Banana Bread Brownies with Brown Butter Frosting

I always seem to have ripe bananas on hand. I wanted to go beyond the bread and muffins I usually make and this was perfect. These brownies were so moist and much more delicate than the usual pumpkin bars I make. I followed the recipe exactly, no need to change what's not broken. 

Just a tip though, make sure you have all the ingredients before you start browning the butter. Yeah, I didn't have close the amount of powdered sugar  I needed. Thankfully, Casey's had a box, and it was only $2 more than if I had been prepared and bought it from Fareway. Ugh. 

So, I had these delicious brownies made. A huge 15x10 pan of them. Mom's Morning Out was the next day, I thought I would bring some to share. And then we get a blizzard?! Yes, no school the next day, no MMO, and a pan of brownies staring at me, all day.
I apologize to all my MMO friends for the brownies you never got to eat. I promise I will make it up to you!
Here's the recipe so you can try them out:
Banana Bread Brownies with Brown Butter Frosting

***It's a great tongue twister for the kids. You want another brownie? Say it three times fast!

Pork Chops with Balsamic Maple Glaze & Honey Roasted Red Potatoes

I am apologizing in advance for the bad photo. I think I've said it before, I'm not a food photographer! I would love to learn some tips on how to take a decent photo - at night - in the kitchen. So far, I haven't figured it out. In spite of the bad photo, this was an excellent meal! Both were new recipes for me. I was looking for meal ideas using things I already had so I turned to trusty pinterest for some ideas. I came across this recipe for Pork Chops with Balsamic Maple Glaze and this is the picture I saw:

Now, who wouldn't want to eat that?! I modified her recipe quite a bit. I wanted to cook mine in the electric skillet and have the sauce a little thicker as it cooked. This is where I think my time in the kitchen is paying off. Here is my version:

Meat:

6 Center Cut Tenderloin Chops

Balsamic Glaze:

2/3 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1 2/3 cup chicken stock

4 Tbsp maple syrup

2 tsp mustard

4 cloves garlic, smashed

Dash each dried thyme and dried rosemary

Sprinkle of cornstarch

4 Tbsp butter

Bring all the ingredients (except butter) together to gentle simmer. Whisk to break down cornstarch. Let it thicken up slightly. Throw in cubes of cold butter and whisk-it will make the sauce nice and glossy. 

Heat skillet to 350 degrees with a splash of oil. Season the chops with salt and pepper and sear on each side. Pour sauce/glaze on top of chops, cover and cook for 2-3 hours. 

This is how mine turned out, but again not a representation of taste! They fell off the bone, they were so tender. All the kids loved it and Annaliese even wanted seconds, that doesn't happen very often. 

The potatoes on the side were a slightly altered version from Allrecipes.com. This is the original recipe for the Honey Roasted Red Potatoes.  Here is my version:

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds red potatoes quartered

1/2 onion, diced

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

2 Tbsp. honey

1 tsp. cayenne

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line an jelly roll pan with foil, coat with non-stick spray.

Mix all ingredients in large mixing bowl.  Spoon onto pan in an even layer. 

Bake one hour, stirring halfway through cooking. 

***These chops are going into our freezer meal rotation. I make the sauce up ahead of time, place the chops and sauce in a freezer bag. After they have thawed, you can cook in either a slow-cooker or oven. 

***If anyone wants to throw out some photography tips, I might be able to provide compensation with food?!!! Think about it!

Sweet Blueberry Muffins

My dear friend, Jess Hansen, is a wonderful cook. She makes her own baby food and sells it at the Farmer's Market in Cedar Falls. She also has three lovely little boys and a sweet little girl on the way. Like myself, she is busy in the kitchen quite often. I love that she shares her recipes, especially when they are as delicious as this one!
As she says, they are very easy to put together. I did mine right before the kids got home from school. They enjoyed them hot out of the oven, probably spoiling their dinner?! It was nice to send something hot for them to eat as two of them headed back to school for Lego Club. I think these are quite possibly the best blueberry muffins I've ever had. I even forgot to add the sugar on top. Please try them soon!
You can find the recipe here: Mama Made. And if you have time, poke around and find lots of other great recipes!

Mini Pies - Apple Chai

I got a chance to make my first batch of Mini Pies. The recipe that caught my eye first, and probably made me buy the book in the first place - Apple Chai. I have never had Chai Tea before, so I can't verify the authenticity of the flavors. However, I loved these perfect little bite size pies, regardless of the name. I can say they've got quite a bit more spice than a traditional apple pie. More spice is good!

I may have mentioned previously that I've never made pie crust from scratch? It's true. I'm extremely intimidated by the whole process. There's so much stress on making sure everything is very cold, and don't roll it too much and make sure there's enough flour when you roll it out, etc. Once I finally decided to get over myself, I followed the very easy recipe for the "Perfect Pie Crust" and then did the filling. It really wasn't as complicated as I thought it was going to be. And to tell the truth, I have the perfect kitchen for it. My kitchen is at least 10 degrees colder than the rest of the house, even butter doesn't soften in my kitchen, no matter how long you leave it out. I think it's the perfect environment for pie making, see - looking on the positive side!

