Banana Bread

This recipe has been a favorite in my family for as long as I can remember. Nothing tastes as good as some fresh banana bread on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Personally, I like this plain, but you can add butter to it or even cream cheese for some additional flavor.

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
4 Tbsp. sour cream
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 medium, extremely ripe, bananas)

Directions
1. Grease 9 x 5 in. loaf pan or muffin pan (you can make muffins too) and heat oven to 350
2.  Beat together butter and sugar
3. Add eggs; mix well
4. Add sour cream, flour, baking soda, vanilla, and bananas. Mix well. 
5. Pour into prepared loaf pan or muffin cups
6. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (in loaf pan) or 25 minutes (in muffin pan) or until toothpick comes out clean

Emily's Thoughts

The perfect bananas for this recipe

If you like chocolate chips in your banana bread, you can also add 1 cup of chocolate chips to the mix before baking. Also, a tip on the bananas, you can use fresh mashed up bananas, but personally I prefer to use bananas that have gotten too ripe for me to eat. If a couple bananas start to look bad, I usually let them ripen until they're almost completely black. That's when they're perfect for this recipe. If you don't feel like making banana bread when your bananas are ripened, toss them in the freezer and pull them out (be sure to thaw them before baking) when you're ready.

Muffins instead of bread also are delicious

On the cooking time, it varies on the size of pan you use. The bigger the loaf pan, the longer you'll need. Last night I used mini loaf pans, so the bread only needed 30 minutes. And the muffins I made only needed 25 minutes. Set the timer for 25 minutes to start with and then check back. If the bread doesn't look done yet, give it a little more time.

Thanks to my mom for passing this recipe on to me!

Pizza Puffs

This weekend I hosted book club at my house and tried making these. I think they were the most popular food I had, so I had to share them on here. I tried two different kinds: pepperoni puffs and ham and cheese puffs.

Ingredients
2 containers refrigerated pizza dough (1 container per set of puffs

Pepperoni puffs
1 package pepperoni
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 can pizza sauce
1 tsp parmesan cheese 

Ham and cheese puffs
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3-4 slices ham
1/2 cup shredded swiss cheese

Directions
1. Grease cookie sheet. Roll out pizza dough and cut into 8-12 squares.
2. Add a small amount of all the ingredients to each square. For the pepperoni puffs, spread a little pizza sauce on each square first. For the ham and cheese puffs, spread a little Dijon mustard on the puffs first. 

Ham and Cheese Puffs

Pepperoni Puffs

3. Fold squares up to make a puff shape. In the case of the pepperoni puffs, I sprinkled a little parmesan on top of them. 

4. Follow directions on the pizza dough. In my case, I baked them at 400 for 12 minutes. 
5. Serve warm and enjoy!

Idea for this recipe came from my friend Rachel. 

Chocolate Guinness Cake

In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, I tried out this recipe that I found online. So use your leftover Guinness and try it out:

Ingredients
1 cup Guinness
1/2 cup butter, cubed
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup baking cocoa
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup sour cream
3 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Topping:
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions
1. Grease 9-in springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, heat beer and butter until butter is melted. 
3. Remove from the heat; whisk in sugar and cocoa until blended. 
4. Combine the eggs, sour cream and vanilla; whisk into beer mixture.
5. Combine flour and baking soda; whisk into beer mixture until smooth.
6.  Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Remove sides of pan.
7. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy.
8. Add powdered sugar and cream. Beat until smooth (do not over-beat).
9. Remove cake from the pan and place on a platter or cake stand.
10. Ice top of cake so that it resembles a frothy pint of beer. Refrigerate leftovers.


Emily's Thoughts
This recipe was fairly easy and delicious. A bunch of my friends tried it and liked it. And I don't own a springform pan, so I just used a round 9-in cake pan. This worked out just fine because I greased it really well before pouring the batter into it. After taking the cake out of the oven, I used a knife to cut around the edges and then let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack before removing it from the pan. 

Credit for this recipe goes to Taste of Home.

Oatmeal Cookies

These are a favorite of my entire family's. And the great thing about them is that you can add different things (like raisins, chocolate chips, coconut, and nuts) to make them a little differently each time. I made these last month with chocolate chips and coconut for a Super Bowl party and the whole plate was gone before you could blink an eye.

Ingredients
3/4 cup margerine or butter softened
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups quick oats
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

May add:
1 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup nuts
1 cup coconut 


Directions
1. Beat together butter, brown sugar, and egg. 
2. Add milk, vanilla, and quick oats. 
3. Add remaining ingredients. 
4. Use spoon to get 1 inch spoonfuls and place on lightly greased cookie sheet (no need to shape or flatten as they will do that in the oven).

5. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. 

Emily's Thoughts
The trick to making cookies that stay moist is to stack them after they've had a few minutes to cool (as in the back row in the picture above). Make sure they've cooled enough so that they don't stick to each other, but I usually stack them after I've taken the newest cookies out of the oven to make room for those to cool. Also, with these cookies, I sometimes let them rest on the cookie sheet for a minute after I take them out of the oven and before placing them on the cooling rack. This lets them firm up a little. 

Special thanks goes to my mom and my Aunt Marlys for this delicious recipe.

Yogurt Pancakes

Personally, I love Chobani Greek Yogurt, so when I saw this on the side of the yogurt container, I decided that I had to try it.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (12 oz) Vanilla O% Chobani Greek Yogurt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

Directions
1. Combine dry ingredients
2. Whisk wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour into dry mixture, and stir just until combined.
3. Over medium-high heat scoop 1/4 cup batter onto skillet per pancake. Flip when bubbles appear. Cook until golden brown. 

Serve with fruit and whipped cream or syrup. 

Emily's Thoughts
I thought these were delicious and so did my friend who normally isn't a huge fan of pancakes. They're much denser than normal pancakes, so you don't need as many to fill you up. And because they're made with yogurt, they stick with you longer. I went for a run about an hour after eating these and still wasn't hungry afterwards...not typical if I had made regular pancakes. This recipe could easily serve 3-4 people, so if you're cooking for 1-2 people, I would recommend cutting it in half (just whisk the egg first and only use half of that).

The only downside of this recipe is that Greek yogurt is by no means inexpensive and 1 1/2 cups is a lot to use. But I still recommend trying it, it was worth it :) 

Credit for recipe goes to Chobani