Banana Crumb Muffins

So, I haven't posted any recipes in quite a while. But, tonight I made these amazing Banana muffins. They were so beautiful and tasty, I just had to record the recipe and share it.

You should know, I'm not so good at following recipes. And, with baking being such a science and all about the chemical reaction of one ingredient with another ... I'm, frankly, lucky anything turns out at all. Also, I'd like to share that I never mix my dry ingredients separate from my wet ingredients. I just put them all in together into my stand-up Kitchen Aid mixer and mix away. I know this isn't the proper way of doing things, but that's what I did here and they turned out just fine.

Makes 12 regular size muffins.

Muffin Batter Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 ripe bananas
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted

Crumble Ingredients:
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix together the batter ingredients and spoon into muffin cups.

Mix crumble ingredients. Once mixed it should resemble coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle a spoonful of the crumble over the batter in the muffin cups.

Bake muffins in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

So yummy when warm.

White Chicken Chili

Ingredients:
48 oz. jar Northern Beans

2 4 oz. cans chopped green chilis

1 16 oz. jar salsa (medium) or 1 can petite diced tomatoes

Meat from a rotisserie chicken (chopped)

1 medium onion chopped

3 ribs celery, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

6 cups or 2 large cans of chicken broth

1 tsp chili powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Saute onion, garlic, green chilis and chicken in a little olive oil or butter until onion is soft. Add chili powder. Add beans, salsa and broth and bring to a bubble. Can use stick mixer to roughly puree some of the soup and thicken it up a bit. Serve with shredded cheddar and sour cream on top.

Mixed Berry Cobbler

This all started because I bought a 10 lbs. box of gorgeous Michigan blueberries at the farmer's market this summer. I froze about half of them on cookie sheets and then bagged them up to be used at a later date. These delicious, individually-frozen berries were just calling to me to be used. So, here's how I made my Mixed Berry Cobbler. (Please pardon the narrative throughout.)

Fruit Mixture
24 oz frozen blueberries
24 oz frozen red raspberries
1 granny smith apple (peeled and chopped)
3 tablespoons of flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter or margerine (cut up in chunks)

Pastry
1 (15 oz) package refrigerated piecrusts
Cinnamon sugar mixture
2 Tbsp butter melted or Pam cooking spray

Garnish
Whipped topping or vanilla ice cream

Unfold 2 piecrusts and press out fold lines. You may not need all of the crusts but the kids always steal about 1/2 of them off the tray while the berries are baking ... so it's hard to tell what you'll really need. And, depending on how creative you get with the strips or cutouts, you'll need more or less than the 2 crusts that come in the package.

Cut pastry into 1-inch strips (or use seasonal cookie cutters) and place on a baking sheet. Brush both sides with melted butter or spray with Pam. Sprinkle with a cinnamon-sugar mixture and bake at 425º for 7-8 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside.

I didn't have a fancy pastry cutter to cut the pie crust but I did find a really cool plastic playdough cutter in my daughter's stuff and that did the trick. A straight cut tastes the same, but it was fun to have the wave along the edge. It's also fun to do a basket weave with the strips ... though it's challenging to lift it from the tray when it's baked without breaking it. My little trick was to bake the woven strips on a cookie sheet with no lip. Then, I just slid the entire piece off the tray onto the top of the 9x13 cobbler. Baking the crust on the cobbler yielded in mushy strips.

Stir together fruit, flour, salt and sugar.

Spoon berry mixture into 9x13 baking dish and dot with butter chunks.

Bake at 400º for 35-40 minutes or until bubbly (and not too runny). Once partially cooled, top with baked pastry strips or cut-outs.

Best if served warm with ice cream or whipped topping.

NOTE: I have done this once or twice with half of the baked pastry strips layered into the middle of the berry mixture. It does offer some texture in with the berries. It's simply up to you if you want that.

Spanish Style Pan Roast

So, it was blazing hot outside when I made this ... but this spicy dinner hit the spot. Originally seen in Cooking Light magazine, I substituted a few ingredients to take advantage of Michigan's delicious, early summer veggie, asparagus.

