It's Easy gettin' Cheesey

I love bread. Like, A LOT. I am the first one in the bread basket when it arrives at the table. Bread, butter.....a match made in heaven.

I get email updates from Kraft, Betty Crocker and Pillsbury and I click and look and will say "Hmm, that might be good" or "my family would bolt from the table if I ever served that". One day I got the email and it was a round Sourdough loaf that was cut, drizzled with butter, stuffed with cheese and then baked.

I'm really not a Sourdough fan. Please do not send the hate mail (like the ones I received when I admitted to not liking ice cream, strawberries or any pie other than pecan and chocolate). I know lots of people enjoy the taste of Sourdough, but not in this house. I kept looking for a round loaf I could use and finally found this in the bakery section of our local grocery store.

mmmmmm, bread

The recipe, if you can even call it that, is pretty much 3 ingredients-bread, butter and cheese. I, however, wanted to bump up the flavor, so I added a fourth element. Garlic powder. I mean, c'mon-who doesn't like garlic bread?

Cheesey Party Loaf

(adapted from on-line recipe**)

1 loaf round bread

1/2 stick butter, melted

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 cup shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Slice across the loaf in 1-inch increments, not cutting through the bottom of the bread. Turn the loaf 90 degrees and cut across the loaf again in 1-inch increments. The bread will have 1-inch 'fingers' now. Fan the bread a little to open it up. Stir the garlic powder into melted butter. Pour the melted butter down the rows of the cut bread, making sure to cover horizontal and vertical rows. Take pinchfuls of the shredded cheese and stuff down each row, again making sure to go across all rows, tucking the cheese down into the crevices.

Wrap the loaf in heavy duty tin foil, or a double layer of regular tin foil. Place wrapped loaf on your oven rack that is placed in the middle of the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is all melty and gooey.

The second time I made this, I melted a little extra butter and just sprinkled a little more garlic powder in then brushed it over the top of the loaf.

It is so simple but oh so good. My family devoured it at our family Christmas a couple of weeks ago. You just break off a hunk and go. I also made it last weekend for our Girl's Night and brought the half loaf home and we re-warmed it to go with our leftover Prime Rib.

Your tummy-and your family-will thank you.

On to other business.

Twenty years ago at about 5:25 AM, we were blessed with our first daughter Ally. Happy Birthday Baby! I love you even more now than I did when they placed you in my arms all those years ago. I'm sad that I don't get to make you a special dinner or a cake, but I know you have fun plans tonight with your high school BFF and your sister who are driving up North as we speak. Be good, be careful, have fun!



** I checked all of my on-line recipe e-mail sites and can't find the original recipe, so I'm not sure who gets proper credit. UPDATE: it is from Taste of Home, just got an update and checked their site :)

French Toast and a snowy night

Who blogs about French toast, right?

I guess I am. I have to follow a low fiber diet for three days so I can go have the big "C" next week. I know, you are all jealous. There wasn't a whole lot on the list to choose from that I like, other than pancakes, French toast, saltines, cooked potatoes, Jello, pudding and carrots. Really-I don't like yogurt, or wax beans or spinach (unless it is in dip form). I am limited.
I decided to jazz up the regular ingredients a little just because.

Jazzy French Toast (for lack of a better title)

4 slices Texas Toast

2 eggs

about 1/4 whipping cream (I eyeballed it)

1 TBSP real maple syrup

2 TBSP light brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat eggs lightly; stir in whipping cream and beat well. Add rest of ingredients and stir to combine. Soak each slice of bread for a good 30 seconds on each side so it can soak in. Fry up on your griddle. Top with you choice of toppings-I always pick butter and syrup.

Enjoy it while watching it snow, and snow, and snow some more.

This is what it looked like this morning when I got up. Between 10 to 12 inches in the yard.

And Tofu thought she would enjoy some French Toast too. I broke her little heart and didn't let her have any-she got spaghetti noodles on Thursday.

Comfort

What does the word comfort mean to you? It means something different to everyone. For some it is their favorite book. For some it may mean food. Yet for others it may be a hug from a loved one.

Dad, me, my sister and brother-they have ice cream

For me, it is several things.

It is pulling into my driveway after a long day and knowing Tofu will be waiting on the steps for me.

It is pulling on a pair of fleece pants and a sweatshirt and pouring a glass of wine.

It is remembering the good parts of my childhood.


My Mom and my brother

My family isn't conventional by any definition put forth by Webster. My family may seem to go against any family you saw on TV growing up. My family is what makes me, me.

My Dad and my brother

I have two sisters and one brother. None of us share the same father, but all share the same mother. My siblings all favor their fathers, and I favor my mother. At least the parts that everyone sees.

Me and my Dad circa 1977

From my Dad I have long, thin fingers, long legs and slightly bulged eyes. I do not have his voice, his wavy hair or his ability to answer Jeopardy questions.

