Banana Bread

One of my most requested recipes is banana bread, so I just knew I had to add it to the family cookbook. My brother Scott was the one who taught me his secret: dust the pans with sugar. It really makes a difference! It is a favorite of many of my friends, especially Keely's best friend, Cacy Burtnett. Knowing that we were going to drive to Nashville to watch her play her last home basketball game, I decided to make her some a couple of weeks ago. That's the nice thing about this bread. It freezes beautifully.

We have been watching Cacy play basketball since she was in elementary school. She and Keely played on the same AAU basketball team, coached by Steve, and her love of the game was unmatched. Cacy is one of the few student-athletes I know who has successfully endured all four years of playing college basketball. We loved supporting her in her final home game last night at Belmont, and I loved giving her not one, but two of my loaves to show her in a very small way just how proud we are of her! 

Cacy's mom, Cindi, has tried to duplicate my banana bread in the past and swears that the recipe I gave her was deliberate sabotage. Then last night, at Belmont, Cacy's sister Sheelah told me she tried to make it, too, just last week and it failed. So, I don't know the root cause yet why the Burtnetts can't make banana bread (that's probably worthy of another post), but I promise you, this is exactly what I do:

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

• 1-2/3 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 4-5 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 2-1/2 cups flour 
• 1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon soda

Directions:
Cream together sugar, shortening, and eggs. Add bananas and nuts. Mix well. Slowly add buttermilk. Mix well. Sift remaining dry ingredients into mixture. Mix well. Pour into 2 bread pans that have been coated with shortening and dusted with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Dessert Fondue

One of my favorite restaurants is The Melting Pot. I just believe having fondue, especially for dessert, is such a fun treat. Keely knows this about me, too, and that's why she gave me two small fondue pots (orange, no doubt) for Christmas 2 years ago. The fondue is kept warm with a simple tea light candle. I have researched so many different fondue recipes on the internet, and my favorites not only taste great, but they're the easiest recipes I have:  only two ingredients! It doesn't get any better than that!

My first favorite fondue is caramel-pecan. Admittedly, I came across this recipe by accident. When Keely and I planned to serve dessert fondue for New Years Eve earlier this year, I tried a recipe that I had found where you heat up butter, sugar, milk, and I don't even remember what else because I threw away the recipe after making it twice and scorching it both times. Not one to give up since we were already in party-mode, I quickly went to the fridge, found a bottle of caramel ice cream topping, popped it in the microwave, and then just sprinkled chopped pecans on top. That's it! It was delicious with absolute perfect consistency. So simple. I'll never try to make it again "from scratch."

Now for my next favorite. Of course, it has to be chocolate. For New Years, I did make a chocolate fondue from scratch that turned out great: butter, heavy cream, chocolate chips, etc. This is what I planned on serving at our Soup-er Bowl party for Steve, the Burtnetts, the Suiters, the Picketts, and Ralph Brett. It ended up being a group effort. Cindy brought a variety of dippers (strawberries, bananas, pineapple, pound cake, and peanut butter cookies). I made some Rice Krispie treats for dipping, too. When I was telling Kim what the plans were, she told me about how she learned to make chocolate fondue that was served at a nice restaurant while she was vacationing in Banff, Canada. Furthermore, she already had the ingredients since she was going to make it for Christmas, but didn't. I now have a new favorite. The one I had initially planned to make tastes just as good I believe; however, why add complexity to a planned event when you don't need to? Just two ingredients: Toblerone chocolate bars and heavy cream. Yep, that's my kind of recipe.

Cindi then added that she has had it with Toblerone white chocolate bars and kahlua instead of the heavy cream. You can bet that I'll be trying this combo next! 

Unlike many others, I am not going to serve fondue only once a year on that one "special" occasion. It's too much fun. Take out the fondue sets, light a couple of tea lights, mix together just two ingredients, and serve with a variety of dippers. Show your family and friends just how special they really are to you. They deserve it!

Dessert Fondue

Caramel-Pecan:

• 1 cup caramel ice cream topping (I used Smucker's caramel flavored sundae syrup.)
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans

Chocolate:

• 4 (3.52 oz) Toblerone milk chocolate bars (Swiss milk chocolate with honey and almond nougat)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

White Chocolate-Kahlua:

• 4 (3.52 oz) Toblerone white chocolate bars
• 1/2 cup kahlua

Directions:
Heat two ingredients in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir well. May need to repeat. Transfer to fondue pot. Serve with a variety of dippers such as fruit, pound cake, cookies, etc.

Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ever since my fun niece Hayley contributed her Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup to the family cookbook, I couldn't wait to serve it at our "Soup-er Bowl" party just like she did. First of all, anything with Crock Pot in the title sure gets my attention. I always look for recipes that are easy, take minimal effort to prepare, and taste great. As a result, I got to enjoy a great game with great friends instead of slaving in the kitchen. (Yeah Eli! New York Giants 21, New England Patriots 17)

I ended up modifying the recipe below just slightly. First of all, I ended up using more chicken. Although I used 3 chicken breasts, they weighed closer to 2 pounds than 1 pound. I also left out the onions, garlic cloves, and bay leaf. Instead, I sprinkled some Paula Deen House Seasoning in it to taste. Not surprisingly, it was delicious and one that I will definitely make again. Thanks, Hayley!

Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 lb frozen chicken breasts (3-4 breasts)
• 2 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 (10 oz) can green enchilada sauce
• 1 (4 oz) can chopped green chile peppers
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cans low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 can (10 oz) corn
• 1 can black beans
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (add into before serving)
• 2 corn tortillas (cut into strips)

Directions:
Place frozen chicken breasts on bottom of crock pot. Place everything else into the pot, except cilantro and tortillas. Cut tortillas into strips and place in oven to toast. Cook soup on low for 6-8 hours in crock pot. Shred chicken after 7 hours of cooking and add the cilantro and tortilla strips before serving. Serve with optional toppings: avocado, sour cream, extra cilantro, or brown rice.

Buttercream Icing

My friend Kim Suiter noticed on one of my Pinterest boards that I wanted to take a cake decorating class. In fact, it's #89 on my Life List: Things I'd Like to Do Before I Go. So, that's what she gave me for Christmas along with the Wilton starter kit. I was so excited! The 4 classes were held at The Sugar Shoppe in Chattanooga each Monday night, beginning January 9.

The first lesson was essentially an introduction to the tools. Some of the things I learned include how to prepare a featherweight bag with a coupler, take triangle-shaped parchment paper and turn it into a disposable bag, level a cake, make your base icing completely smooth, and make awesome buttercream icing. (Recipe at bottom of post). The rest of the night was spent using the star tip.

The second lesson included how to use many other tips to make designs such as little rosettes and a border. I also learned how to use piping gel to transfer an image (perhaps from a coloring book) to a cake to then decorate. That's how I made the cupcake design below. Here is my very first decorated cake. I was quite proud, oh and it was delicious, too! :)

I was really looking forward to the third session because the focus was on cupcakes. I learned how to make a pompom flower and the shaggy mum. I also discovered these adorable little eyeballs that really added life to animal designs. Although I learned how to decorate cupcakes with the tall swirl designs like you see in bakeries, I decided to decorate the six I brought to class as shown below. I had a blast!

The last session started out a little stressful. It is where I learned how to make a rose. I think I finally got the hang of it, but it required more practice than the other techniques. My last assignment was to decorate a two-layer cake any way you wanted to. Here's my "final":  Woooo hoooo!  :)

Thanks again Kim for a gift that will definitely keep on giving! :)

Now for the best part. This icing is awesome! It tastes just like what you would get on a birthday cake from a bakery. Mmmmmmmm! This makes a very generous amount that you can divide and color as desired. Store whatever you don't use in the freezer for a later use.

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

• 2 cups hi-ratio shortening (which is basically whipped Crisco)
• 2 teaspoons flavoring (I use 1 teaspoon clear vanilla and 1 teaspoon almond.)
• 5 tablespoons water (You may need to add just a little more for desired consistency.)
• 2 lb powdered sugar

Directions:
Cream together first three ingredients. Add powdered sugar and mix until all ingredients have been thoroughly blended and creamy.  (Or, just do what I do: dump everything all at once into the bowl of my stand mixer and just use the slow "stir" speed.)

Keep on Stirring

Last year, I began to put together a digital scrapbook of family recipes with stories and photos behind each one. I initially envisioned maybe 20-30 pages, where each one could easily be printed, slipped in a plastic sleeve, and stored in a 3-ring binder. No big deal. This way, new favorites could easily be added as desired on an ongoing basis. The project turned out to be something much larger. With contributions and ongoing encouragement from family members who I just can't thank enough, our family cookbook ended up being a collection of 244 recipes!

I remember struggling to come up with a title. So one evening, I coerced Steve into participating in a brainstorming session with me. He's used to these types of requests since I use that technique quite often in my work, and he (willingly or not) plays the role of "naive observer." So we began:

• Stirring the Pot (This was actually suggested by my brother-in-law, Greg.)
• To Stir with Love (Do you remember the great movie To Sir with Love, starring Sidney Poitier?)
• Family Favorites

Very quickly, the brainstorming session turned into a brain-drizzle session because a basketball game that was playing on TV kept getting all of Steve's attention. I continued to nag: "Come on! Focus! Quantity over quality is what counts right now! Pay attention! Focus! etc. etc." He finally caved, then reached over to grab my paper with the rather short list of titles and said, "Here, gimme that to stir my memory."
"That's it!"
"What?"
"That's it! That's the title!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Stirring Memories! It's perfect! Thank you!"

My loving, naive observer comes through for me once again.

Since this is a bound collection, I plan to use this blog for new favorites as they surface. You may even see some of the old favorites that are already in the cookbook here, too, since I haven't tried all of them yet and certainly plan to. I also plan to use this blog to capture memories, meals, general tips, etc. from various parties or even just casual get-togethers that I host. Yes, I'm going to keep on stirring! :)