My last post on the Chicken Wild Rice Soup showed a piece of cornbread along with the soup. A few months ago I was in search of an easy, tasty cornbread and came across the Albers Original Cornbread recipe over on Tasty Kitchen. It is really easy and delicious. It got the highest compliment from my husband who said it didn’t even need butter…and he likes to put butter on almost every kind of bread and muffin.
Ingredients:
1- 1/2 cup Flour
1/2 cups Cornmeal
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoons Salt
2/3 cups Sugar
1- 1/4 cup Milk
2 whole Eggs
3 Tablespoons Oil
1/2 cups Butter, Melted
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine all of the dry ingredients (including sugar) in a large bowl.
3. Combine liquids in a separate bowl.
4. Add liquids to dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Do not over-mix.
5. Pour into a greased square 8″ or 9″ pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes until top is golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Enjoy,
As I mentioned yesterday, one of my favorite parts of roasting a chicken is having leftovers. I know for some homes, this wouldn’t be the case due to the number of mouths to feed, but we end up eating only half of a chicken. Maybe I need a post with a list of things to make with left over chicken! One of the ways I use the chicken is on a grilled chicken and cheese sandwich. It is oh so good!
The Players
2 slices of bread
2 slices of cheese
Enough chicken to cover your bread…or pile it on!
butter
The Fun
1. Heat pan on medium heat. Butter bread on one side of each slice.
2. Place one slice of bread in pan. Add one slice of cheese, then chicken. Top with a second slice of cheese, and then add the second slice of bread.
3. When the bottom is browned, flip the sandwich over.
4. Cook until brown and transfer to a plate.
As you can see in the photo, I served it with tomato soup. There’s nothing like dipping your sandwich in the soup…or so I think. 
OK, this posts is one of those where I totally messed up the recipe by overcooking the banana bread, but it STILL tasted good, so I’m posting it– ugly picture and all! I found this recipe on the canister of Old Wessex organic Irish-style oatmeal. I was actually a little mad when I opened the container, because I thought it’d be steel cut oats. Don’t fall for it folks. Their “irish-style” is rolled oats. None the less, the bread recipe is good, so I’ll use the rolled oats for that purpose…or in cookies. I used almond milk though the original recipe calls for buttermilk.
The Players
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup honey
1 large egg
1 1/2 cup bananas, mashed (3 medium)
1/4 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional)
The Fun
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium sized bowl, cream together butter and honey until smooth. Beat in the egg. Stir in bananas, milk, and vanilla, mix well.
3. In a seperate bowl, combine the oatmeal, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add this to the creamed mixture and continue to stir well and then add in the walnuts.
4. Spread the mixture in to a buttered loaf pan (9x5x3 inches). Bake for about 50 minutes (As you can see from the photo, this is too long for my oven and loaf pan. Watch yours carefully starting at around 35 minutes). Cool on a wire rack.
One of my favorite memories growing up was coming upstairs at my grandparents’ house to a stack of French Toast. My grandma always made a lot of good foods for breakfast, and we rarely ate cereal. I know there are a lot of variations, some of which I use myself at times, but here is the basic recipe I work around.
The Players
3/4 cup almond milk
3 eggs
Bread (usually 8 slices or so)
The Fun
1. Heat pan or griddle (375 degrees or medium heat) while preparing the French Toast.
2. Whisk milk and eggs together.
3. Dip bread (both sides) in mixture.
4. Place in pan. Cook until golden brown (3-5 minutes).
Maria was definitely right to think that others were intimidated when asked to be on a cooking blog (at least I was). I have posted a total of one recipe in the 5 years I have been blogging. But look at that, you get two recipes for the price of one today!
Moving onto today’s recipe: banana nut bread. This is a family favorite. I know some families keep their special recipes on lock-down, but our family likes to share the joy. And this recipe certainly brings joy to me. My mom has become known for it around her parts and it is one of my favorite things she makes. The recipe comes from my great grandfather’s cousin (my maternal grandmother’s father’s cousin), Hulda. If they name didn’t give it away, Hulda was born in the early 1900′s and this recipe was passed down through the family. Without further ado, here is the recipe:
Banana Bread
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
1/4 cup sour milk
2 ripe bananas
Let me jump in here with a couple of notes. First of all, if you want a really flavorful banana bread, use those gross, soft, blackened, over-ripe bananas that no one in the house wants to touch except the fruit flies. You can use just regular bananas, as I did this time, but the over-ripe bananas will make a darker, richer bread. If you don’t want to make the banana bread right away, but those over-ripe bananas are starting to take on a life of their own, throw them in an airtight container in the freezer. When you are ready to make the banana bread, thaw them for about 30 minutes (now they are super gross) and then proceed to use them.
Secondly, I did not have butter in the house when I made this bread on Monday (keep reading and you will see this wasn’t the only way I was unprepared). So I used vegetable oil instead and the bread still turned out fine.
And last, you don’t have to let milk go bad to make the recipe. Simply take a little less than 1.4 cup of milk and then add a little white vinegar to make a 1/4 cup. Voila: sour milk. I also used rice milk, instead of cow’s milk and again, it turned out fine. Ok, moving on.
Directions:
Sift dry ingredients.
Blend butter, eggs and sugar.
Add sour milk.
Alternately flour mixture and banana to mixture.
I have a confession: I have never once sifted dry ingredients. I think I should be kicked off this blog just for this reason. I simply mix them together. After all the mixing, here is what the batter looks like:
Pour into greased loaf pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or longer until tooth pick comes out clean.
I was sure I had three small disposable loaf pans in the cabinet, but apparently I didn’t. Thankfully this recipe is one that works in just about any size or type of pan (I like using three small loaf pans because I can share with others or freeze 1-2 of the loaves). So I I used two small cakes pans and adjusted the baking time to 40 minutes. I gently placed a piece of aluminum foil over top for the last 10 minutes to keep it from getting too brown on top because I am dealing with one of those small Euro ovens.
You can also see I threw in some chocolate chips. My mom uses walnuts in hers, but the kids like it with chocolate chips (ok, maybe I have a bit of a chocolate addiction too).
Here is the finished product after I poked it with a knife a few times (I couldn’t find where I put the toothpicks).
And here is the finished product being enjoyed.
Happy Wednesday all!
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