Bananas Gone Bad

You've seen them; sitting there in the fruit basket on the counter, growing progressively darker every day, and giving off a sticky sweet smell.  What to do with those bananas that no one seems to want to eat?  They are too soft for cutting up and putting on cereal, and definitely too ugly to send in a school lunch, people will talk.  It's a good idea to take care of over-ripe bananas before they get up and walk off the counter.

 
My friends Ellen and Dan Einstein at the Sweet 16th Bakery in Nashville have just the cure for those Oscar the Grouch style Bananas.

 A version of this recipe appears in Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my Home to Yours, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to share my version with you.  Every cook should have this recipe in their repertoire since banana bread is so yesterday, and this light cake is so much more delicious!

Classic Southern Banana Cake

Makes one 10-inch tube or Bundt cake

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla paste

2 tablespoons Bourbon

2 large eggs

4 very ripe bananas mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 cup sour cream

3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Coat the inside of a 10-inch Bundt or tube pan.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, add the sugar and beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy.  
3. Stir in the vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute.  Stir in the bananas. 
4. Add the flour, baking soda and salt, along with the sour cream, beating until the mixture is smooth. 
5. Scrape the batter into the pan, and smooth the top.
6. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. 
7. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding onto the rack and cooling completely.  Keeps at room temperature for about 5 days, or frozen for about 2 months.  

A few notes about Bundt or tube pan cakes:

• Always time the cooling period for 10 minutes once you remove the pan from the oven, otherwise it will stick like glue to the pan.
• Use a good quality non-stick cooking spray like Bakers' Joy; NEVER use Pam, it will ruin your cookware with a gummy residue you will never get off.  
• This type cake generally doesn't need a frosting, a sprinkling of confectioners' sugar is a lovely garnish. 

 After 10 minutes, remove from the pan to cool completely, then set this beauty on a cake pedestal, because that's what it deserves!

Happy Valentines' Day everyone.  Mine has been spent with mia famiglia Italiana, and it has been stupendo!  More on our adventures throughout the week--today's lunch was In and Out Burger!  I'm wondering what that says about my cooking!

Grecian Formula

This week the weather has been Chamber of Commerce gorgeous---70 degrees in the coastal region, and it has gotten me back to the barbecue.  I bought a boneless leg of lamb to test recipes with, and had about 1 1/2 pounds leftover that I cut up and marinated, and grilled it along with some pita for dinner.  A bit of tzatziki sauce, and a salad rounded out the dinner.  When I preheated the grill, I took a few photos of the garden; the camellias are spectacular, and the paperwhites are up, but we took a huge hit when the frost took out a lot of our tropicals and coleus. 

Marinated Lamb
Serves 4

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium shallot, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried Greek oregano
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
1 1/2 pounds leg or lamb, or lamb chops or rack of lamb

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, garlic, shallot, salt, pepper, oregano, and rosemary.  Pour over the lamb, and marinate for at least 2 hours, or up to 12 hours.  
Preheat the grill for 10 minutes.  Drain the marinade, and grill the lamb for 3 minutes on each side, until the lamb is cooked to medium (pink in the center)  Remove from the grill, and serve with warm pita, tzatziki sauce and salad.  

Marinating the lamb--look at the golden color of the oil---bellissimo!

Place the pita on the side of the grill that is turned off--the ambient heat will warm them.

OOps!  Dr. C. served himself before I got the camera out!

This is a great dinner, and takes no time to put together!  The marinade will work well with chicken breast halves, as well. 

View from the grill!

Paperwhites, and my poor Ti trees (left and right of the fountain) took a huge hit in the frost. 
I hope you all have a great night, I'm expecting our family here on Saturday, so my posts will be sporadic next week, but look for photos from our wine tastings, and I've ordered some black truffles to make truffle pasta while they are here....until next time, enjoy your night. 

A Chicken in Every Pot

As I've stated previously, I'm not fond of chicken; I find it boring, and without flavor, so when I found the Smart chicken, I was sold--it actually has a flavor!  But, being me, I also thought that it could use a little help, so one day I decided to take out the breast and rib bones, stuff it with some amazing chanterelles and roast this little chicken into culinary heaven. 

To bone the chicken, I decide to leave the leg bones, and wings (too difficult to rip out) and used a pair of Joyce Chen scissors and a sharp boning knife to take out the rib and breast bones, then cut along the thigh bone and separated it at the drum stick joint. 

I know, not that great to look at, but at this point, sprinkle with salt and pepper all over.  This is the only seasoning the interior will get, so get it right!

About a pound of assorted wild mushrooms sauteed in olive oil with thyme, shallot and white wine until all the liquid in the pan evaporates.  Taste for seasoning--it's OK to over-season here, this should be highly seasoned.

I put the mushrooms into the food processor and coarsely chopped them, then added about 1 cup soft bread crumbs, and 1/4 cup finely chopped Italian parsley (see my note)

Wrap this baby up, using silicone bands.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 10 to 12-inch oven-proof saute pan or skillet over medium high heat, and brown the skin on the chicken.  Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake the chicken for 35 to 45 minutes until the stuffing registers 170 degrees on an instant read meat thermometer.  

Pretty Bird!  At this point, the chicken should rest for about 10 minutes loosely covered with aluminum foil. 

Cut the legs off the chicken, then slice through the chicken breast area using a carving knife.  

I made a little pan sauce, using some chicken demi-glace, white wine and butter.  Served this with roasted potatoes (I surrounded the chicken with little Yukon golds, quartered) and sauteed escarole. 

