Banana Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

Is it just me or does anyone else think about the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" anytime bundt cakes come up?  Maybe that's why I rarely make these "cakes with a hole in them."

My friend refers to her side of the family as the Bundt cake side, relative to her in-laws, who are louder and a bit crazier.  This is kind of how I feel about my family sometimes.  My in-laws definitely have their idiosyncrasies.  But in my family, confusion (and occasionally chaos) reigns, despite the fact that there is an excessive flow of information.  Everyone is in everyone's business.  But no one knows what is going on.  

So, when R's parents made the trip to Ottawa to meet their new granddaughter, my mind kept going to making them a bundt cake. I still had a bunch of bananas, so I decided to make a banana chocolate chip bundt cake.  

Banana Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

     Ingredients

1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
3 large ripe bananas
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. chopped nuts
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions

In large mixing bowl cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs and beat until lighter in color. Set aside. Next, sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder and add nuts, set this aside also. Cream together milk, mashed banana, and vanilla. Add chocolate chips and stir in. Add creamed banana mix alternately with flour mix to your first mixture of butter, sugar and eggs. Scrape into greased, floured bundt pan. Bake 50 to 60 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan.

Sift a few tablespoons of powdered sugar onto cake top.

Verdict: Tasted great -- particularly when warm.

Eating Light Virtual Supper Club Celebrates Peanut Butter in November

Ahhh Sweet November and it's peanut butter month in the hood.  A versatile ingredient and a staple in a vegan diet (unless of course you have a nut allergy), peanut butter can be an appetizer, a main and/or a dessert.    Somehow I gravitate to the dessert portion of the meal and this month is no different.  A lighter version of the peanut butter and jelly muffin was my pick this month and I discovered that this muffin was a choice that will most definitely make repeat performances in the Equal Opportunity Kitchen.  All I can say is Yum Yum!

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (about 3 1/2 ounces)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups fat-free milk
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

• 1/4 cup egg substitute (2 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Cooking spray
• 1/4 cup strawberry jam 

Preheat oven to 400°.

Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, sugars, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine milk and next 4 ingredients (through vanilla); add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Fill each cup half full with batter. Spoon 1 teaspoon jam into each cup. Spoon remaining batter on top to cover jam. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Let cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool on a wire rack.

Eggplant, Tomato and Provolone Cheese Quiche

R's is known for threatening to reveal some family "secrets" on the blog.  He's also known for crying wolf.  But...I guess he has been pushed enough.  Without further ado... Here's R:

Just over three years ago, I tried to hold an online intervention to help my mother-in-law, Giz, with her addiction to cooking.  You can read about it here.  She was obsessed with reading/watching/buying/cooking food.  Sadly, the intervention failed miserably.

Recently, she came to visit for a week and it was obvious that she still suffered from her addiction.  When she went shopping for groceries, it reminded me of the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer goes to Price Club: 

Predictably, Giz overbought.  There was so much food to eat up, I felt like the horse that was forced to
eat up Kramer’s beef-a-reeno.

   

Everytime I opened the fridge, I felt overwhelmed.  It was hard to find something in the fridge without taking out ten other items.  Plus, it was hard to fit everything back in afterwards.  Also, I couldn’t believe Giz bought more tomatoes and cucumbers.  We had a tonne of fresh ones from the garden!

Anyway, after she left, I tried to use what I could, so that we wouldn’t have to jam everything into our compost bin.  Since we had a tonne of tomatoes and a bunch of eggplants, I searched for a recipe with these items and found a great recipe for a quiche.  The recipe didn’t include roasted red peppers, but I added them, since we had a giant jar in the fridge.  The silver lining in this whole ordeal is that I found a great recipe that I plan on making again.  It’s a keeper. 

Ingredients (for a 10in cake tin):

2 ready puff pastry sheets

4 eggplants

12 tomatoes

5, 30 oz caciocavallo cheese (we used provalone)

Oregano to taste

Basil leaves to taste

Salt to taste

Olive oil to taste

Vegetable oil for frying (preferably olive oil)

Wash, dry and cut eggplants into small cubes. Put in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and let rest for 1 hour about. Drain, dry and fry in hot oil stirring occasionally. Add salt and oregano to taste and let cool.Wash and dry tomatoes and basil leaves. Cut tomatoes in half, remove the inner part and cut into small pieces. Cut basil leaves into small pieces and caciocavallo cheese into sticks. Put tomatoes and basil in a bowl, add salt and olive oil to taste and stir.

Spread one roll of puff pastry over the baking tin and spread the eggplants on top of it and press with a back of a spoon. Pout the tomatoes with basil onto the eggplants and press again with a back of a spoon. 

Spread with caciocavallo sticks and place the remaining pastry sheet on top. 

Fold the edge of the pastry and press it. Riddle the surface using a fork.

Bake in the preheated oven at 395°F for 30 minutes about or until golden brown. Let cool and remove from tin. Serve.