Check out some of my food photography in the current (July/August 2009) issue of Clean Eating Magazine, on stands now!
Best Banana Bread
I'm not sure when I had first come across this recipe, but I remember it this way...
When I was a kid, my parents had gone to a yard sale and came home with this little square booklet of typed recipes. I picked up the book and skimmed through it when my eyes landed on a recipe for Banana Bread. I had never made banana bread before, but had tried the recipe and it was perfect. It still is years later! I admit, I'm a bit biased as I have never used another banana bread recipe, but when I find a recipe that works, even as a child, why try anything different? I have altered this recipe from time to time, but I never really stray far from the original.
When I was a kid, my parents had gone to a yard sale and came home with this little square booklet of typed recipes. I picked up the book and skimmed through it when my eyes landed on a recipe for Banana Bread. I had never made banana bread before, but had tried the recipe and it was perfect. It still is years later! I admit, I'm a bit biased as I have never used another banana bread recipe, but when I find a recipe that works, even as a child, why try anything different? I have altered this recipe from time to time, but I never really stray far from the original.
Original Recipe: Unknown Author
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil3 large ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1. Cream together butter and sugar
2. Add beaten eggs
3. Add sifted flour and baking soda
4. Add mashed bananas (and nuts etc)
5. Bake in a greased loaf pan for 45 minutes at 325º (preheated)
This time around:
I always add about a cup of Walnuts and about a cup of Chocolate Chips to the Original recipe (what doesn't taste great with chocolate chips and walnuts?) Oh, and it always takes at least an hour to bake but be sure to test it out for yourself! When you think it's done, stick a knife in the centre and if it comes out doughy, it's not done yet.
This time around, I used 1 cup of Unbleached Flour and 1 cup of Whole Wheat Flour instead of 2 Cups of White. I thought I had more Walnuts in the kitchen cupboard, but I was running low, so I used 1/2 cup of chopped Walnuts, and 1/2 cup of chopped Pecans. In the end, I had forgotten to add the Vegetable Oil to the recipe but it was too late since it had already gone into the oven!
The results? Well, tasty as usual! The missing Vegetable Oil made the bread a little less moist than normal (and a little less fattening!), and the Whole Wheat flour gave the bread a bit more of a grittier taste. But even with these changes, the loaf of bread was still as yummy as ever! Delicious and warm right out of the oven, tasty the next day after it's been sitting out wrapped in tin foil to keep it moist, and the last few pieces still yummy after sitting in the fridge to preserve it for just a bit longer. The bread was gone in just a few days, and even passed my guest of honour's, taste test!
Spring Flowers
The spring flowers had come up after the last frost, they've bloomed and called it quits for another year all to make room for the vegetables, herbs, flowers and weeds that were eager to grow. Even though these perennial's will come up on their own again next year, there were only a handful of them and I was hoping to save the seeds so I could have more the following year. After the flowers had bloomed, I waited for them to wilt and shrivel, then I trimmed the dried up blooms and lay them in the sun until they were fully dried. I’ll plant the seeds this fall for next spring’s growth and hope to see more of the little spring flowers next year.
I love to garden, but there’s still so much I have yet to learn. After a few years in my home, my garden has evolved quite a bit. It still has a long way to go and I'm continually learning. I'm sure with more time and money, it could finally become as abundant and lush as I had always wished, but alas, I am not a patient girl, and with the impending renovations indoors, I’m also not interested on spending more money on my garden right now. Besides, the garden has become pretty self-reliant over the years. In my first year here, I had spent a wad of cash to fill up the garden with annuals. When year two came, and my garden was bare once again, I finally realized what the big deal was about perennials. Spring #4 has just passed and I had very few annuals in my garden, the perennials have now taken over and have left me with only weeding and some rearranging left to do.
The spring perennials that I’d planted over the years or that I had inherited from previous owners, never seem to last long enough. It feels as though, by the time the weather warms up enough to get out and admire them, they're all dying off. A couple of years ago, I had planted some Lily of the Valley’s. They're the tiny white bells surrounded by giant green leaves. I remembered seeing them on a Martha Stewart Magazine cover from several years back and thought they were adorable. I had used this issue as inspiration for the photo’s I took. Muscari or also known as Grape Hyacinth, were found in the yard when the weeds were cleared away years ago. These little spikes of blue flowers resembling bunches of grapes have almost a musky scent.
Now that my summer garden is taking care of itself, I'd like to devote more energy in developing the spring one. There are so many different flowers to choose from, tulips perhaps being the easiest but tastiest among the squirrels that live in the trees, aren't the best option. So I continue my quest for beautiful spring flowers that can thrive just a little bit longer...
I love spring! Forget New Years Eve, spring is like a fresh start every year. One of the best things about that time of year is watching the spring flowers come up. As my summer garden continues to prosper and is self-reliant, I’d like to expand my spring garden and watch it flourish. With the seeds that I had saved and now stored in ziplock bags from the recent blooms, and a little effort, I’m on my way to an abundant, and full spring garden...all for free!
I love to garden, but there’s still so much I have yet to learn. After a few years in my home, my garden has evolved quite a bit. It still has a long way to go and I'm continually learning. I'm sure with more time and money, it could finally become as abundant and lush as I had always wished, but alas, I am not a patient girl, and with the impending renovations indoors, I’m also not interested on spending more money on my garden right now. Besides, the garden has become pretty self-reliant over the years. In my first year here, I had spent a wad of cash to fill up the garden with annuals. When year two came, and my garden was bare once again, I finally realized what the big deal was about perennials. Spring #4 has just passed and I had very few annuals in my garden, the perennials have now taken over and have left me with only weeding and some rearranging left to do.
The spring perennials that I’d planted over the years or that I had inherited from previous owners, never seem to last long enough. It feels as though, by the time the weather warms up enough to get out and admire them, they're all dying off. A couple of years ago, I had planted some Lily of the Valley’s. They're the tiny white bells surrounded by giant green leaves. I remembered seeing them on a Martha Stewart Magazine cover from several years back and thought they were adorable. I had used this issue as inspiration for the photo’s I took. Muscari or also known as Grape Hyacinth, were found in the yard when the weeds were cleared away years ago. These little spikes of blue flowers resembling bunches of grapes have almost a musky scent.
Now that my summer garden is taking care of itself, I'd like to devote more energy in developing the spring one. There are so many different flowers to choose from, tulips perhaps being the easiest but tastiest among the squirrels that live in the trees, aren't the best option. So I continue my quest for beautiful spring flowers that can thrive just a little bit longer...
I love spring! Forget New Years Eve, spring is like a fresh start every year. One of the best things about that time of year is watching the spring flowers come up. As my summer garden continues to prosper and is self-reliant, I’d like to expand my spring garden and watch it flourish. With the seeds that I had saved and now stored in ziplock bags from the recent blooms, and a little effort, I’m on my way to an abundant, and full spring garden...all for free!