Here's the recipe.
Ingredients:
1 lbs. red skin potatoes, quartered or large dice (depending on size of potatoes)
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter*
Salt and pepper to taste
3/4 lbs large, raw, unpeeled shrimp
1/4 lbs Spanish chorizo sausage (1 sausage - like the size of a bratwurst), thinly sliced
1 lbs fresh green beans or asparagus*
1/2 cup pilsner beer* (I used Fat Tire beer, 'cause I love it)
1 large red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1/2 tsp cumin*
1/2 tsp chili powder*
1/2 tsp smoked paprika* (I used regular paprika)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400º
In a roasting pan, combine potatoes, olive oil, garlic (season with salt and pepper to your liking). Bake for 20 min or until potatoes start getting brown and soft. While potatoes are cooking, peel and devein shrimp (leave on tails if you'd like). After the 20 minutes, pull the pan from the oven and add the thinly-sliced chorizo. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Then, add beer, asparagus/beans, shrimp, peppers and additional seasonings. Bake for a final 10-15 minutes or until all contents are properly cooked (I like when the veggies have some crunch still). Mix in 2 tbsp butter just before serving.

* additions or substitutions to the original recipe

Yum!

Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps

This filling is fantastic in leaves of bibb or iceberg lettuce or a tortilla wrap. It takes less than 15 minutes to prepare and have dinner on the table and everyone loved it .... even my 11-year old daughter.

1 lbs. ground turkey
2 cups fresh mushrooms, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped
3 scallions, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper
1-2 carrots, chopped or shredded
1 zucchini, chopped or shredded
1 tsp ground ginger, to taste (can use fresh - about 1 inch, grated)
1/2 cup Thai Peanut Sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
coarse ground pepper
1 tbsp of soy sauce, more if you'd like

Cook up the ground turkey with garlic, ginger and ground pepper in a little bit of the oil until browned then add all of the other ingredients and the rest of the oil. Cook until veggies are a bit soft and you like the consistency of the sauce in the mixture. Serve with lettuce leaves or wrapped in tortillas.

Creamy Red Pepper Soup

Today seems like a great day to make a creamy soup. I have a few things going for me. I have a bunch of onions from my Dad's friend Bob's incredible vegetable garden, a couple jalapenos from my deck garden and a gallon-sized bag full of red pepper strips left over from a photoshoot last week featuring frozen ethnic entrees. Not to mention, even though it's August 29, it's only 58º outside, and raining. Believe it or not, I actually made a point of writing down the ingredients as I put them into the pot so I thought I had better get the recipe onto my blog now or it may never get there. The piece of scrap paper will surely be lost in the sea of papers soon to come home from school (only 1 week left of summer).

Roughly chop the following ingredients:
1 medium onion
3 carrots
3 stalks of celery
1 large potato, peeled
3 garlic cloves
2 jalapenos, seeds removed

Other ingredients:
1 tsp coarse salt
at least that much fresh ground pepper
4 cups frozen red pepper strips
32 oz. chicken broth
14.5 can diced tomatoes
1 cup half & half
4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp flour
fresh cilantro, if desired

Place fresh veggies, salt and pepper in a pan with olive oil and about 1 cup of chicken broth and saute until totally soft. Add red pepper strips (I used frozen -- not sure if you can buy them frozen. If you were to use fresh, I'd toss them in with the veggies above and cook those until soft too.) Stir until well blended and cook for another 5 min or so. Add 3 tbsp flour and stir to cover everything ... it'll be pasty. Add diced tomatoes and the rest of the chicken broth and let the whole mixture cook for about 30 minutes on low. Blend well with stick blender until desired consistency. Just before serving, add cream. Top with chopped cilantro if desired.

Baked Shrimp Dip

Ingredients
16 oz. (2 packages) lite cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup lite sour cream
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 bunch green onions, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno, roughly chopped, seeds removed
About 35 medium shrimp, cooked
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix in food processor until all ingredients are finely chopped and mixed. Bake at 350 degrees for approx. 40 minutes or until bubbly and a little browned on top. Serve with bagel chips.