The banana convention in my freezer is slowly but surely coming to a close.  This banana thing is starting to feel a little bit like the thanksgiving turkey episode... the never ending story.  The one difference between banana's and turkey being that with banana's you can add chocolate and/or icing.  This difference means that it will most definitely get eaten as opposed to the maybe it might get eaten but I'm not really sure.
I'm hoping that there are a few of you out there who are glad and maybe even grateful for the banana recipes.  For the rest of you (us - 'cause I'm kinda sick of them too) I would like to take a moment to explain why I do what I do here.
Sometimes (ie. almost never) I plan a recipe specifically for this blog.  The other 99% of the time what I post on this blog happens to be what I was inspired to make based on what needs to get cooked or baked or some kind of special occasion.  I guess that still makes this a food blog but not a 'special' food blog - or maybe it is.  You get what we eat.  I'm not fancying things up for the blog, sometimes we get fancy and sometimes we don't.  I like to think, in my more optimistic moments, that simple and homey is great and maybe even what people want.  They want to see what you are eating and that's why they check the blog out. In my more pessimistic moments, I feel a little depressed because I have so little time to put things for this blog together.  I wonder who eats everything that other bloggers post (every day/every other day!!) and how they find time to make it, take the pictures and write something coherent before sending it out into the big wide web world.  Sometimes getting one post out feels like I had to bank time for an entire week and even then I'm juggling lego being shoved into my face and a 13 yr old constantly asking for something that inevitably involves money and going somewhere.  So yeah, you see what we eat.  That being said, we have eaten more than banana bread and birthday cake around here - although nothing would make my kids happier.  I haven't gotten around to taking pictures (especially when it's dark by 4:45) and writing down recipes.


Back to bananas:
Now that the freezer convention has been whittled down to 4 from the previous 15 this recipe should mark the close of the banana marathon for a while at least.  I'm saying 'should' which gives me an out because you never know.  Kid #1 has completed her high school auditions and has gotten into her first choice for the music program.  This may mean that some kind of celebration is in order and the celebration may mean cake.  If there is some way to throw those last few bananas into cake then I'll go for it.  Then there is the dinner we are invited to next weekend where they said not to bring anything but who really means that?  Of course you have to bring something.  It could include wine but it could also include something involving bananas.


Double Chocolate Banana Loaf adapted from Martha Stewart
makes 1 loaf

1 2/3 cup less 3 tbsp unbleached, all purpose flour
3 tbsp dark cocoa powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup egg whites or two eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3 med, overripe bananas, peeled and mashed
2 tbsp whipping cream or sour cream
5 oz dark chocolate, chopped


Preheat oven to 350°F
Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside.
Combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder together and set aside.
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy - about 3 minutes or so. Add in the egg and continue to beat for another 2 minutes.
Add the vanilla and banana and beat together for another minute or until everything is completely incorporated.
Fold in the cream until incorporated.
Add the flour mixture and whisk in by hand until completely incorporated together.
Fold in the chopped chocolate just until evenly distributed.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.  Do a little drop onto the counter top to get out the air bubbles.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out of the middle clean.
Cool for about 15 minutes in the pan before removing to cool on a rack.

I am typing furiously in a desperate attempt to ignore the panic that is slowly but steadily rising in my soul.  Snow.  We have snow and copious amounts of it.  It has been falling since the morning and although it is now later afternoon, has not abated.  I'm guessing 8cm so far.  D has a gig tonight out of town and I have to head with kid #2 to a concert being given by kid #1's choir.  I want to curl up in a blanket and watch a movie, allowing me to look at the falling and blowing white stuff safe and snug inside my house.  The true source of my panic however is the immediate change in lifestyle that will begin now and extend probably into the end of February - if I'm lucky.  I am watching my biking days go bye bye and I won't be running for a few days until this snow gets cleared.  Wait just a second, I need to go and breath into a paper bag.
It's not that I'm addicted but I'm addicted.  It feels good to be active.  Really really good.  It feels like I've got some control over my life and that's because it probably releases some endorphins or some kind of crap that makes me feel like everything is awesome.  Running and biking also gives me a precious few minutes all by my little lonesome.  Something that is a rare commodity for me.  When it is gone it feels like something has been stolen and I'm a little emptier for it.  The good news is that the temps are supposed to have risen above freezing in a few days so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this snow will pass if only for a little while... it is December after all.  I'm supposing that makes me some kind of grinch or something.  Who doesn't want snow at Christmas?
Speaking of Christmas... it's coming soon so I'm told.  One of my co-workers (who obviously doesn't read my blog!) asked me whether I had my turkey.  I told her that if I didn't see a turkey for an undetermined - but long - period of time that it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all.  Turkey for Christmas?  No way.  We are so sick of turkey thanks to the 18lbs of it that I can now proudly tell you, we have eaten our way through.  This recipe marked the last bag of turkey in the freezer.  Somehow we made our way through 6 bags of the stuff.  I've forgotten exactly how we whittled our way through and much of it I have chronicled here.  Truth is that even though I've marked this as 'leftover #6' this is really about number nine or ten.  Some of my leftover use-ups were really not good at all and I didn't have to heart to bother with them here.


