Banana Muffins

Streusel mishap, nonetheless tasty, the collision of a bunch of dark, spotty bananas on this island and a Pinterest page on the computer.  

Fueled by a big cup of Starbucks breakfast blend brewed at home, I was banging and clanging so in the kitchen, my bleary-eyed husband exited the bedroom and asked what kind of a car I was making.  I asked him what kind he wanted me to make.  He said, "The kind you'll ride in with me."  By then I was in his arms, my head on his shoulder thinking we already have one of those, an old Explorer, so banana muffins will do.

Before I go any further, giving credit where credit is due and acknowledging hers are much prettier, here is the recipe:    

http://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/2011/02/coffee-shop-banana-streusel-muffins.html

I spared my dear readers the before pictures, step-by-step of the extraordinary mess in conjuring and share the completed sweetness along with an antique store crocheted doily and gifts of McCoy pottery from a cousin.  

My husband and I were discussing the countertops last night, nearly 29 years old and candidates for replacement.  My champagne wants range from granite to Corian, my working-man-side-of-town budget decrees laminate.  I could go granite, but that means not flying to Colorado to see my children, so the decision is, as the young people say, a no-brainer.  

I am thinking of a couple in town who make cabinets.  Around a quarter of a century ago, I was visiting them and saw their cabinets had an unexpected *patina* of scratches and gouges.  She shrugged, said she didn't care, they held what they needed to hold.  A bit later, she escorted me and my hungry infant to the master bedroom for some mealtime privacy and there for God-and-all-the-world-to-see was unattended to laundry.  

I liked that woman more that evening than when I arrived earlier.

My hope is you'll appreciate my less-than-Pinterest-perfect muffins for what they are.  They were tasty, otherwise I wouldn't have inflicted shared the recipe with you.  Just follow her instructions more carefully than I did and crumble the streusel with your fingers.  I used a fork and it clumped about as much as it would have if I used a spoon.

Hearty Potato & Sausage Chowder

Hearty Potato & Sausage Chowder

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 ½ cups (1 large) thinly sliced onion
3 Tblsp all purpose flour
3 cups (3 medium) cubed 3/4-inch potatoes
4 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Cheddar 
8 ounces (2 medium) cooked Polish sausages, cut into 1/4 inch slices

In 3-quart saucepan melt butter.  Stir in onion; cook over medium heat until tender (4 - 5 minutes).  Stir in flour until smooth and bubbly (1 minute).  Stir in potatoes, milk, salt and pepper.  Cover; continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are fork tender (25 - 30 minutes).  Stir in cheese and sausage.  Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until cheese is melted and sausage is heated through, (2 - 3 minutes).

That’s the recipe from Land O Lakes Treasury of Country Heritage Meals and Menus.

Now here’s how I cook it.  I mix together the flour, salt and pepper and put it in where the flour is called for, similar to making gravy.  This business about stirring occasionally does not work!  Stir frequently, I use a wooden spatula to get all the way to the bottom, or you’ll have potatoes stuck on the pot that’ll take two days to soak off!  Whatever you do, don’t let this scorch.  It will ruin the taste.  Ask me how I know that.  I use red potatoes because they don’t cook to mush, however if you’d like the potatoes to be extra soft, you could use a baking type potato.  With the leftovers, add a little milk when you warm it; it stretches the soup, and to my palate always seems to need it anyway.  

Olive Garden Toscana Soup--at home!

Olive Garden Toscana Soup
from "A Treasury of Top Secret Recipes"

2 3/4 cups chicken stock or broth

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 medium russet potato

2 cups chopped kale

1/2 pound spicy Italian sausage

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

First a few opinions, then the directions.  I don't add the salt because the chicken broth, to my taste buds, provides enough salt.  If I use spicy Italian sausage, I omit the red pepper flakes.  When I use mild sausage, I add them.  I like using red/new potatoes as they don't cook to mush as the russet tends to, but in a pinch, I'll use any type potato I have on hand.  The recipe says simmer for an hour, but 45' is often enough.  This recipe doubles easily.  

1.  Saute the sausage.  Drain.  

2.  Combine the stock and cream in a saucepan over medium heat.

3.  Slice the unpeeled potato into 1/4 inch slices, then quarter the slices.  Add them and the sausage to the soup.

4.  Add the kale

5.  Add the spices and let the soup simmer, covered but not tightly, I leave the lid a tad off to the side, for about an hour.  Stir occasionally.  

Serves 4 as an appetizer, 2 as an entree

Life Handed Me Lemons, so...

...Mr. A and I made lemonade! 

First I got after the grapefruit sized lemons, I so am not exaggerating, with a zester.  Wait, that was the second first.  First I scrubbed them with a vegetable brush.  (Why isn't it marketed as a fruit brush?)  Southern Living's recipe called for a tablespoon of lemon zest.

We saved the seeds from these because my Grannie saved seeds, but also because I thoroughly intend to grow my own grapefruit sized lemons here at The Ponderosa.  These were grown just a few miles from here on Madison Highway, so I'm going to search for, hope and pray for, a sweet spot here where citrus will thrive.

Grannie used to sing a little song to me "Gonna Be A Farmer's Wife" and I didn't find that a very appealing prospect, but now, with any luck, *I* might be the farmer.  A gal's gotta find something to do after the kiddos fly the coop and the front porch and back deck are full of flowers.   

Have you ever seen a contraption like the one upper right?  My mother gave this vintage juice squeezer to me from her mother's kitchen collection.  Put the fruit segments in the cup, pull the handle down and pour the juice from the spout into the Pyrex measuring cup until it reaches the 1 1/2 cup mark.  The recipe called for approximately 13 lemons, but it only took five of these gargantuan lemons to yield that amount. 

Mr. A did the squeezin', of the lemons that is, while I boiled a half cup of water, then added the tablespoon of lemon zest plus 1 1/2 cups of sugar, boiling until all the sugar was melted.  I poured this mixture into a pitcher, added 7 cups cold water, stirred, and we had us a batch of lemonade that made Mr. A pucker up! 

He said it needed more sugar, but no can do!  I set it in the refrigerator and once it was shonuff cold, it was quite tolerable to taste, tart-sweet.  

I still have aplenty of these luscious lemons, so next stop, lemon bars!  Or lemon pound cake with lemon curd.  I love anything lemon--except cars and appliances.  

Pucker up and kiss the one you love!  

Mrs. A   

Fresh Apple Cake

Fresh Apple Cake

recipe from Mamie DeLoach Williams

my great-aunt, maternal grandmother's sister

Combine in large bowl:

1 1/4 cups salad or corn oil

2 cups sugar

3 eggs, well beaten

1 cup chopped pecans

3 cups fresh chopped apples

In another bowl, sift 3-4 times:

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. soda

3 cups plain flour

Stir well, add to apple mixture, then add

2 tsp. vanilla

Bake at 325° for 45'.  (The last one I made took 55'.)

Icing:

1 stick oleo or butter

1 cup light brown sugar

Heat over low flame until melted, then add

1/4 cup can milk

Bring to full boil.  

Add

1 tsp vanilla

Spread over cake.

(I typed this as it was written decades ago.  Additional tips, this recipe is for a 9 x 13 cake pan.  I used honey crisp apples and chopped the pecans to smithareens.  "Can milk"--Carnation evaporated milk.  I also poked holes in the cake so the icing would get down inside the cake.)