sausage.  Halfway through browning meat, add minced garlic and onions.  Boil some water while you're doing that.  When the sausage is mostly brown add the rest of the vegetables, sauce, and paste.  Somewhere in there, remember to cook the noodles and also preheat the oven to 350.  Once all of the stuff is in the sauce, add the spices to your liking...you know stir, taste, repeat.  Once everything is cooked, layer the sauce, noodles, and cheese int a 12x8 glass hot-dish pan.  Cook for about 20 minutes.  Makes 12 servings.  (Which, according to livestrong.com, are 326 calories each.)

Now we know.  Enjoy.  ^-^

Updates

The biryani was pretty damn good.  Yeah!

We planted our anarchy garden.  Yeah!

I need to go practice.

...


Yeah!

Microwave, Part I

Well, the internet and I have decided that I'll be make shrimp biryani in my room this evening.  Here's the recipe I found for it and it looks pretty simple.  My only problem with it is that it's a bit dish heavy...I mean, if your only means of cooking is a microwave, I doubt you have a ton of dishes at your disposal.  I had to run to my apartment, which I'm still not moved out of completely, to grab more dishes; the cereal bowls and mugs in my dorm room weren't going to cut it. 

I made a couple of slight changes based on my resources, however...  I bought the shrimp precooked for safety; I decided to put bacon pieces in it (I had a craving); I've no garlic, so I'm using 1/2 tsp. of garlic powder instead; I added 1/4 tsp. curry powder; and I'm using Yellow Star saffron flavoured instant rice.  I'm a bit of a flavour junkie, so I think this will be to my liking...I hope.  I bought the ingredients last night so I could have an hour and a half of prep time before I went to work at four. 

That didn't quite work out how I wanted...see, wind currents or pressure or whatever runs rampant in the residence halls.  I closed one of the doors open in my room and when I went to close the other, it abruptly slammed on my poor right hand.  Well, that knocked out half an hour of time while I was writhing in pain.  I'm also moving a bit slower than I'd like because my middle finger is mangled.  PS, fun fact: home row typing is hell when you can't use one of your fingers.  >.<

Anywho, I tailed the shrimp, cooked the bacon, and mixed the spices.  I'd planned on cooking the rice as well, but mangled finger, you see.  So, my room smells like hickory and indian spices.  Mmmm.  Though, I'll quickly restore the fabreeze smell I'm used to after dinner, I'm sure. 

AND!  On the subject of spices, do you know what garam masala is?  I sure didn't, but boy is it wonderful!  It's a mixture of coriander, cardamom, cumin, and some other things.  It smells delicious! 

I've got about 3 more hours of work to go before I can finish this off and see how it pans out.  Cross your fingers!

I've got a microwave, though!

Well, the dining hall is closed tomorrow for Memorial Day, but some of us DO still live here and need to eat.  I found a website that has a bunch of recipes that are meant for a microwave, so I'm going to give one of those a go tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Bad things and good things.

You know, one of the sad things about having an online blog is that I can't properly rant without having angry comments thrown back at me thus making me feel worse. That said, I'm still going to try. First, the bad things, then the good things.

Je ne comprends pas pourquoi les gens continuent à faire des choses qu'ils savent faire de moi la colère. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi ils pensent qu'il est amusant de continuer à faire des choses qui m'a bouleversé et pense qu'il est drôle. Il n'est pas acceptable d'aller dans ma chambre sans ma permission. Il n'est pas acceptable de se déplacer et de prendre mes affaires sans demander. Il n'est pas acceptable de faire beaucoup de bruit après que j'ai dit et répété qu'il est contre les règles de la maison. Il n'est pas acceptable de sourire a moi et regarder moi comme si je l'ai développé une deuxième tête quand il est bien évident que je suis en colère à vous d'ignorer quelque chose que je vous ai dit. Plus important encore, il n'est pas correct de me traiter comme un pushover. Jamais. Je suis prêt à casser. J'ai le pouvoir de faire le reste du semestre assez misérable et je n'ai pas peur de l'utiliser.

Now that that's out of my system a bit, here are the good things.

Schubert (new fish) made a bubble nest in his tank today which means he's happy. He still has a conniption whenever I drop food into his tank, but baby steps.

We made a BRILLIANT game plan for two large events later in the semester and I'm very excited to get going with them even though my life is going to be quite consumed as the semester continues.

Last night was quite a blast. Saw a friend's band. Drank... Had a great time with some really good friends. Nights at the Library are pretty rad, not gonna lie.

I made cake truffles tonite. Cake. Truffles. They're quite delicious, I must say. I got the original recipe here. And then I modified it a bit. I used Devil's Food cake mix instead of Red Velvet, 'cause the latter is quite messy. I chilled the cake type mixture in the freezer so it was less messy when rolling. I skipped step 4 and made well over 100 of them because mine were smaller. I also mixed peanut butter into the chocolate coating because I'm rad like that. Here's some pictures!
This is the rolling process...

Gretchen helping with the chocolate coating.

The finished product!

Brilliant!

I had some stuff I had wanted to get accomplished tonite, but I got caught up in other things. Obviously. I think I'm just going to go to bed and try to get the bad things out of my head.