Good news, these turkey buns didn't suck.  In fact, I'm told that they were good.  Really good.  D told me that they were amazing.  The kids didn't even care that they were turkey.  Didn't even ask.  Eight or nine or ten leftover recipes later and I have finally hit the jackpot.  Originally, I wanted to make a sweet and sour pulled pork kind of thing with the turkey but that would have required making something else to go with it.  You know a bun or noodles or whatever.  For one reason or another, I just couldn't bring myself to do it and started to concentrate intently on what a solution could be.
I made these things called beef margaritas a million years ago and posted the recipe here.  They were a huge hit and I haven't made them since.  I thought it would be worth giving them a whirl with bbq'd turkey and decided to take the leap.  Paid off.
Yay for big jumps, paper bags and no more turkey.



BBQ Turkey Buns
serves 4 - 6
makes about 10 buns

Use the dough recipe from this post

1/2 cup onion, diced
3 cloves garlic
1 stalk celery, diced
2/3 cup (about 1) red pepper, diced
1 cup mushrooms, stalks removed and diced
2 1/2 cups cooked turkey, diced
1 bouillion cube, crushed up (I used a veggie one)
3 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mixed herbs (parsley, marjoram, oregano, rosemary)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 heaping tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup bbq sauce
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp salt
pepper sauce (optional)


Heat a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat.
Add some oil or grease (about 1 1/2 tbsp)
Add the onion and celery.  Saute for about 3 minutes.  Add the garlic, red pepper and mushrooms.  Add another 1 1/2 tbsp of oil or grease and turn the heat down to med/low.
Cook together, stirring regularly, for about 5 minutes or until the pepper and mushrooms begin to soften and caramelize.
Add in the diced turkey and stir to mix.
Add the bouillon cube, worcestershire, soy sauce and mixed herbs.  Stir and cook together for a few minutes.
Add the apple cider vinegar and brown sugar and cook together for another 2 minutes.
Add the ketchup, bbq sauce, mustard, salt and pepper sauce.
Cook together for about 7 minutes at low heat but the mixture should still be simmering to allow it to thicken up a bit.  If it's too thick then add a couple of tbsp's of water.
Check the taste and adjust if necessary.  Set aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a silicon liner.
Prepare the dough and then roll it out in a rectangle shape to about a 1/2 inch thickness.
Spread the meat mixture over the rectangle of dough.
Roll up the dough from long edge to long edge.
Slice the log about 1 1/2 - 2 inches thick and place each roll sideways on the baking pan leaving some room in between each roll.
Bake for about 35 minutes or until the rolls have risen and spread out and the edges have browned nicely.
Remove and cool for about 10 minutes before breaking them apart and serving.

It seems odd that with all of the baking that I haven't been doing, the one night of the year that I stress myself out just a little by baking is Hallowe'en.  The very night that my kids get more candy and chocolate than they could possibly deserve and most definitely more than they can get through.  And there I am, baking chocolate banana bread.
I'm sure that you've heard of my bah-humbug sort of attitude towards most holidays and hallowe'en is no exception.  I'm not anti-hallowe'en by any means either.  It's an odd sort of balance that I manage to strike where I kind of care about some details and absolutely don't care about others.  I don't think that hallowe'en is something to be afraid of and avoided.  I only wish that maybe it was seen in a more traditionally mystical and creepy whole.  The coolest thing about Hallowe'en is that it's really about protecting yourself from evil spirits.  Warding them off by dressing as them.  Hallowe'en is followed directly by All Saints in which the saints and even saintly are remembered and sometimes venerated.  All Saints is followed on November 2nd by All Soul's Day where those gone before are remembered - in some countries candles are laid by their graves and an extra place is set at the table for them.  I suppose it birthed from ancestor worship but it's kind of creepy, weird and cool.  Hallowe'en would make a whole lot more sense if it were widely considered part of the trilogy of Oct 31/Nov 1/Nov 2.  But, it's not.  Probably because some retailer couldn't think of a way to make enough money off of candles to push a serious marketing campaign.  Now hallowe'en has been reduced to kids going from door to door holding out a bag to get candy dumped into and naughty nurse costumes.