My parents divorced when I was 14. It was all for the better. But there were times when it was all good. While it may be strange to you, for me all of those good times revolved around our annual summer vacation to Cross Lake Minnesota. We went every summer to the Corp of Engineers campground. We would leave at 4 AM and arrive around 8 AM to wait in line for a spot. Back in those days these types of campgrounds would not take reservations. We would park the camper and boat in line and wait until a spot opened up. And Dad was picky. There were only a handful of sites he wanted. Sites 19 through 22. These sites were right by the beach and the boat launch. We could watch the sunsets and the people parade by our site.

We lived like kings for that week we were there. We cooked huge breakfasts in a skillet that is about 24 inches across. I still have the skillet. We would eat pizza one night at the local joint. We would fish all day and they would eat crappies and sunnies and walleyes. I would eat peanut butter and jelly or Spaghettios. We would make Pouchie Pies and S'mores and sing old country songs by the campfire. We would play game after game of cribbage.

Beer Bread

1/4 cup sugar

2-2/3 cup self rising flour

1 12 ounce can room temperature beer (I used Guinness)

Stir sugar and flour together. Stir in beer. It will be foamy. Stir to incorporate dry ingredients into beer, but do not over beat. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 375 degrees F for 50 to 55 minutes.

Enjoy the comfort of some wonderful bread.

I will show you what I did with the rest of the large bottle of Guinness later this week!

Banana Bread Muffins

My Hermit Crab has come and gone. She was only home for about a day and a half, but she crammed a lot into her short stay.

We had lasagna on Friday night, she went out with her High School BFF all afternoon Saturday to celebrate the BFF's birthday. When she got home, she ran to the local taco shack she used to work at in high school and we feasted on tacos and burritos and the awesome crispy potatoes. After dinner we cleared out the dining room and set up our pumpkin carving stations. HC took almost three hours to carve her pumpkin. The rest of us finished in about 40 minutes.

I knew she was jonesing for some homemade treats so I fixed her up with some banana bread and some Chocolate covered Peanut butter Crispy treats (recipe coming soon). I always struggle with making loaves of banana bread-you know, they get all nice and golden brown but the center sinks and it is a hot, gooey mess inside. I now make them in muffin or small loaf pans and they come out perfect.

It also allows me to customize the loaves and muffins since Drama Queen doesn't really like nuts, so I usually need to make 2 pans of bars, or take some of the cookie dough out before adding nuts so she can have nut-free treats. Seriously, my family is way too spoiled.

I have combined two of my recipes to make this one. I received passing marks from the entire family, so this one will need to go into rotation.

Banana Bread Muffins

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg (about 3 or 4 swipes on rasp)

3 very ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In medium bowl, combine the flour, soda and salt. In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar. (I did this in my stand mixer because of my wrist issues) Stir in beaten eggs, the spices and the bananas. When combined, stir flour mixture into wet mixture. Only stir until combined so you don't overwork the batter. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake 60-65 minutes. Or, use muffin tins that have been greased and bake about 28 minutes. Test with toothpick or cake tester. Cool in pan and then turn out onto rack to finish cooling. Wrap and store in fridge.

I store my banana bread in fridge because the peeps in this house like it a little more firm, plus I think the flavor is a little better this way.

Hermit Crab took a small loaf back to school to share with her roommate. I hope it made it to school and didn't get eaten in the car on the road trip back, or Debbie will be mad at me-I promised her some fresh banana bread.

If you bake it, they will come

Nothing seems to get the attention of the family more than baking. I could have a turkey roasting or some spices in the kettle simmering, but it is the baking that always has doors opening. The Dude was literally sleeping and came out and said 'Um, do I smell what I think I smell?" Yes, the scents that really get them is apple pie and Banana Bread. I love the smell of banana bread; I hate bananas. It was made worse when 8 years ago I got really sick in the middle of the night and the Dude brought me to the emergency room. They ran test after test and decided to some kind of scan (it was like 3 AM and I was sick I wanted to die and can't remember what scan) and I had to drink a 20 ounce bottle of some God awful thick liquid goo that was strawberry-banana flavored. Don't you have grape or orange? Nope, strawberry-banana. Shudder. But I love to bake muffins and bread with bananas. Something about that warm, fruity scent transports me somewhere-not sure where, but some happy place.

A lot of times I will just make this in the extra large cupcake pans because it never seems to fail. The center is still gooey while the outside is overly done. I topped this with foil and took it off with the last 15 minutes to go. I do think it is my oven-I'm pushing for that new duel-fuel one at the appliance store! I did nuke it for 4 minutes after letting it sit on the counter for about 15 minutes-just because it looked too soft in the middle. It is almost gone today, so it must have worked out.

Banana Bread

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk (I used whipping cream as I only had enough milk for kids breakfast)

1/2 cup shortening

1 tsp soda

3 medium bananas, soft and mashed

2 eggs, beaten lightly

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 cup nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix sugar, milk, shortening, bananas and eggs. Add remaining ingredients slowly and don't overmix. Put in a 9x5 loaf pan, or make muffins. Bake one hour to one hour 15 minutes for loaf pan and about 30 to 40 minutes as muffins *depending on size of muffin pan used. I tented mine with foil to keep edges from browning too much and removed last 15 minutes or so to get it nice and brown. Inhale deeply.