Chocolate Banana Bread

I thought it was our secretary's birthday. So I wanted to make her something chocolate-y and delicious. I came up with this little recipe. It was perfect.

Except today wasn't her birthday. In fact, this isn't even the right season for her birthday. It's in October. Got it. But I'm pretty sure she still appreciated the loaf of chocolate banana bread goodness.

ps. This pretty is inspired by but not at all connected to the chocolate chocolate chip banana bread by Joy the Baker. :) Though I made that too. 

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup buttermilk*

3 ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup chocolate chips

* buttermilk can be mimicked by adding 1/2 Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice to milk to equal 1/2 cup. Let set at room temperature at least 5 minutes.

Directions

In a large bowl, mix together sugar and oil until combined. In separate bowl, mash bananas. Add bananas, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla to sugar/oil mixture and stir thoroughly.

In separate bowl wisk together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa. Add to wet ingredients and stir until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips. 

Grease the sides and bottom of two (2) 9x5" loaf pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I have been slightly uninspired lately when it comes to dinners.

The dinner hour rolls around and I suddenly realize I hadn't even begun to plan a meal. 

That is SO not like me. 

But thankfully there are thousands of fellow foodies out there who HAVE been inspired lately.

And I came across this recipe at the perfect moment.

Last year, The Pioneer Woman developed a recipe sharing website as a branch of her blog.

Called Tasty Kitchen, it's a brilliant collaboration of home cooks and trained chefs combined. 

Recipes are tried and true. 

Easy to browse.

Beautifully displayed.

It's really lovely. 

You should check it out.

In any case, this sweet and sour chicken recipe was featured in a post by PW today.

And when I saw the list of ingredients and noticed they were all staple items, I knew I had found tonight's meal.

It was perfect.

Super easy to put together.

A leeettle bit time consuming, but totally worth it.

And I'm sure I'll get quicker at throwing it together in the future.

But I'd say you should give yourself at least an hour and half before meal time to start preparation and cooking. 

recipe adapted from Melanie on Tasty Kitchen. 
Ingredients

3 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

Salt And Pepper

1 cup (or less) Cornstarch

2 whole Eggs, Lightly Beaten

¼ cups Canola Oil

for the sauce:

¾ cups Sugar

4 Tablespoons Ketchup

½ cups Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 teaspoon Garlic Salt

Directions

Cut chicken breasts into chunks or large bite-sized pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Dip chicken in cornstarch and then in egg (yes, this will be messy but it will be worth it, I promise!). Heat a thin layer of oil in a large skillet to medium/medium-high heat. Sauté/fry the chicken in the oil until browned on all sides but not cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish coated with non-stick cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix sauce ingredients together and pour over chicken. Bake for one hour, turning chicken every 15 minutes. 

While the chicken is baking start cooking the brown or white rice--to yield approximately 1 cup per person. 

Prepare fresh veggies (broccoli, green pepper, green onion, shredded carrot, sliced mushrooms, etc) or frozen veggies to be stir fried in the same skillet used to cook chicken. Sauté veggies for 5-10 minutes over medium heat with a light drizzle of oil and a sprinkle or two of soy sauce. 

For extra sweet and sour sauce, make another batch of sauce and bring it to a boil on the stovetop. Stir constantly and let cook over medium heat until thickened and reduced, about 6 to 8 minutes.

Deep Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream

Remember these brownies?
The brownies of thick, chewy glorious chocolate heaven?
I made them for our Valentine's celebration.
But I froze half of them. For such a time as this.

We have both been craving ice cream something crazy recently.
And we've indulged ourselves a few times with our favorite local ice cream parlour.
But.
I remembered the ice cream maker Kevin's parents bought for us.
And I decided to put all apprehension aside and go BIG.
Forget about the heavy whipping cream.
The cost and the calories.
And go for it.
Come on, Mel, you know it's going to be aaaamazing.

Boy, was I right.
I took a few ideas from Annie's ice cream recipes.
And looked up the options in our owner's manual.
And tweeked until I came up with this.
A cup of rich chocolately, fudgy ice cream that you will never forget.