Really.  This is as creepy as it gets.

We take Kid #2 out for his jaunt up and down our street.  Kid #1 is old enough now that she is doing her thing with her friends and has a curfew of 9pm (!)  We've always been the kind of couple who needs full support for each other in these situations so we don't go in for one of us sitting at home sipping mulled wine and handing out chocolate while the other wades through the trenches of the populated sidewalks.  Nope - we do it together.  The lights at our house go out and we leave, taking out Kid #2 and having each other to lean on.  Once kid #2 gets bored (which thankfully seems to occur after about 45 min) we head back home.  Kid #2 sorts and counts the candy, D takes his coffee crisp tax from each bag and we sit back and have a beer (or two) while we wait for Kid #1 to come home and start the sorting and tax taking process all over again.  Beer helps.


The next day (All Saints), Kid #2 was heading off with his class to The Royal Winter Fair and Kid #1 was just going to school.  My kids were probably the only ones that day who showed up with homemade banana bread for lunch instead of 4 crispy crunch's, 2 cheesy goldfish pkg's and 1 jolly rancher but they didn't complain.  I went out and bought some candles.


Chocolate, Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread adapted only a little from Joy of Baking

Sometimes I feel guilty that I'm not making burger paties with lentils or quinoa.  I feel that if I really were a healthy person or a caring person or a concerned person that I would be making quinoa burgers.  Maybe with black beans.... and kale.  That sounds right, doesn't it.  Quinoa burgers with black beans and kale.  Definitely has a ring to it.  Secretly, I feel weird about calling it a burger though.
The guilt never wins over the desire for pork.  Local and well-reared pork but still, it's pork.  I tell myself that the only way everyone will eat something with so much vegetable matter in it is with the power of pork.  This did not work last week when I made asian kale with mushrooms and bacon... it's still sitting in the fridge.  Truthfully, sometimes they just don't eat stuff.  Sometimes nothing is more appealing than pizza or chocolate.
I was afraid to admit it until I read this blog post.  She was so honest about how she felt when time after time, the family did not eat the cake.  They turned to everything but the cake.  Here's my story.  A couple of weeks ago, one of my voice students came in carrying a big bag of Chips Ahoy 100 calorie packages of death.  There were about 50 little packages of terrible in the big bag.  I hustled her downstairs to the studio before the kids could see it.  She told me she went to the outlet store and thought it would be nice to bring them for the kids.  It was very thoughtful of her.  I wish that it could have been peanuts or a dozen eggs or maybe even kale.  Chips Ahoy.
Of course, the kids saw the bag and were down stairs claiming their prize before the end of the lesson.  The said huge 'thank you's' and I think that Kid #2 thought that she might be Santa.  No word of a lie, this applesauce bread was cooling on the cooling rack.  It had just come out of the oven.  It looked beautiful.  It smelled beautiful.  I even glazed it because we all know that icing translates into 'gobbled up'.  Maple glaze - you can't beat that.  Except apparently you can beat that.  Apparently, 100 calorie Chips Ahoy mini's beats maple glaze and homemade applesauce bread.  I don't think that chocolate chips or hand dipping each slice into chocolate ganache would beat Chips Ahoy.  So I thought that the applesauce bread/cake was being eaten.  Being carried to school for snacks.  Thickly sliced for a lovely after school treat.  Eaten as a before bed snack.  I realized on Friday morning that the bread was still nearly whole on the counter top.  One slice taken, re-wrapped and left.  I checked the bag of 100 calorie Chips Ahoy mini's... there were 5 packages left.

Maybe there wasn't enough glaze?

The moral of this story:
Icing is no guarantee of consumption.
Take your baking to work where people are busy, depressed and desperate.  They will eat anything and be happier for it... unless they have 100 calorie Chips Ahoy mini's.


Red Fife Applesauce Bread with Maple Glaze adapted from EatLiveRun
makes 1 lg loaf cake

1 1/4 cup whole wheat or red fife flour
1 cup unbleached, all purpose
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup applesauce

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Butter and flour a med/large loaf pan.  Set aside.
Combine the whole wheat and all purpose flour together.  Mix.
Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom to the flour.  Mix well and set aside.
In a large bowl cream together the butter, brown sugar and sugar until mixed and fluffy (you can whisk or use a mixer)  Add the egg and vanilla and continue to whisk or mix until fluffy and well combined.  Add in the applesauce and fold until combined.
Add the flour mixture and mix until everything is well combined and flour is entirely incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan to cool on a wrack.

