Sweetie Pie

Pandowdy

Anyone who does much cooking on a regular basis will tell you that the most difficult part is the planning.  What to cook?  Will the family like it?  Do I need to buy any special ingredients?  How long will it take?  All these factors must be taken into consideration if you are going to have dinner on the table at a reasonable hour on a weeknight.
After poking around in the refrigerator on this particular afternoon, I came up with a bag of very spotty apples, a pie crust that has been defrosting for about a week, eggs, ricotta cheese, a box of spinach, and an onion.  I enlisted the help of my four year old by talking up the apple dessert we would make.  Since I have a problem with soggy bottom crusts, I decided to use a pretty casserole dish and put the crust on top.  After some quick research, I discovered that this type of deep dish dessert with pastry on top is called a pandowdy.
Evidently there was no romance involved in naming apple desserts in days past.  As I searched for the proper name for my creation I discovered the apple buckle, the apple slump, the pandowdy, and worst of all:  the apple grunt.  Gross.  The pandowdy was so named because it was baked in a deep dish and topped with a crust, which looked dowdy.  I'm pleased to say that my creation didn't look frumpy, it didn't slump or buckle, and I didn't make any gutteral noises while making it.  Toss the fruit with a little bit of sugar and some cinnamon, place the crust on top and bake in a hot oven for about an hour.
After this was in the oven, we turned out attention to a making a simple frittata.  This is an easy dish to fall back on no matter how little you find in the refrigerator.  Eggs are the main ingredient, and everything else is optional.  You can add onions, veggies, cheese, or even leftover meat or pasta. 
Crack a few eggs into a bowl and whisk them up with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Saute some chopped onion in an oven proof skillet, add garlic, spinach, or any other vegetable that will need time to cook and soften.  Pour the eggs over the cooking veggies, sprinkle cheese on top and any other topping such as herbs or tomatoes.  Put the pan into a hot oven and cook until it puffs up a little and the eggs are done to your liking. 

Do you have any simple, easy and versatile recipes you fall back on when you want a hot meal for your family?

 

 

 

German Chocolate Birthday Cake

A birthday rolls around but once a year and should be celebrated with a proper cake.  My loving husband's favorite is the ooey, gooey German Chocolate.  This recipe is named after Sam German, who began the Bakers Chocolate Company in 1852.  Originally it was known as German's Chocolate Cake, but the possessive apostrophe was dropped somewhere along the line.

I used Trisha Yearwood's recipe and it turned out beautifully.  She gives clear instructions and helpful hints.  Here are the photographs of our project.

We baked the cakes in the morning and then I put them in the freezer after they cooled.  This is a great trick to make your cakes easier to frost.  The coconut pecan icing is custard based, made with butter, egg yolks and condensed milk. 






The cake turned out beautifully, tall rich and decadent.  The cake has a super soft crumb, and the icing is thick and gooey. 

Banana Bread

Some people may wonder why home baking is important enough that we should put aside time and make a mess in the kitchen.  There is such a variety of baked goods available in so many places from the grocery store to coffee shops and restaurants.   It may seem like too much trouble to try baking anything 'from scratch' at home.  However, some of the most satisfyingly homey and wonderful recipes are also the most simple, easy, and foolproof.
When you take the time to bake at home, you get so much more than the instant gratification of buying and eating a treat.  Memories are connected to sights, smells, and recipes.  This is my grandmother's recipe and every single time I have ever baked it, it has both turned out beautifully and gotten rave reviews.  I'm always surprised by how much it is appreciated because it is so simple to make.  I finally realized that it's because when it's baked at home and served warm, banana bread is nothing like anything you can purchase at a store ready made.  This is one of those foods that will never be the same from a mix, and maybe that's why this recipe and the aroma of it baking in the oven will always feel like home. 
This is a yummy and comforting treat that I love baking for my son.  Banana bread is one of his very favorite foods, and this is another reward of baking at home.  Even though I don't recall ever seeing my grandmother make this recipe, every time I get it out of the recipe box I see that it's from her kitchen.  Then I remember her unloading groceries at her house and washing the milk jug and the bananas in the sink before putting them away.  I remember her mixing up cornbread and wasting nothing, carefully scraping every drop into the pan.  I remember her sitting at her table with a tall glass of water, and sharing meals with her.  This is the power of recipes:  even though distance separates us from people we love, we are connected by the tastes, scents, and rituals of preparing favorite foods.  My son doesn't know his great grandmothers very well, but he is linked to them by a few recipes.

Banana Bread

Grandmother Patterson's recipe

3 ripe bananas, mashed and beat

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

2 eggs

2 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare your loaf pan by smearing the butter wrapper into it, paying special attention to the corners. 

Peel the bananas and cut them up a bit in a large bowl.  Mash them against the sides of the bowl until you are satisfied with their smoothness.  This can be done with an electric mixer, but I always use a fork for the entire recipe.  If your bananas are a little small, add an extra one.  Use bananas that are ripe with brown and blackish spots, the uglier the better. 
Next, add the sugar and mix it all up.  Pour in the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and stir well.  Finally add the flour, baking soda and baking powder and stir to combine.  Scrape the batter into your greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.  Yes, it will take the entire hour.  The crust will become deeply golden brown, with a beautiful crack along the top where you can see the golden center.  A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean when it's done.  It may even take a few minutes more than an hour.  Let the bread cool in the pan for just a few minutes and then turn it out onto a rack to cool.
This is the recipe just as I have it written down, but please note that it's very adaptable.  For example, you don't have to use butter, but can substitute all or part of it for another oil.  I usually use part butter and part olive oil.  I never add the milk.  I often forget to add the vanilla.  I used to only make this recipe using self rising flour and omitting the baking powder and soda.  It is always good.
It is so good that when I went to take a picture, this is what I found.