Grandma's Banana Nut Cake

Every holiday at my grandmother's house, you would find this cake on the counter.  So good, so full of memories!  I shared my egg-free adaptation of my Grandmother's recipe for Banana Cake (EF, DF) in May, with the ever popular pairing of cream cheese frosting.  Here is the same recipe with pecans and my Grandmother's amazing banana nut icing.  I have never seen this kind of icing outside of my family gatherings.  The icing is kind of like a banana nut syrup.  Because it is made with fresh bananas, it does darken the longer it sits out.  Although, the longer it sets, the more the icing soaks in to the cake.  Yum!  Regardless, this cake won't last long.

Grandma's Banana Nut Cake

6 medium mashed bananas

½ c vegetable oil

½ c milk 

2 t vanilla extract

3 c flour

2 c sugar

2 t baking powder

2 t baking soda

1 t salt

2 T white vinegar
½ c chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350^o.  Cut out wax paper into a circle that fits the bottom of two round cake pans.  Place wax paper in the bottom of the pan then grease with shortening on top of the paper and up the sides.  Set aside.  

Mix cake in a bowl or with a stand mixer.  Blend the bananas until smooth.  Add oil, milk and vanilla mixing until combined.  Slowing add in the dry ingredients, while mixing the batter.  Lightly dust the pecans with flour, about 1 teaspoon and mix into batter.  Once batter is smooth, then mix in vinegar.  The vinegar reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise, so you don’t want to put it in too early. 

Pour batter evenly in the two prepared pans immediately and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool cake in pans on wire rack for about 20-30 minutes.  Invert onto wire rack, carefully peel off wax paper and cool completely.  When cooled, frost with banana nut icing.

Grandma's Banana Nut Icing

1 c sugar

¾ c milk

2 bananas, mashed

3/4 c nuts

In a sauce pan, mix sugar and milk.  Cook on medium heat until thickens.  Add banana and nuts.  Stir.  Cool slightly before topping the cake.

Fall

I made a quick updated to my new and very popular Best Chocolate Chip Cookies (EF) recipe.  I liked it a little better when I used salted butter and omitted the added salt.  I still left a note at the bottom, if you use unsalted butter to add 1/2 t of salt.

In honor of this lovely fall season, I am sharing some of my favorite fall recipes...

Fresh Apple Cake (EF, DF)

Fresh Apple Cinnamon Muffins (EF, DF)

Apple Crisp (EF)

Apple Pie with Streusel Topping (EF)

Applesauce Spice Cake (EF, DF)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (EF)

Pumpkin Pecan Cobbler (EF)

Pumpkin Pie (EF)

Pumpkin Spice Cake (EF, DF)

Quick Cherry Cobbler

In July, I ordered ten pounds of cherries from a local farm and made this delicious cobbler.  This recipe is an old recipe my Mom had and I am not sure she knows where she got it.  But it is similar to many other cake-like old fashion cobbler recipes.  I still have some cherries in the freezer.  I hope to experiment with them soon!

Quick Cherry Cobbler

¹/₃ c butter or margarine

¾ c sugar

1 c flour

2 tsp baking powder

¼ t salt

¾ c milk

½ t almond extract

2 c red cherries, pitted

¼ c additional sugar

Preheat oven to 325^o.  Melt the butter or margarine in a 9x9 baking dish.  In a mixing bowl, combine the ¾ c sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and milk.  Pour over melted butter or margarine but do not stir.  Add almond extract to cherries and pour cherries over batter.  (You can substitute vanilla extract for the almond extract but the almond is recommended.)  Again, do not mix.  Sprinkle ¼ c sugar over cherries.  Bake for about 45 minutes.  The batter will rise and the cherries will settle to the bottom.  Serve warm topped with vanilla ice cream!

Serves 8

Roasted Sausage and Summer Vegetables

I love fresh summer vegetables.  I don't grow them myself, but my local grocery store does a good job of stocking locally grown produce this time of year.  I always try to be sure to incorporate some into my menu.  I especially love the summer zucchini and squash.  There are several recipes similar to this one floating around.  I made this one similar to how I like to roast my vegetables in my other recipes.  It turned out really well.  I debated on how much oil to use.  This time I used ¹/₃ cup.  I think I may try reducing that to ¼ cup the next time I make it.  That may depend on your own taste.  This recipe is a good, quick recipe that we all need during the busy back to school season!

Roasted Sausage and Summer Vegetables

2 13 oz packages of turkey kielbasa, sliced*

2 medium zucchini, quartered and sliced

2 medium yellow squash, quartered and sliced

1 sweet onion, cubed

1 orange bell pepper, cubed

6 cloves of garlic, minced

2 t seasoned salt*

1 t pepper

1 t Italian blend seasoning

¼ - ¹/₃ c extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 425^o.  After slicing and chopping, place sausage and vegetables in a large bowl.  Sprinkle with garlic and spices.  Drizzle with oil.  With a large spoon, gently mix until oil and spices are evenly coated.  Line two large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.  Spread sausage and vegetable mixture evenly on pans.  Place both pans in preheated oven.  (The pans can be placed on two different oven racks.)  Bake for about 30-45 minutes.  While cooking, stirring once or twice and rotate pans to roast evenly.  Serve with your favorite couscous*, quinoa or rice.

*These items could contain gluten.  If you have a gluten allergy, check the labels carefully or use a safe substitute.  

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I posted a chocolate chip cookie recipe several years ago.  They were good, especially warm, but would harden once completely cooled.  So, I was always looking for a way to adjust them to improve the texture.  I finally figured it out!  One of my kid's teachers apparently makes better chocolate chip cookies than Mommy.  I found out that she puts pudding mix in the batter.  So, I adjusted my recipe to include some.  Ahhhh... cookie perfection!!  So good!  

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ c butter (salted) 
½ c vegetable shortening
¼ c sugar
¾ c brown sugar

1 small package instant vanilla pudding

1 t vanilla

2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
2½ c flour
¹/₃ c milk
1½ c semi-sweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 375^o.  Cream together the butter, shortening, both sugars, pudding mix and vanilla.  Add the baking powder, baking soda and salt mixing constantly.  Slowly mix in the flour.  Add milk one tablespoon at a time until dough starts to stick together.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Bake for about 10 minutes.  Let cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet before removing.  Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Note:  If you use unsalted butter, add ½ t salt.

Peach Crisp

Ahhh... summer fruit is so lovely.  I bought a large box of peaches.  We had peaches with every meal for days.  Thankfully, I had some help peeling and slicing them.  I made a peach crisp and a peach cobbler.  I also saved enough to make one more crisp and another cobbler.  This is the crisp recipe here.  I will post the cobbler recipe soon.  Enjoy!

Peach Pecan Crisp - Click here to link to recipe.  This recipe has pecans but I think it would be just as good without.