I was going to make a nice salad of chickpeas, feta and parsley with god knows what else.  That would have been nice.  I didn't make it.  I haven't made it.  Yet.  Maybe I will - I don't know - maybe the window has closed and the moment is gone.
I did make an orzo thing with fiddleheads and asparagus.  There was so much of it that I shared... and it didn't suck.  So that's nice too.  I didn't tell my sharee that I threw some dandelion leaves in there.  Plus it's always super nice to share a dish with asparagus in it because whoever eats it will get smelly pee and think of you every time they... well, every time they pee.  It's always nice to be remembered.  I feel like body smells - you know, the real ones and not the fake ones that involve perfume - remind you that you are alive.  Smelly pee falls into that category for me.

The Smelly Pee Givers in all of their Glory.

Let's take a moment to talk about what I did make.  Banana Bread.  Yup - I baked (not to be confused with 'I am baked' which means something completely different).  First time in two months and let me tell you, I was a bit scared.  It was like I hadn't ridden a bike for a while and I was a little shaky at first.  Best thing to do is just start at that point which is exactly what I did.  Then I had some anxiety about whether or not it was going to turn out.  Subsequently, had to have a discussion with myself about why it didn't even matter if it turned out or not - not like I'm selling it or anything. Next thing I knew it was in the oven and my waiting began.  I still have absolutely no interest in eating this bread but I'm pretty that my kids and co-workers will... so long as it doesn't suck.  I'm pretty sure that I've never experienced smelly pee after eating banana bread.

Over ripe bananas looked jacked.

It looks like Banana Bread...

I'm not sure if you've noticed my frenetic brain activity... if you've ever tried to write, read, listen to music or do anything requiring any focus at all with a 6 3/4 yr old beside you then you will understand completely.  I'm doing my damnedest to zone him out completely resulting in what is probably something utterly incoherent... it's not working though - he just told me that he punched his own junk and it hurt.  So nope, it's not working.  Also in my 'real life', it turns out that the bump on my shin which hurts a lot when I run is probably this thing called a stress fracture.  This will mean that my running needs to scale back and I need to ice the crap out of my shin multiple times a day because I totally have time for that.  Since I've just started to feel like my foot is fully back in shape I've just started to up my kilometre count.  I want to aim for another half marathon in the fall.  I'm going to drink some beer to prevent myself from getting too depressed and then I'll start booking biking dates with anyone I can.  If you're up for it just let me know.


Banana Bread with Buckwheat flour (but just a little bit) adapted from 'Mélanger: To Mix'
makes 1 medium sized loaf
serves 6 - 8

1 1/2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup (about 3) overripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350°F
Butter and flour a loaf pan (you know - butter it first and then put a tbsp or so of flour in their, toss it around to coat the butter and then dump out the leftover flour) and set aside.
Combine the all purpose flour, buckwheat flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg together.  Mix well and set aside.
Combine the mashed banana, sugar, egg, melted butter and sour cream/yogurt together.  Mix well - until the ingredients are incorporated and the sugar has dissolved.
Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture.  Mix just until all of the flour has been combined and the mixture is wet.
Pour into the prepared baking pan.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Cool completely before slicing (so at least 4 minutes, give or take)

I love you all.  I really do.
I am in Italy.  I am getting so little sleep that it really doesn't make sense to refer to it as sleep.  Let's just say that I doze momentarily once every 18 hrs or so.
Florence is wonderful.  It would be even more wonderful if I weren't with 180 boys but it's still pretty wonderful... and the boys are wonderful too.  The wifi however is not wonderful and I've been catching my ass to try and get pictures happening (the dozing once in a while thing might have something to do with that problem too).  So I was hoping to have post full of gorgeous pictures of Florence and Pisa and Siena but sadly, I do not.


I do have pictures of this lemon loaf that I made before I left because it was really important for me to do this for some reason that I can't remember right now.  If I remember I will let you know.  I did take a few pieces with me for my trip which helped with the overnight flight quite a bit.  BTW, no one over 26 should ever consider an overnight flight - they just shouldn't do it.  The cherries were thrown in because this is the time of year when I get antsy about my freezer and start clearing out that sucker.  Hence, roasted cherries.


So with some dozing in my very near future I'll leave you with the pictures of lemon loaf and you can imagine what my Italy pictures will be as soon as I get them out there.