It's so rich that even I couldn't finish it. 
Wowzers. 
You must make this.
It's totally worth every calorie.
(Although I might take that back in five or ten years.
But let's just pretend it really is worth it. :D)

Ingredients

2 cups whole (or 2%) milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup sugar

½ cup cocoa powder

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped 

OR ½ semisweet and ½ unsweetened
1/4 to 1/2 pan crumbled thick and chewy fudge brownies (or other favorite variety)

Directions

In a large sauce pan, combine the whole milk and heavy cream over medium low heat. Add vanilla. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. 

Combine the sugar, cocoa, eggs, and egg yolks in a medium bowl; using a hand mixer on medium speed, beat until thickened like mayonnaise. Measure out 1 cup of the hot milk/cream mixture. With the mixture on low speed, add the cup of hot milk/cream to the cocoa mixture in a slow, steady stream and mix until completely incorporated. Stir the chopped chocolate into the saucepan with the hot milk/cream. Stir the cocoa/egg mixture into the hot milk/cream. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and begins to resemble a chocolate pudding. Transfer the chocolate mixture to a bowl (or a 9x13 inch glass pan). Cover with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface of the chocolate mixture, and refrigerate until completely cooled. 

Pour the chilled custard into the freezer bowl of an ice cream maker, turn the machine on and let mix utnil thickened, about 25-30 minutes. Add in chopped/crumbled brownies. The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture. If a firmer consistency is desired, transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and place in freezer for about 2 hours. Remove from freezer about 15 minutes before serving. Keep the remaining mixture sealed in an airtight container in the freezer. 

Homemade Pizza Tips

After last night's impromptu mid-week pizza night (we're rebels, I know!), I decided it was necessary to share to tips and tricks of the pizza making business. This is a learned skill, I am certain. If homemade pizza weren't so incredible I would have given up after the first time I nearly destroyed the thing upon transfer or when I dropped the unbaked pizza on the oven door or when the crust wasn't cooked through.  But homemade pizza IS amazing and therefore I adopted the "try, try again" mantra. Don't give it! It's totally worth it! 

1. Give yourself ample prep time. The recipe I use for my pizza dough yields enough for two pizzas. The bread machine whips up the dough in under 2 hours (2-3 hours if you're making perfect pizza dough by hand/mixer), so give yourself at least that much time before wanting to start the pizza process (which includes 30 minutes of oven preheating and 20 minutes of baking.) 
2. Cut the dough in half. With one half start your pizza or place tightly wrapped in the fridge to use within 2 (or so) hours. Wrap the other half in plastic wrap and place in a zippered freezer bag to use for later. When defrosting the dough, take out of the freezer and place on the counter for at least 4 hours or in the refrigerator for close to 8 hours. 
3. Invest in a pizza stone. This tool makes for the best homemade pizza. Though, I would love a pizza peel to make things even simpler! 
4. PREHEAT the pizza stone to 500 degrees while you prepare the crust and toppings. This is essential to the baking process--if the stone is not preheated the toppings will be perfectly cooked but the crust will still be doughy. 
5. Transferring the pizza to the oven. Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat when preparing the crust. The transfer of the prepared pizza crust to the preheated ultra hot pizza stone is NOT an easy process. Believe me, I've dropped many a pizza on the oven door or ended up with a completely folded or deformed pizza thanks to a poor transfer.  
1. lightly flour the baking mat. (the baking mat is made for the heat, so when it touches the preheated stone it will be fine!)
2. Roll out the pizza dough and when you achieve the desired shape and size re-flour the mat and place the crust on top--being sure it can slide around easily. 
3. Top the pizza. 
4. Lightly pat down toppings to keep them from falling off during transfer. 
5. Double check the mobility of the crust on the mat--shake it lightly this way and that to be sure it can slide easily onto the stone. 
6. Open the oven door, pull out the rack holding the preheated stone. Grasp the silicone mat with pizza with both hands.  Slowly and gently shake the dough left and right to ease the pizza onto the sizzling stone.  
7. Bake for 17-20 minutes for perfection in pizza form. 
8. Remove the entire stone from the oven and place on a heavy duty hot pad trivet or the cooling rack it came with. 
9. Let pizza rest 2 minutes for cheese to set. (You don't want to lose all the cheese off the slice when you make the first cut, do you?)
10. Slice and enjoy! 
11. When finished with the pizza stone just wipe off with a barely damp cloth and store away for next week!