Banana pecan muffins

I believe there are fewer issues more divisive than whether you like nuts in your food.  Allergies aside, people have very strong feelings about nuts versus no nuts.  I'm firmly in favor of nuts in everything and I don't care who knows it!  Dave, on the other hand, is less fond of them.  He didn't seem to mind the pecans in these muffins so I call that a win.

I bought a bunch of bananas intending to make smoothies but then I got lazy during the week and the bananas were turning that lovely shade that signifies they should be baked with rather than eaten plain.  I like my bananas slightly underripe so the thought of an overly ripe banana as a snack is slightly upsetting.

These muffins were tasty and only slightly adapted from Tyler Florence's recipe.  I made half a batch and they fit perfectly in my mini muffin pan.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
2 overripe bananas
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 sticks butter melted and cooled
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat your oven to 375 and spray the ish out of your muffin pan with cooking spray.

Mash your bananas and combine with sugar.  Beat vigorously until well combined.  Add the butter, egg and vanilla and beat again.  Mix in flour, baking soda and salt until just combined.  Fold in the nuts with a spatula.  Scoop your batter into muffin cups and bake for 12ish minutes, until golden brown.

Adapted from Tyler Florence's Banana Nut Muffins

Vanilla granola

Not to brag or anything, but I think this may be the best granola I've made.  And I've made a lot of granola, usually not with much success.  This recipe is adapted from Epicurious and I quartered it so we would actually finish it.  The original recipe makes 8 cups and there's no way we'd eat 8 cups of granola in the 2 weeks it keeps.  It's just not possible.  This recipe makes slightly less than 2 cups, which is perfect for me and Dave, assuming we eat yogurt parfaits every work day.

We've been eating a lot of smoothies lately but I wanted something a little different and instead made yogurt parfaits.  Turns out parfaits are way easier than smoothies so that's an added bonus.  Anyhoo, here's the recipe for granolly.  I think coconut oil adds a little something special to the granola but you could also use canola or vegetable oil. Avoid using an oil that's super heavy or strong-tasting.  I also have a bad habit of slightly burning my granola so putting it back in the oven after turning the heat on ensures it continues to cook without scorching.

Vanilla granola

Ingredients:

1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300.  Mix oats, brown sugar, nuts, cinnamon and salt together in a medium bowl.  In a smaller bowl, mix oil, honey and vanilla together.  Pour oil mixture over oats mixture and mix well.  Spread evenly in a pan that's been liberally sprayed with cooking spray.  Cook for 10 minutes, stir granola well, turn off the oven and put the granola back in the oven for 10 more minutes.  Let cool completely and store in a tightly sealed container.

Makes just under 2 cups

Adapted from Epicurious' Vanilla-Scented Granola

Tupelo Honey biscuits

One of my favorite breakfasts is biscuits and gravy.  My beloved Wheatfields makes a mean biscuits and gravy but I only go home once or twice a year so I have to make my own.  I first had a Tupelo Honey biscuit when we met up with some dear friends in Asheville.  I had the fried chicken and biscuits and damn near wept at how amazing it was.  Flaky, delicious biscuit, perfectly fried chicken and luscious milk gravy over the top.  Just thinking about it makes me want to go back.  I asked for the Tupelo Honey Cafe cookbook for Christmas and obviously the first recipe I wanted to make from it was their biscuits.

I think these biscuits are deliciously awesome but I'm still on the fence about grating the butter.  I want to make them again the traditional way, by cutting the butter in with a pastry blender.  But I have the KitchenAid attachment that grates for me so it's not the worst thing in the world to have to grate the butter.  And because I never have buttermilk on hand, I use this substitution all the time and it works great.

Ingredients:

2 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons sour cream
3/4 cup salted butter, frozen
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 450

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and sour cream in a large bowl.  Grate frozen butter with the large holes on the grater and cut it into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter.  Add buttermilk and mix until just combined.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and roll into a rectangle 1-inch thick.  Using a pizza cutter, score the dough into 6 equally sized pieces and put in the oven.  Bake on the top rack for 15 minutes or until light brown and remove from oven.  Let sit about 10 minutes before splitting and serving with sausage gravy.

Very slightly adapted from the Tupelo Honey Cafe cookbook

Caramel Apple Croissant French Toast

This is another recipe inspired by the things that I had no idea what to do with in my house. The leftover caramel sauce from the brownies was taunting me from the fridge and I had an inspiration.


Ingredients
croissants
egg
milk or cream
cinnamon
nutmeg
apple
caramel sauce
maple syrup


Whisk the egg, cream, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a bowl. Slice the croissant in half, and dip the halves in the egg mixture.

The croissant didn't soak up the egg mixture very well, as you can see from the dry-looking croissant in the pan. I am not sure if they were not fresh and soft enough, or if the egg mixture was too thick, but it would have been tastier if they were more absorbent.

I fried up the bread, but watch out because the outsides brown really quickly. On the second pair I tried putting a little brown sugar in the batter, and it was good but I should have gone a little heavier and they wouldn't have even needed syrup!

I mixed the caramel sauce and maple syrup together, and they were a great compliment to the chopped apples and French toast. All in all, this was very good, but I don't think croissants make ideal toast candidates. It was kind of just like crispy croissant toast, which while awesome, doesn't have the same character as French toast with it's creamier center.

Breakfast Casserole

When I was a kid, Sunday breakfasts were a big deal.  While I honestly don't remember what I would eat before going to school, Sunday was the day my dad would make home fries and scrambled eggs and sausage and we'd feel so fancy because we ate brunch.  I still get the warm and fuzzies for Sunday brunch but I'm still working on timing my cooking so everything comes out hot and ready at the same time.  Enter the breakfast casserole.  It takes a little prep time but then you mix it all together, pop it in the oven and out comes a piping hot dish of deliciousness.

This casserole is adapted from one I found on myrecipes.com

Ingredients:
(all measurements are approximate as this was a "clean out the fridge meal")

half a bag of frozen shredded hash browns
1 cup of breakfast meat
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 broccoli crown cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup shredded cheese
4 eggs
1 cup cream (milk is fine)
generous sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes

Spray some Pam in a 8x8 casserole dish.  Preheat your oven to 350.
Brown your breakfast meat in a large frying pan.  This time I used bacon and you want it to get a nice color but not get too crisp because it cooks in the oven.  Toss it in a big bowl.  Using half the bacon grease and the same pan, toss in the onions and let them soften.  Add your hash browns and stir them occasionally to help get them warm.  Liberally salt and pepper your hash browns.  Once warm, toss them in the bowl with the bacon.  Using the rest of the bacon grease, warm up your broccoli.  Once it starts to green up and get a little soft, toss it in the bowl with your hash browns and bacon and add the red pepper flakes.  In a smaller bowl, beat your eggs and cream together.  Combine your egg mix with the shredded cheese and sauteed goodies in the big bowl and pour into the casserole dish.
Bake for about 30 minutes in the oven.  Serve with hot sauce.

It reheats well so we've been eating on it all week.