Lemon and Roasted Cherry Loaf adapted from Portuguese Girl Cooks
makes 1 loaf of bread

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (Plus 1 tbsp for the cherries)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
zest from two small lemons (about 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp)
juice from 1 lemon (about 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp)
1/2 cup milk
1 cup roasted cherries (cherries halved, placed on a baking sheet, drizzled with 1 - 2 tbsp vanilla or rum, roasted at 325°F for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool)

Preheat oven to 350°F
Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan and set aside.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt together.  Set aside.
In a large bowl beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs and continue to beat until fluffy and frothy (almost).  Add in the lemon juice and mix well.
Alternately add some of the flour mixture and the milk mixture.  Stirring to mix well with each addition.   Begin and end with the flour.
Coat the cooled cherries with 1 tbsp of flour.  Once coated fold in just once or twice into the batter.
Gently pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 45 - 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Glaze:
1 1/2  - 2 cups Icing sugar
lemon juice

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add just enough fresh lemon juice to get the mixture to a pouring consistency - add the lemon juice slowly because once you have too much you can't go back.
Pour over completely cooled loaf.

I realize that making mistakes is not just a part of life but an integral part of learning.  I know at every level of my being that I am not perfect and make mistakes frequently.  We tell our kids (especially Kid #1 because she's at that age) that not only are the mistakes going to happen but that they should motivate you to continue learning so that you don't make the mistake again.  And despite all of this, I absolutely HATE making mistakes.  It doesn't matter when, where, how, why or what happens.  Nothing altars how much I hate it when I make a mistake.
I've made a lot of mistakes lately.  Things like not biking to work when I should have because I thought that the weather might be bad but it wasn't.  Not letting the kids finish a sentence before interrupting them with some sort of answer.  Giving one of the choirboys the wrong music to work on because I didn't read the service music properly.  You get the idea.  Making mistakes when it comes to food has the effect of seriously altering what we'll be eating for the week.  If something doesn't work then either I have to make something else or we just go without.  The last time I tried pumpkin bread it failed miserably.  MISERABLY.  The gooey, puddingy mess was almost unsliceable.  Yuck.  I put the rest of the pumpkin puree in the freezer and took a break.  We needed some distance.  The damn stuff stayed in my psyche though.  Every time I read yet another food blog with some kind of devastatingly gorgeous incarnation of pumpkin bread I would cringe.  Every time I walked into a Starbucks and saw their pumpkin bread I would curse to myself.  The wound was still smarting.
Today was the day.  The day where I be the example to my kids.  The day where I put my money where my mouth is.  The day where I pulled out that pumpkin puree and tried again.  I was careful this time.  So careful.  I didn't watch a Bollywood film or any other film/tv or screen involved device - well, except for the recipe itself.  The kids both read quietly in the other room.  D was out at a rehearsal.  There were no excuses.  This was going to be it.  If this didn't work for me then I was done.  If I used pumpkin puree again it would either be in a sheet cake form or muffin, something smaller, thinner and therefor easier to get a better texture.


When the loaf was done baking (and I left it in for longer than I should have probably), I waited impatiently for the loaf to cool.  A lot of nail biting was happening.  I worked hard to distract myself for the appropriate period of time.  I kept checking it, feeling the pan, sticking the tester in.  Hell, if I thought that putting it in the fridge would've worked, trust me, I would've gone for it.  Thankfully an hour or so was all I had to suffer through.  I can't imagine it being any longer.  I was finally time to place the bread out onto the cutting board and put knife to loaf.  It was agonizing.  I can't remember being so anxious about the outcome of a baked good.  The first slice would seal it, if there was any sign of goo then I would throw my hands up and then wash them of all pumpkin loaves ever again.
Then it happened.  All of a sudden the first slice was done.  Then the second and the third.  There was no goo.  No goop, no squish.  I didn't need to wring it out.  Textural success!  But how did it taste?  I broke off a little piece and it was... GOOD.  I loved it in fact.  I ate the rest of the slice just to make sure that first bite wasn't an aberration.  Nope, it was all good.


And that, my friends, means that I have now achieved pumpkin bread redemption.  I can now hold my head high in a room of food bloggers or home cooks.  I can stare into that case at Starbucks and give that bread the brush off.  Doesn't intimidate me anymore.  My kids are getting their real life lesson about dealing with mistakes while they eat the results of my tenacity.


