Banana Walnut Muffins

What to do with extremely ripe, almost yucky bananas? Make jumbo banana walnut muffins. = )


Living a few miles away from the water gives a slight advantage of not-so-hot temperatures (albeit icky humidity)...so having the oven on wasn't totally offensive.


Can't go wrong with chopped nuts, bananas, a bit of cinnamon, and orange zest. garnished with some cinnamon sugar, you've got yourself a decent breakfast or a filling snack.


::gathering my raw materials::

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
2 really ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1 stick butter
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sour cream
1 tsp orange zest (optional)
Cinnamon sugar (as a garnish)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Put your chopped walnut on a baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.



In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon. Set aside.



In a larger bowl, beat butter and both sugars until fluffy. Add two eggs, mashed bananas, and sour cream, and orange zest.







Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, beating on low. Once the mixture comes together, switch to a wooden spoon and fold in the toasted walnuts.



I opted to use a 6-form jumbo muffin tin, but you can really use whatever you have—mini, regular, etc.


Line your tins with paper or foil liners and spoon in the mixture. Garnish with cinnamon sugar if desired.



Bake for approximately 20-30 minutes. I check on mine at the 20 minute point, and continue to bake in intervals of 5 minutes. It may be less if you use smaller sized tins.


Once done, remove from heat, do the toothpick test if you want, and allow to cool. Enjoy!

dinner!

Margherita pizza



home grown cherry tomatoes...


quick n dirty pizza dough


pesto-ish (basil, evoo, shaved asiago)


cheese layer (duh)


assembly



pizza peel, onto a pizza stone...oven set to 400...bake for 15 min or so...



enjoy.

Basic Sugar Cookies

I think this should be the mandated "gloomy day" cookie--super easy, somewhat overlooked, yet so yummy and available when you just need that sweet itch scratched. Plus, definitely fun to photograph. Too cloudy to hit the beach today, so why not stay inside and make the house smell pretty?

I assure you, these cookies pretty much make themselves. Wet ingredients. Dry ingredients. Roll. Bake. Eat. =) (recipe courtesy, allrecipes.com)


::gathering my raw materials::


Ingredients
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.


2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.




Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.


3. Bake 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.



Or...take a risk, and grab while warm and enjoy! = )

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

I'm a subscriber to several recipe sites--probably more than I should be. Back in March (which, I am assuming was somewhat of a St. Patrick's day food theme), I got this recipe for a Guinness chocolate cake. It seemed interesting, but I never got around to actually trying it.

I finally found a reason to try the recipe, but decided to go the cupcake route. Afterall, the occasion was for a bbq/potluck...so what better than to provide a little finger food?

I warn you, the resulting flavor of the cupcakes has a very distinguished Guinness flavor, so if you don't like stouts or the taste of dark beer in general, you probably will not enjoy these in cupcake form. Topped off with a soft cream cheese frosting, mimicking the guinness "froth", (and injected with a fudge frosting for a little chocolatey kick), they were fun.

::gathering my raw materials::

Ingredients:


1 cup Guinness (dark beer)
1/2 cup butter, cubed
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup baking cocoa
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup sour cream
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda



TOPPING:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup shortening


FILLING: (optional)
1 cup of above prepped frosting
4 oz melted chocolate


Directions:
Line a 12-cupcake pan with paper (or aluminum) cupcake forms. Preheat oven to 350


In a small saucepan, heat beer and butter until butter is melted.



Remove from the heat; whisk in sugar and cocoa until blended. Combine the eggs, sour cream and vanilla; whisk into beer mixture.





Combine flour and baking soda; whisk into beer mixture until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.






Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan. Remove cupcakes from form.



In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar and cream; beat until smooth (do not overbeat).

Reserve a cup and add to a separate bowl. Melt 4 ounces of dark chocolate and combine with frosting.



Using the bottom end of a wooden spoon, poke a large hole into each cupcake. Fill a piping bag with the chocolate filling, and pipe into each hole.




Finish off by filling another bag with the white frosting, and piping out a center "blob" if you will (aka, don't make any fancy pants swirls with a star tip...just start from the center, and let the frosting blob out so it resembles the "foamy head" of a pint of Guinness. Best piping tip to use would be an 805 or an 806.