Strawberry Banana Bread

Howdy!

The other day I found a Pinterest post about Blueberry Banana Bread that had a special ingredient in it - Greek yogurt!  I didn't have any blueberries, but I did have strawberries, so what did I make... Strawberry Banana Bread!  Honestly, I LOVE banana bread.  BUT, banana bread is my baking nemesis.  I have tried dozens of recipes.  Everything from old church lady recipes to modern test kitchen recipes.  It always comes out underdone in the center and usually burnt on the edges.  I HIGHLY recommend this bread.  It was easy and delicious!  AND, it came out perfectly!  This is definitely my go-to banana bread recipe from now on.  Thank you so much, Emily!!!!

The batter is delicious, too ;)

The Cherry on Top

Howdy!

Something I'm loving about San Antonio so far is all the fresh produce!  I found these delicious cherries at my neighborhood HEB.  I'm devouring these fresh, but I'm hoping that I can get to can some soon.  First I have to finish unpacking everything though :/  I'm not letting myself indulge in canning or crafting until the house is in order - the only thing I'm letting myself do is the Baby Quilt during relaxing time.

Do you have a favorite summertime fruit?

Angel Food Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream & Strawberries

Howdy!

Growing up strawberry shortcake was a huge treat (and my mother's favorite), especially when we did it with Angel Food Cake instead of sponge cake.  So when I ran across this recipe for Single Serving Angel Food Cake I knew exactly what was going to happen.  First I made up the dry mix:  1 c cake flour, 1 c powdered sugar, 1 tsp salt.  The original blog doesn't say anything about sifting, but since powdered sugar is always lumpy I sifted the flour and sugar together and then whisked the salt in well.  Then I placed it in a jar with a pretty label :)

Later that night I had a hankering for something sweet so I dipped into the jar.  First, beat 1 egg white with 1 Tbsp sugar and a drop of lemon juice until stiff.  Then, gently fold ¼ c of the dry mix into the egg white.  Place the batter in a greased and sugared ramekin (~2x2x2").  The sugaring is really important otherwise the cake (souffle) can't climbing and rise.  Bake your delicacy at 350* for 20 min (I used my toaster oven).  Cool in on it's side so that it doesn't collapse.

While it was baking I sliced some strawberries and macerated them in a sprinkle of sugar.  Then I whipped a some to DIE FOR chocolate whipped cream.  Place some heavy whipping cream with a drizzle of vanilla in a (preferably) cold bowl  and starting whipping the mess out of it.  Once it starts to thicken up add a tablespoon or two of cocoa powder, at least a teaspoon of cream of tartar (so that you can store the leftover without it turning into a runny mess), and a healthy helping of sugar (trust me it will take more than you think to cut the bite of the cocoa powder).  And until it is your desired stiffness - I tend to like mine really stiff.  You now have a chocolate whipped cream.  It will taste like a dark chocolate mousse pretty much if you don't have a heap of sugar and just enough to cut the bite.

Once my cake was cool I plated it up with some strawberries and chocolate whipped cream and DUG IN!  It was delicious and will definitely become a staple around here. :)  And it the jar of mix will make great gifts!  I have a label ready to go for you below.  Just right-click, save image, size it to your jar in Word or something similar, print, cut, stick, and your good to go!

Mmm… Hummus

Since I’m going to be home for awhile and I know that I will be snacking, I decided to have some more health conscience snacks options around.  I have never really had much hummus, but I hear about it all the time.  Pinterest is inundated with everybody’s favorite recipe for the creamiest, most flavorful, most authentic, most whatever hummus.  After looking through some different pinned recipes, I hopped to HEB like a good little bunny and got what I was missing – mainly sesame seeds for Tahini & chickpeas (or garbanzo, depending on the part of the world you’re in).  Which recipe did I use you ask?  None of them. lol I took the sum of the knowledge I gathered and made my own.  Is it authentic?  I do not know nor do I care.  Is it delicious? Why yes, yes it is.  And that, I care about.

I started by dry toasting 4 oz by weight (why so exact? Because I bought 4 packs of sesame seeds and they were 1 oz each.  By the way, this equates to nearly a cup by volume.) in my toaster oven.  Then I ground them up in my food processor.  Once they were nice and mealy I started adding extra virgin oil a couple of tablespoons at time.  I think I ended up using just shy of 1/4 c.  The point though is that you’re looking for a nice paste consistency.  As far as extra virgin vs any other olive oil… you can use what you like but keep in mind that you’re not cooking this so you the better the olive oil tastes, the better your hummus will taste.




Now to make some hummus (which I am devouring snacking on as I write up this post :) ).  I poured/scooped most of my Tahini out of my food processor and just left about 2 or 3 heaping tablespoon.  Then I added my lemon juice, some garlic, and about a tablespoon of oil and gave it a werr.  Now it was time to add my chickpeas.  I used one 15 oz can that I drained over a bowl, so that all of that flavorful canning liquid wasn’t lost. Next, I pureed the mess out of the peas.  Once I was happy that the were satisfactorily mashed into submission, I added the other tablespoonish of oil.  Then about a tablespoon at a time I added the canning liquid until I had a happy consistency.

Now it was time to amp up the flavor.  I added salt to my taste, but felt something was still missing.  So, I went to the spice cabinet.  I added oh, I’d say about a heaping 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder and a heaping teaspoon of cumin to the mix, which made me happy, happy, happy.
I’ll tell you what this stuff is creamy, addicting, cannot-get-enough-in-your-mouth good and pretty darn healthy :)