Whole Wheat Pumpkin and Applesauce Bread adapted from weeklygreens
makes 1 loaf

3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used Red Fife in mine)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 lg eggs OR 1 egg and 2 whipped egg whites (thank you homemade ice-cream)
1 cup canned or pureed pumpkin or winter squash (if it's homemade you might want to drain it a bit through a sieve so that it's as dry as possible)
1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened or barely sweetened)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) melted butter or coconut oil

Streusel topping:

3 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 - 1/2 tbsp quick oats or oat bran
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp sugar
dash of salt
2 tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cubed

Combine all the ingredients.  Using your thumbs pinch together until the mixture forms a crumb.  Should be lumpy and holding together.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour a regular sized loaf pan and set aside.
Combine the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg.  Mix well.  Set aside.
Optional: Whip the egg whites (if you haven't already) until light, fluffy and nearly stiff (will have at least doubled in size)
Combine the egg(s) - not the egg whites if using - pumpkin puree, apple sauce, brown sugar and melted butter.  Mix well until all the ingredients are combined.  Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture.  Mix well.  Add in the egg whites and whisk in slowly until combined.  Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes.  After 25 minutes of baking add the streusel topping and continue baking for the remaining 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely before slicing.

I realize, with a little embarrassment, that this is my fourth or fifth recipe in a row laden with sugar.  I realize that I've announced quite freely that I'm doing my best to cut down on sugar.  I'm not sure exactly how to apologize.  I thought that a lemon loaf might do the trick.  In my defence, I  have added a nice bit of whole wheat flour to this recipe.  It produced a slightly more dense cake but was well worth it.  I found that my cake didn't rise quite as high as it might have without the whole wheat flour but the combination of the baking powder/soda and the lemon juice can produce unpredictable results.  Either way, lemon loaf it is.
I went a little crazy with the lemons before christmas.  I ordered about 10 in my food box.  Once I got them I then realized that my lemon curd recipe only used about 3 lemons... oops.  So I've been adding lemon to everything... worse things could happen.  I've made salad dressing with lemons.  I've added lemons to my pesto pasta dish. (You see, we have been eating more than cookies)  I just couldn't think of a better or more satisfying thing to finish off the lemons with.  They are lemons after all and that sweet and sour combination is just amazing.


Our sweet Kid#1 is celebrating a birthday tomorrow so there may just be more sweets to come.  I do promise that I will get better with this whole sugar thing.  I love what Peabody said about it here.  I too think that this whole January-get-fit-thing is blown wildly out of proportion and fuelled by retailers who want to sell off over-priced exercise equipment, magazine and cookbooks touting low-fat, clean diets - Suzie the Foodie has some cool things to say about 'clean' eating.  I'm not worried about things myself. Christmas doesn't find me going completely overboard.  I don't radically change my eating habits over the holidays.  Admittedly, I've been finding it difficult to get out for a run with the snow we've been getting lately and biking is out of the question at the moment.  I still do stuff at home - I don't own a treadmill - but I do my thing.  It's possible to lead a normal life over the holidays so that in January I'm not allowing my guilt to pull my into the marketing mayhem.  I will eat something sweet if it's what I like and what I want.  I won't waste my time on something I don't want.  I do eat something sweet everyday... usually dark salted chocolate.


Aside from usual Christmas stuff and the imminent birthday prep, we've been laying low and enjoying some much needed quiet time.  Here are a few snaps from our life:





Lemon Loaf with Red Fife Flour adapted from 'Jenn's Random Scraps'
makes 1 loaf

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup red Fife or whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
3 eggs room temperature
4 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp lemon zest
1/3 cup oil

Topping:
Lemon Sugar (optional)
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 - 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350° F.
Grease and flour a loaf pan (9x5) and set aside.
Combine both flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and set aside.
Beat together the sugar, eggs, butter, lemon juice and lemon zest until all the ingredients are incorporated and nothing stands out.
Add the dry ingredients and mix just until the flour is incorporated.  Add the oil and continue to mix just until the mixture is no longer lumpy.
Sprinkle with Lemon sugar (optional).
Bake for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool the loaf in the pan for about 15 minutes then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Topping:
Combine the sifted icing sugar and lemon juice until the mixture is a pouring consistency.  Pour over the completely cooled loaf.

