Banana buttermilk cupcakes

Banana Buttermilk Cupcakes

This past week, our older sister and brother (plus his family) have been visiting from Tampa, FL. We have had amazing food. In addition to my sister's famous gumbo, we've enjoyed German food from Leavenworth, WA, some vendor foods from Pike's Place Market in Seattle, and various foods from the International District in Seattle. I don't think I've been hungry since Christmas Day, but I haven't stopped eating since then. Plus, I've barely cooked!

Tomorrow for New Year's Eve, I plan on making a Nutella Brownie Pie, but my siblings also requested a cake for tonight's dessert. "You're always posting photos of cakes on Facebook, but you haven't made us any dessert yet!" Wah, wah, wahhhh. Wanting to try something a little different, I thought of a cake that my friend Celia wrote about over at her blog, The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia. Coincidentally, I had some ripe bananas sitting on the counter. Kismet.

Fresh out of the oven. Simmer down now! (SNL reference. Anyone?)

Though it is a tiny bit denser than a regular cake, these cupcakes are not like the texture of banana bread. They were super moist and sooooo tasty. I topped them with cream cheese frosting and walnuts, which elevated their level from delicious to "punch a baby in the face" scrumptious. I ate two cupcakes. TWO. I should be ashamed, but I'm just too darned happy with these little cakes! 

Tomorrow's dinner includes: roast turkey with sausage stuffing and gravy, prime rib with mashed potatoes and green bean casserole, steamed lobster, roasted oysters, strawberry rhubarb pie, and Nutella brownie pie. Then death from overeating. Next week, I will only eat chao/lugaw/rice porridge.

Happy New Year! Many blessings to you.

Huh.

I was going to take time this morning to write about what I actually eat normally for breakfast (oatmeal, whole grain english muffins), and juxtapose it with some of the more exciting things I've written about (dutch babies, stuffed french toast), but I'm still sick. I was getting better for the past few days (at least, I thought I was), but this morning it was worse. I don't know if it's a new sickness, because my body was already weak from the cold, or what.

Now that I think about it though, my breakfast entry idea sounds incredibly boring. I just wanted to write about my boring breakfasts, so that you friends don't think I eat unhealthy junk every day. So now that I've just told you that, I guess there's no point to writing about it in the future. End. 

Dutch baby, I'd like you to meet...

Oatmeal with cinnamon and banana. 

Isn't the contrast so depressing?

Chocolate cake x 2

I recently posted about a chocolate cake recipe that I modified to be butter/oil free. I frosted with an easy peanut butter frosting that I found on allrecipes.com. It was a nice cake, but it wasn't *bam-doodily* fantastic, so I'm not sharing that recipe. (Although it had a dark chocolate flavor, it was kind of dry.) Do check out the pb frosting recipe though!

Later that week, I made some chocolate cupcakes for a friend's birthday, and used PIONEER WOMAN'S CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE recipe. Instead of making it fully free of butter, I substituted half of the fat for mashed bananas, and the result was moist, chocolate-y, and bladow, ALL up in your face.* Please please please try this recipe today. My family and friends loved it at half fat level, so I'm guessing that a full butter batch can only be abso-freaking-lutely incredible.

  I love you too, my little lovecakes.

I did not use PW's frosting, but half ass(embl)ed my own. Combine: 1 can cream cheese frosting, softened cream cheese (I used neufchatel), baker's cocoa, confectioner's sugar, room temp. milk, vanilla extract, and dash of cinnamon. All of those amounts will vary by your taste and texture preferences, so just add a little bit at a time, and then whip it until light and fluffy.

Found these little star shaped sprinkles at Fred Meyer.

 Candy letters also from Freddie's.

* Translation: It was delicious.

Banana stuffed french toast.

This recipe was so easy and delicious that I'm blogging about it as I eat it. I'm chewing as I type. This banana stuffed french toast is by far one of my favorite recipes to date. It looks fancy, but with minimal effort. OhmygoshI'msoexcited.

Once in a while, I'll find new recipes by googling the ingredients that I have. This morning, a search for baked + banana = baked banana french toast. I scurried over to allrecipes, and found Karen's Baked Banana Stuffed French Toast. After reading the comments, and making some of my own changes, this happened:

BAMF: Bad Ass Mother Fooder?

Baked And Mouth Feast?

Anyone? No?

Since I'm usually eating breakfast/brunch alone on Saturdays, I scaled everything down for one serving.

2 pcs. wheat bread

1 lg. egg (room temp)

2 tbs. warm milk

1/2 tsp. brown sugar

dash vanilla

1 med. ripe banana, sliced

maple syrup, strawberry syrup, whipped cream (whatever's healthiest)

1. Preheat oven (or my rinky dinky toaster oven) to 375 F. Put a little dab of butter into your baking sheet, and let it all warm in the oven while you work.
2. Combine egg, milk, sugar, and vanilla in a flat bowl/container. Now whisk it. Whisk it good. (Any Devo fans? No? Just me?)
3. Slice the bananas (I sliced them at an angle to get longer pieces, rather than a bunch of short "o" shapes).  Place a double layer between the 2 slices of bread.
4. Carefully dip each side of your banana sandwich into the egg mix. Just stuff any rogue banana slices back into the sandwich as they fall out.
5.  Take the hot baking sheet out, jiggle the pan so the butter spreads, and place your sandwich onto it. Bake for about 5 min, or until the bottom side is light brown and crisp, then flip to the other side for another 5 min. (This step will change according to your preference. Some people actually fry theirs in a frying pan, then bake, but I'm lazy. Also, I prefer my french toast to be a bit crispier than most people, so pay attention to it as it bakes).

The ripe banana adds plenty of sweetness, and so syrup, strawberries, and whipped cream are totally unnecessary. The truth is, I had a terrible week, and I just wanted something really decadent, warm, gooey, and perfect. And, this meal was an amazing treat. I wouldn't recommend it for a balanced breakfast, but I do recommend it for special occasions, heart ache, stress, or after a really, really good cry.


Enjoy.

Banana Ice Cream

via Apartment Therapy

So, my friend Corinne posted on her Facebook last week that she was going to make ice cream using a recipe from Apartment Therapy. Ice cream from 1 ingredient...Out of nothing but BANANAS. Intriguing? Yes. 

Here in Seattle, we often buy bananas from the local Asian market, because they sell them in 5 lbs bags for 99 cents. 99 cents! That's as good as those green apples I found last time! I love a good deal.

I try recipes from the internet often, but because I am idiotic enough to believe most of what I read, those recipes aren't always great. (BTW, did you know that there is a spell you can chant to become a MERMAID???) This ice cream recipe however, was wonderful. It was simple, delicious, healthy, and very satisfying. It's also very banana-y. Warning! You may need to be a fan of bananas in order to enjoy banana ice cream. Luckily, we like bananas, but more importantly, MY NEPHEW LOVED IT. I got him to eat healthy food without extra sugar and force feeding. Amazing. It's like I tricked him, but without the negative consequences. I feel drunk on power.