Kahlua Spiked Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I always seem to have a couple of overly brown bananas in the house. Probably since we refuse to eat a banana with a couple of brown spots on it; oh we are so spoiled. I hate to throw out perfectly good food so I end up making a lot of banana bread thus trying a lot of different recipes. Joy the Baker has a really good one for bourbon-spiked  (I don't drink bourbon anymore due to a nauseating 21st birthday incident so I don't keep it in the house) but I did have Kahlua and I figured it would work just as well, and it did. Yay!

Kahlua Spiked Banana Chocolate Chip Mini-Muffins
adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups (about 3) mashed ripe bananas
• 3 tablespoons Kahlua
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and place a rack in the center of the oven. Place mini-muffin cups in a 24 min-muffin pan. You will have batter left over. I used a small baking loaf pan to use up the rest.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating for 1 minute between additions. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the bananas and Kahlua and beat with the paddle until well incorporated. The mixture may look curdled, but that’s okay.

4. Turn the mixer to low, add the flour mixture all at once, and beat until almost completely incorporated. Stop the mixer add the chocolate chips, and stir by hand with a spatula or wooden spoon just until incorporated. Spoon the mixture into the mini-muffin cups.

5. Bake until a toothpick inserted in one of the muffins comes out clean, approx 15 minutes. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 20 minutes before putting them onto a wire rack and letting it cool completely, if you can manage to keep your hands off them for that amount of time. Enjoy!

Do you like you bananas with brown spots or without?

Blackberry Chip Ice Cream

Saturday night, of our 3-day Memorial Day weekend, I broke out my new ice cream maker and declared I was making Blackberry Chip Ice Cream for dessert. I figured we'd eat a little in soft-serve form and then freeze the rest for later. I carefully followed all the steps in the recipe, which by the way- homemade ice cream is definitely a process, poured it all into the ice cream maker and hit the on switch. A few minutes in to the churning I had a "duh!" moment. The ice cream wasn't getting cold, wasn't thickening, basically wasn't doing what ice cream should do. I hadn't read the directions for the machine yet (oops) so I took them out and noticed the first step of FREEZING THE FREEZER TUB. "Duh!" 16 hours of freezing later and we finally had ice cream. Blackberry Chip Ice Cream to be exact.

Blackberry Chip Ice Cream
by Ree Drummond

• 2 pints fresh blackberries
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate

Combine the blackberries, 1/4 cup of the sugar and the lemon juice in a saucepan. Cook over low heat until the blackberries are broken down and syrupy, about 20 minutes.

Pour the mixture into a bowl through a fine mesh strainer. Using a whisk or spoon, force out as much of the deep purple liquid as you can, and then set it aside to cool. Discard the blackberry pulp and seeds.

Heat the half-and-half and remaining 1 cup sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.

Using a whisk, beat the egg yolks until pale and thick. Temper the eggs by splashing a small amount of the warm cream into the yolks, whisking constantly. Pour the tempered yolks into the saucepan, stirring gently. Cook over medium-low heat until thick, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes.

Pour the heavy cream into the bowl with the berries, and then pour in the custard and stir to combine. If you have time, refrigerate this mixture until cool.

Freeze the mixture according to your ice cream maker's instructions.

When it is frozen, chop the chocolate into chunks and stir into the ice cream.

Transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container and allow it to harden for several hours or overnight.

When was your last "duh!" moment?

Knock You Naked Brownies

Knock You Naked Brownies- just the name alone made me want to bake them. It's like the Is It Really Better Than Sex Cake- a conversation starter and a delicious dessert. Especially after your friends have had a couple cocktails and they're extra chatty.
Fudgy German chocolate cake with a caramel, pecan, chocolate chip filling. Be prepared, especially if you're serving to kids, these are a gooey sticky mess...and if you find trails of caramel on your kitchen counters in the morning, you know they were good enough for family members to sneak a midnight snack.

 I left out the pecans since the BBQ they were for had people with nut allergies.

Knock You Naked Brownie- by Ree Drummond

Ingredients

• 1 box (18.5 Ounce) German Chocolate Cake Mix (I Used Duncan Hines)
• 1 cup Finely Chopped Pecans
• 1/3 cup Evaporated Milk
• 1/2 cup Evaporated Milk (additional)
• 1/2 cup Butter, Melted
• 60 whole Caramels, Unwrapped
• 1/3 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, chopped pecans, 1/3 cup evaporated milk, and melted butter. Stir together until totally combined. Mixture will be very thick.
Press half the mixture into a well-greased 9 x 9 inch square baking pan. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and set aside.
In a double boiler (or a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of boiling water) melt caramels with additional 1/2 cup evaporated milk. When melted and combined, pour over brownie base. Sprinkle chocolate chips as evenly as you can over the caramel.
Turn out remaining brownie dough on work surface. Use your hands to press it into a large square a little smaller than the pan. Use a spatula to remove it from the surface, then set it on top of the caramel and chocolate chips.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for several hours. When ready to serve, generously sift powdered sugar over the surface of the brownies. Cut into either nine or twelve helpings, and carefully remove from the pan.
*Adapted from the classic "Knock You Naked Brownies" recipe, based on a dessert at the Salt Creek Steakhouse in Breckenridge. These brownies don't really knock you naked...but almost.