Even though it feels like spring here in Toronto it really is just a few days away from Christmas and only a couple of days from the winter solstice aka the end of the world as we know it.  Cool.  I'm biking to and from work consistently and I'm contemplating planting the garlic cloves that I forgot about earlier in the fall.  It's that warm.
Still, it's the holiday season.  I know that because I feel like I haven't come up for air in a very long time.  I've lost what feels like days and days inside of concert halls.  Concert halls are weird places.  You lose track of everything in concert halls.  There are usually very few if any windows.  Most have none.  It's like time stands still in those places.  It's like a time vacuum.  It's weird.  I know it's the holidays because The Mall near my work is oozing with people carrying bag after bag.  I know it's nearing Christmas because there are little presents sitting on my desk each day at work from one of the boys that I teach.  I know it's the holidays because I'm going to pick up my christmas ham in a couple of days.
Up to a couple of days ago I hadn't baked anything Christmas like at all.  Nothing.  No white chocolate (a near abomination at any time of year anyway).  No cranberries.  No red or green sprinkles. (which are surprisingly hard to find BTW) However, I had a couple of spare hours in between sleeping and concerts so I decided to get creative.


This recipe didn't quite turn out the way I had imagined.  It's a little more brown than I might have liked but that's due to the whole wheat flour.  It's a little less sweet than I might have liked but that's due to the fact that I halved the sugar content - you could change that if you feel so inclined.  It's got no lemon juice in it due to the fact that I had no lemons only some zest that I had frozen a little while ago.  It has no topping, no glaze, no streusel.  I did mention earlier that I only had a couple of spare hours and the topping was the first thing to go.  So given the fact that the whole thing turned out so differently than expected I'm happy with it.  It's a brown, not too sweet way to add some cranberry to your christmas diet.  If you don't have cranberry and would prefer to use jam instead then go for it.  If jam is not your thing than throw in some frozen blueberries or even dried cranberries.  That would be fine.  Toasted nuts of some kind or even candied nuts.  Yup.  That would be fine too.  I would stay away from the white chocolate on this one.  That would not be fine at all.


Cranberry Swirl Bread generously adapted from 'In Praise of Leftovers'
makes 1 large loaf

Swirl:
2 cups cranberries, quartered
1/4 cup + 2 heaping tbsp sugar
3 tbsp water
dash of salt
1/2 inch piece of cinnamon
1 star anise
1 clove
1 tsp lemon zest

Combine all ingredients and simmer down for about 15 minutes or until the mixture is quite thick but still spreadable/pourable.  Set aside to cool slightly.

Loaf:

1 cup whole wheat flour or red fife
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs (use 3 eggs if you are skipping the egg white option)
2 tbsp lemon zest
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
3 egg whites (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour a large loaf pan (don't use a smallish/med one like I did and then have a bunch spill over into your oven) and set aside.
Combine the whole wheat and all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Mix together and set aside.
Combine the melted butter, eggs, lemon zest, honey, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla.  Whisk together until thoroughly combined and set aside.
Whip the egg whites (I used a hand mixer) until fairly stiff and can hold a peak.  Set aside.
Add the butter and egg mixture to the flour mixture and whisk together until they're fully incorporated.  Add in the egg whites and continue to whisk gently until they're fully incorporated into the batter.
Pour a third of the batter into the prepared tin.
Add about 6 tbsp of the cranberry jam on top.  Gently spread it evenly.  Pour another third of the batter on top and then another 6 tbsp of the jam spread evenly over that.  Finally pour the last bit of batter over the jam.  Take a chop stick or knife and stick it into the batter top to bottom and run it end to end once.
Bake for about 50 - 60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then finish cooling on a rack.

It has come to my attention that there are a few of you out there who actually suspend your lives for a few minutes to look at my blog.  This is awesome and I love and appreciate you.
I have learned recently that there are others from this same group who not only stop on this blog for a few minutes to scroll through the pictures and see if sugar and chocolate are involved in the recipe but who take the time to read what I spew out in these paragraphs.  Just knowing this scares me.  You are the people who send shivers down my spine.
You see, I don't think about who is going to read any of this while I'm typing.  I'm not typing to a demographic.  I'm not typing in response to an expectation.  The way it usually works is that I think something and then start writing not.  I'm not even joking.  This post is a great example of my lack of planning.  I didn't even know what I was going to write literally as I started typing.  The first sentance just sounded good to me and I went with it.
I'm sure that this knowledge explains a lot about my writing to you.  It might explain the typo's (maybe - that's just not re-reading though).  It might explain the rambling.  It might help you understand why my paragraphs are so bloody short.  It doesn't, however,  explain why I keep doing it and this is the embarrassing part for me. I don't even know why I keep doing it.  Why does anyone keep doing something that they don't really want to do and think is lame?  Why do I keep telling myself that I can book that night out with a friend and then have to cancel every single time?  Why do I tell myself that I'll totally get to folding the laundry that's hanging on my hall railing this week and it still hangs there until Thursday or Friday... every single week.  Why do I keep ordering apples, telling myself that this week I will take them for lunch,  when I know that none of us really really like eating them and that they will probably go soft before we remember that they are there.
And that my friends is the real point of this post.
Apples.


