Banana Ginger Bread

Is it BREAD? or Is it CAKE?

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" Marie Antoinette

For someone who considers herself 'no baker' this bread turned out very well. I say bread, not cake, because it really isn't that sweet, and it tastes super delicious with a nice swipe of butter. I adapted this recipe from a website called: Fork Knife Swoon. Their recipe was called Ginger Spiced Banana Bread. I hope you will give mine a try, and let me know what you think…

Anchovies...You SEXY little fish!

Here Fishy,Fishy

Little fish in tins: LOVE or HATE?

I admit it. I'm 50 and I don't believe I have ever purchased a tin of anchovies until a week ago. I found a recipe for a white bean and radish salad in Bon Appetit  and thought it looked so yummy I vowed to make it...anchovies be damned! I know anchovies mostly because of my 'pop-culture' addiction. How many sitcoms have I watched where a character orders a pizza, and has uttered the phrase: 'Hold the anchovies'?

A tale of 2 Zucchinis: Sweet(cake) & Savoury(soup)

Zucchini cake with chocolate and walnuts 

Zucchini Cake with Chocolate and Walnuts 

My niece and her family came to visit a week or so ago. She knows I like to cook, and she has a garden. She arrived with a huge bag of mixed lettuce, some tiny pickling cukes(be still my Ukrainian heart), some fresh fruit, and a HUGE zucchini.

She is a VERY GOOD niece!

One Dressing...Two Salads!

I have been eating more salads lately. The temperature is climbing, the farmers market is open…It’s time. I found this Broccoli Salad recipe at ‘Simply Recipes’ and only changed a couple of things. The real bonus to this salad is the dressing. I have been making my own vinaigrette in just about the same way for years. This dressing, lightened up with ½ the fat mayonnaise, was a nice change. I only used about 1/3 of the dressing for this salad. I cut up the broccoli stems and mixed them with ½ a head of shredded cabbage to make a coleslaw, and added some leftover dressing to make salad #2. I thought they were both great…Leave me a comment…I’d love to hear your opinion.

Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit…

Summer is coming. That means less time in the kitchen, and more time outside on the patio. This dip was inspired by a post by David Lebovitz. The recipe took me about 10 minutes total, and kept covered in the fridge for a week with no loss of flavor. In fact, you could say that the garlic flavor actually became more pronounced. (A good thing in my opinion!)

I have no food processor, so I mashed the beans up with a fork, and then with a pastry blender. I just kept mashing until I liked the texture. 

White Bean Dip

2 cups cooked white beans- (I bought dried ones, soaked them overnight and cooked them. You can use canned- just rinse them under cold water to remove any slimy liquid.)

2 medium cloves of garlic-peeled and minced

2 Tbsp assorted fresh herbs-I used chives , thyme,

flat leaf parsley, and oregano.

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 lemon-all the juice-or to taste

½ tsp salt

dash of cayenne pepper/chili oil/hot sauce- I used chili oil.

Mash beans/garlic. Add the other ingredients. Mix well. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve with crackers or on slices of baguette-toasted or un-toasted. Add halved cherry tomatoes, or cucumber slices as garnish.

Please leave a comment...the beans and I would both appreciate it!

Pot Roast&Beef Lentil Soup

I cook every day. I never used to cook every day. When I was working full time operating 2 ladies clothing stores in different cities I ate out a lot, and I got really, really, fat! Now I work less than full time with clients who let me determine my work schedule...and I am not so fat, anymore!
Pot Roast
I haven't cooked a pot roast in ages. Frankly, the last time I did it was a bit stringy and dry...put me right off. This time I purchased a pot roast from a butcher and it turned out so tender, so delicious,the P-Man and I just kept eating, and looking at each other...Like Julia Child and her husband when they are eating in that restaurant in Paris, when they first moved there!
 Back to the pot roast. The other thing that I DID NOT do was brown the pot roast before I put it in the oven to braise. Every recipe I looked at said I should...but browning a big roast on my stove would have had my apartment smelling like dead cow for days!
So...all I did was rub the roast all over with kosher salt and pepper. Chop 2 big onions into large chunks, and peel and chunk up 1 pound of carrots. I added about a cup of canned tomatoes, 2 cups of low sodium vegetable broth, a couple a bay leaves, 2 Tbsp of Worchestershire sauce, and a squirt of ketchup. I put the lid on, and cooked it in a 300 degree oven for 4 hours.
IT WAS FANTASTIC!
Beef Lentil Soup
After we had devoured the pot roast I still had some sauce left. No way I was throwing it out, so I cut all the meat off the bone I could, and added the leftover sauce, the meat, the rest of the can of tomatoes(see above) approx. 2 cups of vegetable stock, a cup or so of water, 1 cup of du puy lentils, and a couple of Shitake mushrooms, sliced. I brought everything to the boil, then turned down the heat and simmered it until the lentils were tender...about an hour. It was so rich and 'beefy', the P-Man, who normally would think that soup for dinner was some sort of punishment, ate 2 bowlfuls(that's not a word, is it?)!
IT WAS INCREDIBLE!

Do IT!
Run to the butcher and pick up a pot roast...Let me know how it turns out!