Rotting Bananas

Are actually delicious. When you cover them in butter, flour, and sugar bake them into bread that is.
I have a recipe that I always fall back on when making banana bread. It's super moist, and not as dense as others that I have tried. It's adapted from a recipe I found years ago, and I always add in whatever I have lying around the house. This time it was booze, chocolate, applesauce, and raisins. I'm not sure what that says about me...

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 heaping tablespoon ground cinnamon 
• handful of raisins (I soaked these in whiskey and a bit of hot water to plump them up before adding them)
• 1 cup(ish) of applesauce. I wasn't exact. I just dumped some in. 
• handful of chocolate chips
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.Add the applesauce.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until just combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.(This is actually important, I've found. Don't over beat it at this point)

Pour half of the batter into prepared pan, add some of the raisins and the chocolate chips. Add the rest of the batter and the rest of the raisins and chocolate chips. Stir a bit with a spoon. This keeps all of the goodies from sinking to the bottom.
Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes.
If you can wait till the next day to eat it, it gets better.

Snow days are delicious.

Adult snow days are pretty awesome. In case you missed the memo airing between the malpractice commercials and viagra ads on local TV, St. Louis is facing the Snowpocalypse. 

Since we're all doomed, I've decided that it doesn't matter how much butter I consume today. Rebel that I am and all, I made these cinnamon rolls. They put Paula Dean to shame, but my dog they're good. I'd go so far as to say life changing, but then you'd think I was weird and probably never talk to me again.

I'm not a coffee drinker so I modified the glaze a bit. I increased the milk /butter to make up for the lack of liquid, added a few morsels of dark chocolate, and a heavy handed dash of Vietnamese cinnamon. Seriously people. If you're cooking anything where cinnamon needs to shine, Vietnamese cinnamon is your homeboy. Worth every freaking penny.

I also made a big pot of chicken and dumpling last night for us to eat off of for awhile. The idea being that we'll have enough fat on us that we can survive being snowed in for a year... Mission accomplished.

Mediterranean Roasted Vegetable & Chicken Chili

This is cooking in my crock pot right now, and it smells fantastic. I added an extra can of chickpeas, didn't drain the tomatoes, quadrupled the garlic, and used all chicken broth instead of adding water. Just had to share.


2 lbs bone-in chicken breast
2 cans (15.5 ounces each) Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, drained
3 tablespoons greek seasoning
2 teaspoons paprika
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 zucchinis, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 fennel bulb, trimmed, cored, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon of salt
crumbled feta cheese (optional)

1 - combine chicken, beans, tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of the greek seasoning and 1 teaspoon of the paprika in slow cooker. Add Broth and 1 cup water. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours, and LOW for 6 hours.

2. In large roasting pan, toss together 2 teaspoons of the Greek seasoning, 1 teaspoon paprika, zucchinis, onion, fennel, garlic and olive oil. Roast at 425 degrees for 35 mins stirring twice. Stir in lemon juice, oregano and zest.

3. Remove chicken and shred into bite size pieces discarding bones. Stir chicken back into the slow cooker, adding in vegetables and remaining 1 teaspoon greek seasoning and salt. Cook an additional 15 mins and sprinkle with feta cheese.

Run!

Don't walk, and make this recipe for BBQ chicken. It was the most fantastic BBQ I have ever had the joys of tasting. I marinated a whole chicken then smoked it on the grill till it fell of the bone. This recipe is actually so good, now that I told you about it I'm fairly sure I have to kill you.