I know it took a while and I bet your head is still spinning a little.  Don't try to figure it out just accept it.   Don't sit back and wonder why I wrote 4 paragraphs just to get to apples.  It's fruitless.  I couldn't give you a decent reason but either way apples were the point all along.  I buy them and them we both look at each other and think 'later'.  And then they're soft.  So last week I made apple crisp with honey and I felt so awesome for being all 'whole wheat and honey'.  This week I've added egg whites because when you make your own ice cream (and yeah, apple crisp  absolutely does NEED vanilla ice cream) you have a lot of egg whites slowly getting freezer burn.  So it's begun.  The mission to empty my freezer of egg whites and to use up this week's apples.
Just for the record, apples are coming with my food box again tomorrow.


Apple Spice Bread with Egg Whites adapted from 'Great Good Food' by Julee Rosso
makes 1 lg sized loaf

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat or red fife flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg, cardamom
zest of 1 small lemon
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 tbsp plain yogurt or sour cream
juice half a small lemon (probably about 1 tbsp)
1 egg
2 - 3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups apples coarsely chopped but not necessarily peeled

Preheat oven to 350°
Grease and flour a loaf pan (I used a smaller one but should have used a large one) and set aside.
Combine both flours, the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom and lemon zest together.  Mix and set aside.
Combine the buttermilk, yogurt and lemon juice together and set aside.
In a large bowl whisk or beat the brown sugar together with the melted butter until there are no lumps and the butter is completely incorporated into the sugar.  Add in the egg and the egg whites.  Beat at a slightly higher speed until the mixture has increased in volume just a little.  It should feel like one big combined light paste.  Add in a bit of the flour and continue beating or whisking until it's all mixed in.  Add a little of the buttermilk mixture and beat until it's all mixed in.  Continue to alternate the two until everything is used up.  Try to end with the flour mixture.
Gently fold in the apple pieces and stir until they are well mixed into the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool completely before cutting - although I couldn't quite accomplish this... Kid #1 and I shared a piece quite a bit sooner than 20 minutes... totally worth it.

Oh crap.
It's already started.  The countdown of weekends until Christmas break.  It's the official beginning of crazy.  The end of that illusive and undervalued commodity known as 'free-time'.  The radio stations are introducing their early 'Christmas Loops' and in the U.S. they're getting ready to by thankful and then go shopping for more.
Yup - Christmas season approacheth.
I've already stopped looking at my calendar.  It makes me feel worse when I do.  The knot starts in my stomach and works it way into my throat.  I thought that having kids out of diapers would make life easier but now we have to fit Kid #1's schedule into life as well.  So this weekend marks the beginning of wall to wall concerts until Christmas when we can all take a rest and eat some Ham.  Rather than planning it all out ahead of time I've chosen to take it a week at a time - or sometimes just a day or two at a time.  Somehow it helps me feel better seeing the small steps rather than the big picture.
Fortunately, planning hasn't completely gone out the window just yet.  I roasted a chicken with carrots and parsnips.  I finally put the canner in the basement which totally counts as planning in my book.  I've thought long and hard about how it's going to feel on that first day of the Christmas break.  I've even managed to work through the food box veggies this week.  A broccoli and leek soup helped me tear through a lot of it.  However, being the it's-never-quite-enough person that I am and clearly having more spare time than was good for me, I needed biscuits.  So I made biscuits.


Damn - that's only half the truth.  I needed bread for school lunches.  I tried a bread recipe that crashed - it was a train wreck.  It dropped like a hockey puck.  It sucked - big, huge, stupid rocks.  (I know that big and huge are almost the same thing BTW) After my colossal fail, yeast and I needed a little time apart.  I went in search of a quick bread biscuit.  This recipe was perfect because it helped me work through the bag of parsnip that I got in the food box too - win/win.


These biscuits will not help me feel any more ready for the onslaught of the next 4 weekends.  These biscuits will not drive my kids to wherever they need to go.  These biscuits will not visit my Mother-in-Laws new condo for me but they will help me feel like I haven't just thrown a bowl of soup on the table ... nope, that bowl of soup has a delicious and nutritious homemade biscuit beside it.
Cue: Raucous Cheering


Parsnip and Cheddar Biscuits adapted from 'Vegetarian' by Alice Hart