OK, you're saying to yourself, I don't want to bone a whole chicken---I get it!  Try using boneless breasts, with the skin on--the skin will help to keep the meat moist.  The stuffing should fill 6 breasts---you will want to cut a pocket into the thickest part of the breast, and push 2 to 3 tablespoons of filling into the pocket.  You won't need to tie these babies with the silicone bands. Saute and bake as directed. 

Italian parsley has a flavor; it's worth chopping--the curly parsley in the supermarket makes a nice bouquet, but it doesn't have any flavor.  If you think that you won't use all the parsley at once, wash it and spin it dry in a salad spinner.  Chop the parsley in your food processor or with your chef's knife.  Transfer the parsley to a zipper-top plastic bag with a piece of paper toweling to absorb any excess moisture.  You can use the parsley directly from the freezer, it will stay beautifully green.  (Sorry, there aren't any other herbs that this works with!!)

I hope you have had a great day today; I'm getting energized knowing that our Italian family will be here later in the week--molto bene!!

Una Festa

The tiny town of Spello, in Umbria is home to one of the most amazing festivals I have ever been to.  Called L'infiorata, it is celebrated on the feast of Corpus Domini, usually in late May or June, a beautiful time to visit.  I'm writing about this today, because in 5 days, our family from Spello will be here in San Diego, and we are delighted that we can host them here. 
During the week before the festival residents are collecting flowers, and herbs to use in their designs.  Working in teams, they spend evenings pulling the petals off the flowers and separating them into color ways, it's really quite remarkable! Dr. C. and I got to help with this chore, and it was so much fun to hear the Italians sitting around a table sharing their lives as they end the day. 

One evening after we had helped to pull petals, we were walking back to our flat, and we heard music coming from one of the churches, so we slipped into the back, and there in the center was an acapella choir, singing. It was only one of the magical things that we experienced during this week.

As the week progressed, this tiny town (one road in is the same road out) began to grow with visitors, both touristi and those who called this town home at one time.  These festivals bring those from far away home again. 
On Friday, tents began to be erected to cover the streets. 

Drawings were placed on the street, and mid-day to evening on Saturday, the designs begin to take shape.  Some designs are secular, some religious, but all are incredibly intricate, and stunningly beautiful. 

As the designs take shape, one pauses to think that this festival has been celebrated in this town for hundreds of years; a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation, with a reverence for the tradition and the town. 

The townspeople work throughout the night to finish their designs; this is in fact, a competition, and there are winners in categories---unfortunately, I never found out what they were. 

This is the design that we got to help with, and it won in its category!  Que bella!

The photos don't really do these justice--it has to be experienced!  The streets of Spello swell to rock concert mosh pit proportions. 

After mass, the priest and bishop walk through the town blessing the town.  By the afternoon, everyone is gone, and it is quiet, and serene, the Spello that I love!

I know I promised food for today, but I will be back tomorrow with some great ideas for winter comfort foods using your slow cooker, so come on back tomorrow.  Ciao!

All Bundled Up and Ready to Go!

Any of you who have followed this blog for it's short existence may have noticed, that I didn't post anything last week.  A combination of things conspired to make me less than creative this week: life, my day job (I'm writing another book) and the news. Between the incredibly cold and stormy weather in other parts of the country with people struggling just to live their lives, and then the turmoil in Egypt, my creativity has been at a stand still, and when I started this blog I vowed to myself that if it wasn't interesting, informative or funny, I wouldn't post....I'd rather post things that are interesting, rather than just put up something random.  
This weekend I finally came to terms with all that was tilting my world, and realized I needed to do something for someone else---and stop thinking about me--after all it's not about me, and I should know that by now.  
My friend Art La Flamme is a Major stationed in Iraq.  For two years he has run a program called Iraqi bundles of Love or IBOL for short.  Art asks that you take a large flat rate shipping box, and fill it with fabric, yarn, needles, scissors, anything to do with sewing, wrap it all up into a neat package in the box, and send it off.  

Since this is operating under the radar so to speak, you need to e-mail him through his blog for instructions on where to send it, and how to wrap up your bundle.  

I told Art I would send 3 boxes, but lied, and by the time I got into this I had 4 boxes wrapped and ready to go, and I could easily send more but will wait till the next time--he's looking to make this next one huge.  
The first year, Art received over 3500 boxes---these were distributed throughout Iraq to sewing co-ops and as he says, everything is used.  

I'm overwhelmed by the fact that my "scrap" fabric is going to help clothe children, or keep someone warm with a new jacket, or help to make someone feel pretty because they have something new to wear.  We take so many things for granted in our lives, that when I came face to face with the reality that I could help someone else just by re-purposing the things I already had it was overwhelming.  So in a few months, somewhere in Iraq there will be a little girl dressed in adorable pink and white checks, and someone will be wearing a Sunbrella dress with sea shells and surfboards, and someone else will be wrapped in a warm flannel blanket--these are things I can do from afar with the help of someone like Art who cares deeply about the Iraqi people.  He took a leap of faith, figuring there were others who would help him to make a difference in the lives of others less fortunate.  I am so proud to know he is serving his country and serving the people of the country where he is stationed. 

As you go through this week, I'd ask that you take a moment each day to think about and pray for the safety and protection of our troops and their families who make a difference for all of us each day.  I'll be back tomorrow with a food fest for you, so stay tuned!