I will say, it's messy. All that flour all over the place. But, totally worth it. The tart pan was a little too big, so my little pies didn't look as perfect as the ones in the picture.

All ready to go in the oven. What I realized after I got them all prepared, I didn't use enough apples. The recipe only called for two apples, I should have used three. The filling should come up to the top of the pie crust. I know for next time.

Aren't these the cutest little things? Besides looking less than perfect, the taste was incredible. I highly recommend these. There are a quite a few more on my list to make. I'm thinking Pink Lemonade next?

(And by the way, this counts as 2 recipes - pie crust and the filling! I'm all about multi-tasking.)

 

Perfect Pie Crust - as adapted from Mini Pies

8 Tbsp. butter (1stick)

6 Tbsp. shortening

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp salt

4 tsp sugar

6-8 Tbsp ice water

 

1. Chop the butter and and shortening into 1/4 inch pieces. Place in the freezer to chill while you prepare the other ingredients.

2. Blend the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor. Add the chilled shortening and process until the mixture climbs the walls of the processor bowl. Add the butter, one piece at a time, and process thoroughly.

3. Add the ice water 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture comes together in a ball and makes 2 laps around the processor bowl.

4. Remove the dough, divide it in half, and flatten each half into a disc. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

 



Apple Chai - as adapted from Mini Pies

2 apples peeled, cored and diced into 1/4 inch pieces (Granny Smith, I would recommend 3 apples)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Perfect Pie Crust (recipe above)

1/4 cup soy milk

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 12-cup muffin tin with butter or cooking spray.

2. Combine the apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, vanilla and lemon juice in a large bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes to allow the flavors to blend.

3. On a thoroughly floured surface, roll out the pie crust to a thickness of 3/16 inch. (I didn't have a ruler that measured out that size, so I just guessed) Using a 4-inch diameter round cutter, cut 12 crusts (I used a tart cutter) Re-form and re-roll the dough as necessary, keeping plenty of flour on your work surface.

4. Using the mini cookie cutter of your choice and leftover pie crust, cut out 12 shapes to use as pie toppers. (I used stars like the ones in the pictures in the book)

5. Carefully shape the crusts into the wells of the muffin tin, crimping the edges with your fingers.

6. Fill each mini pie with 1 1/2 tablespoons of the apple mixture. The filling will settle while baking, so it's best to fill the pies higher than the top of the muffin tin. Top each mini pie with a pie topper.

7. With a pastry brush, lightly brush the pie crusts with soy milk, then sprinkle with sugar.

8. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the crusts are golden brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes in the muffin tin, then carefully remove the pies from the tin and place on the wire rack to finish cooling. To remove, first try to spin the pies in the muffin wells. If they need a little extra help, run a butter knife along the edge of the crusts to pop them out of the tin.

9. Serve, or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

 

Enjoy!

 

Chocolate Chip Muffins

As I mentioned in my Block Seven blog, part of my New Year's resolution is to try 60 new recipes. That bodes well for this blog. I would have had this ready to post last week, were it not for some quirky blogger issue with uploading pictures. Without boring you to tears with the details, suffice it to say, it might have been supremely helpful if I had - at any point - taken a computer science class. However, now that I have it figured out, I finally get to start blogging again!

My first recipe of the year: Chocolate Chip Muffins

Most of my recipes begin here with the basics. My new labeled jars make me smile. The jars are from Target and I found these labels on an Etsy site, super easy to apply and don't they look great?!

The second place I go, my drawer that holds my measuring tools etc. Imagine my surprise (not really) when I opened it and found all of these wood shavings in my drawer? Backtrack a little, Brad has finally started on my counter tops, in the process, he made a mess. But, being that I'm trying to find the joy in everything, I looked at it as an opportunity to clean it out and organize, which I had been planning to do anyway. Just not right now when I'm trying to make my muffins, but I digress.

I'm always a little reluctant to continue with a recipe when I find that I have way too much left over, as in this case. The recipe said it made 12 regular size muffins. I had a ton left over. What to do? I decided to make a really big muffin, using the tart liners I had purchased for another recipe. Great solution right?

The regular muffins turned out just fine, thankfully.

Annaliese said something to the effect of "You'll really like them, they're awesome!" Love that girl! 

What I wasn't planning on with the big one, how much it would rise. Holy cow! Hailey ended up bringing it to her teacher. Apparently, he liked it as well.

The Chocolate Chip Muffins were a hit. I will definitely make them again. I'd love to try the Poppy Seed ones.

My next project is to learn to make pie crust. For some reason, I'm very intimidated by the whole process. I found this little book at Target on clearance. I've been watching it on the end cap for quite some time and it finally went to 75% off, I figured that was my sign it was time.

There are some fantastic looking recipes in this little book. The first one I have planned to try is the Apple Chai. I'm not sure when these recipes will make an appearance on here, but rest assured, it will be soon!