Simply Norma

I have finally found a banana bread recipe that is absolutely fantastic because it’s the moistest banana bread I have ever tasted. I tweaked the recipe just a tad because I didn’t have 2 medium bananas but had 1 banana and 1 frozen banana. It worked beautifully.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 medium ripe banana, sliced
• 1 frozen banana, thawed and smushed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan
3. In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.
5. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt then stir this into the butter mixture until smooth.
6. Fold in the sour cream and bananas including the juice from the thawed banana.
7. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared loaf pan.
8. Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
9. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

It came out perfect and oh so moist! This is now my “go to” banana bread.

Anyone for a slice?

Special thanks to allrecipes.com for this recipe.

It’s not easy to find a good potato soup. Why is that?

I finally found a vegan one that I “unveganed.”  (laughing)  I left out raw cashews and soy milk so this is basically a new recipe. In addition, I added sour cream which gave the soup a more “full bodied” taste.

The soup turned out good but you have to be careful how much white pepper you add … although, I thought I had put too much (what the recipe called for) and my husband thought it could use more.  Go figure.

I have to remind myself that I might think a recipe is too sweet, tart, etc. but to someone else it’s perfectly fine. Hmmm … I guess not everyone is like me. (laughing)

Ingredients

• 3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into small pieces then boiled until cooked (thrust a fork through a piece and if the fork comes out easily, ie the potato is not hard but soft, then the potatoes are ready
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1/4 teaspoon rosemary
• 1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups 2% milk
• 3 tablespoons sour cream

Directions

1.  In a medium sized frying pan, sauté the onion until its soft.
2. Add 2/3 of the potato to the pan, along with the broth, rosemary, white pepper, and salt.
3. Simmer this mixture, covered, for 10-15 minutes.
4. Pour this mixture into a blender along with the milk.
5. Blend until smooth.
6. Put the blended mixture in a soup pot, add the remaining 1/4 potatoes and the sour cream then stir.
7. Cook through, stirring often, over low heat until hot.

That’s it! I’m learning to play with the ingredients in recipes that I find and it’s quite fun to experiment. I served this with banana bread that went beautifully with it.

I’ve changed parts of this recipe (that I recently found) because I made “newbie” mistakes.

First, I didn’t read the recipe close enough so when it said “white balsamic vinegar,” I read balsamic vinegar which I already had in my cupboard. Second, the recipe called for white pepper and I read “pepper” which I, again, already had in my cupboard. That’s what happens when you try to find a new recipe quickly.

I think the original recipe was trying to make the salad look “white.” But you know what?  It turned out great!. The recipe below includes the changes I made to the original. Oh — one last thing. This was supposed to be a vegan salad but I used REAL cheese. So, if you want it to be vegan, just use soy cheese or leave the cheese out.

Ingredients for the salad

• 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced or shaved
• 2 pears, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes or so
• Parmesan cheese, grated

• 3 tablespoons walnut oil
• 2 tablespoons brown balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons agave syrup
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of pepper
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground fennel seeds

• Fennel also goes by the name of anise in the grocery store
• The whole top portion of the fennel is not edible although some people use the grassy-looking part as garnish
• If you’re going to “shave” instead of slice the fennel, a useful tool is a mandolin
• Here’s a link to a Youtube video on fennel that I found useful (it’s not for this recipe but as a newbie cook I found it quite helpful)
• Here’s a picture of the top of the fennel. The bottom looks like a tulip bulb.

It’s always fun to try new recipes since I’m not the kind of person who knows how to put food together without one.  Special thanks to Vegalicious Recipes for the inspiration.

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