I now have some evaporated milk left that I don't know what to do with. Any ideas?

Sloppy Joes and a Peachy Dessert

I've always considered sloppy joes to be kid food and since I don't have kids, I've never made it. Until now. My hubby gave me Pioneer Woman's latest cookbook for our anniversary and the sloppy joes recipe looked too good not to make right away. It was as good as I hoped it would be. My only regret is I halved the recipe since it's just the two of us and there was only a spoonful of leftovers.

I love love love dill pickles as you can see. Plus who doesn't love a good tater tot?


Sloppy Joes
by Ree Drummond

Ingredients

■2 Tablespoons Butter

■2-1/2 pounds Ground Beef

■1/2 whole Large Onion, Diced

■1 whole Large Green Bell Pepper, Diced

■5 cloves Garlic, Minced

■1-1/2 cup Ketchup

■1 cup Water

■2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

■2 teaspoons Chili Powder (more To Taste)

■1 teaspoon Dry Mustard

■1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes (more To Taste)

■Worcestershire Sauce, To Taste

■2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste (optional)

■Tabasco Sauce (optional; To Taste)

■Salt To Taste

■Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste

■Kaiser Rolls

■Butter

Preparation Instructions

Add butter to a large skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add ground beef and cook until brown. Drain most of the fat and discard.
Add onions, green pepper, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes, or until vegetables begin to get soft.
Add ketchup, brown sugar, chili pepper, dry mustard, and water. Stir to combine and simmer for 15 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste. Also add tomato paste, Worcestershire, and Tabasco if desired. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

And on to dessert, but first a note about the movie we watched while eating all this deliciousness.... Has anyone else seen Drive with Ryan Gosling? What did you think? It definitely wasn't what I was expecting. Way too brutal for me and he didn't take his shirt off once. *sigh*

This is one of the quickest dessert when you're craving something sweet but don't want to take the time to bake. All the ingredients are from Trader Joes- vanilla ice cream, a jar of peaches that I diced and graham crackers. I swear, they make the BEST graham crackers. You must try them.

It's Friday and the start of a 3-day weekend. Do you have any fun plans?

S'more Brownie Bites

It's camping season, yay! We have a camping trip planned next month but I couldn't wait until then to have s'mores. They're one of my favorite camping treats. I like to roast my marshmallow until its completely charred on the outside and melty gooey on the inside. So as a compromise to building a fire in my backyard, possibly burning my house down or trying to use my hubby's bbq and irritating him with stickiness on his grill, I made s'more brownie bites. Yum!

S'more Brownie Bite
by Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients


1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup quinoa flour (I used whole wheat flour instead)

3/4 cup mini marshmallows

1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs or 4 large graham crackers, finely crushed

Special equipment: a 24-count mini-muffin pan, 24 mini-muffin cup liners, such as Betty Crocker mini-size baking cups

Directions

Cook's Note: Quinoa flour is available at health food stores.

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 24-count mini-muffin pan with paper liners.

Heat the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove the pan from the heat and add 3/4 cup of the mini chocolate chips. Stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl. Stir in the sugar, eggs and vanilla. Gradually beat in the flour until the mixture is thick and smooth. Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips.

Using a small cookie scoop, fill each paper liner with about 2 heaping tablespoons of batter. Push 3 mini marshmallows halfway down into the center of the batter. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of the graham cracker crumbs over the marshmallows. Bake until the marshmallows are puffed and light golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool for 20 minutes and serve.

Do you like camping? Any suggestions on recipes I can make at the campsite or ahead to take with us? We'll be near the beach with our own grill. Can't wait.

Panzanella

Are you like me? A bread lover? As many benefits as I've heard for going gluten-free, I'm sorry, I just can't. Bread would be one of my desert island foods. Which leads me to my favorite salad....Panzanella. It's a bread salad, super simple, packed with yummy goodness and even makes good leftovers for lunch if you like dressing soaked bread, which I do.

Up-close and personal with my salad.

Toasted bread (I cube a sourdough baquette from Trader Joes), fresh diced tomatoes, sliced black and green olives, roasted red peppers, diced scallions, chopped cucumbers and provolone cheese. I dress the salad with a olive oil, red wine vinegar and a little salt and pepper. Or you could buy your favorite Italian dressing.

Toast the bread crumbs under the broiler and then allow to cool while you assemble the rest of the salad.

Yum- lunch the next day.

Have you had Panzanella? What do you like in yours?

It's Grilling Time!

Southern California never gets quite cold enough to actually pack away the grill but it's not as much fun using it when it's overcast and dreary. The sun has started to peek through and I'm taking full advantage of those warm moments. Especially since using the grill means less pots and pans to wash.

Do you see that little piece of steak in the middle? I spent 10 minutes searching for the perfect package of meat only to open it and find that little piece was not attached but by itself. What the heck? We'll call it the tasting bite.

We had rice and tortillas leftover from another night and since I try really hard not to throw anything out, I served it on the side. Do you eat leftovers or almost expired food in your house? Obviously if I find something in the fridge that looks ready to grow legs and walk out on its own I throw it out, but I've been know to eat yogurt or drink milk that's a day or two past expiration. Oh the horror.

My steak was a little on the rare side for me but my hubby likes his still mooing so it was a good compromise. How do you like your steak?