Double Chocolate Banana Bread

This is like banana bread on crack. Really chocolately divine crack! It's so good, you almost think you are eating dessert, but since it's banana bread it's totally kosher for breakfast! Even my kids loved it (for those who don't know, my kids can be pretty picky). It was also really easy. I just stuck the ingredients in the Kitchen Aid and let it do its thing. I doubled the batch for Rix's teacher and bus driver for presents, and it was a piece of cake (no pun intended!). The recipe called for 8x4 inch bread pans, but when I made this the first time in my 8x4 inch pan, the sides burned and curled up, as if it had too much batter. So for the double batch I used two bread pans of my mom's that were a little bigger, and they seemed to work better. About 20 minutes before they were done, I layed foil around the edges of the bread to keep the sides from cooking too fast. Below is a picture of Rix showing off his wrapped bread for his bus driver.
Recipe from sisterscafe.blogspot.com.

1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups mashed bananas (about 3)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa (I prefer dutch process)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350. Spray bottom of 8x4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

2. Beat sugar, eggs, and oil in large bowl at medium speed until combined. Beat in banana and vanilla at low speed. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; beat into banana mixture at low speed just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

3 Spoon batter into pan. Bake 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

CONGRATS DENISE!!!

Brooklyn Tae Hollinger

Wednesday, June 17th at 9:54 PM
6 lbs 2 oz, 18-inches long

Pizza Bomb (Calzone)

This is from the ward cookbook I put together in 2004. My friend in the ward just told me she makes these all the time. So, I gave them a try and they are super yummy and very easy. I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand and threw it together.

Dough:
1 1/3 cup warm water
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
4 cups flour

Place warm water in a bowl with yeast. Stir. Allow to sit for 2 minutes until yeast is softened. Place flour, salt, and oil in mixing bowl and stir for 10 seconds. Add water and yeast mixture. Beat until combined. Add more flour if it seems a little wet. Remove from bowl and knead for 2 minutes. Place in oiled bowl and allow to rise in warm place for 30 minutes. Cut dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each eighth into a circle.

Filling:
1 lb (about 2 cups) Ricotta cheese or cottage cheese
2 cups grated cheese (mozzarella or romano)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup fresh parsley
2 eggs
sausage
pepperoni
onions
pizza toppings you like

Combine in bowl. Mix well. Divide filling into eighths. (I used a heaping ice cream scoop.) Fill center of dough rolled out; fold over as a turnover. Crimp edges well. Brush with oil and bake at 500 for 10-12 minutes. Remove and serve!

To My Iron Chef Girls

Okay, ladies! I'll choose the ingredient and you come up with a recipe using it.

My ingredient is....strawberries!

Now, I will make all the recipes you submit and choose the winner!!! Then, the next person can choose an ingredient. Oh how fun!

Just a Suggestion...

Now you can totally disagree with me on this, but I think it would be really helpful if we posted pictures (or just a picture at least) of what we made. Like if I want to post my awesome recipe, I would take a picture or two of the end result so you all can see what it looks like. Aren't visuals more appealing than ingredient lists??? I think I would try more recipes if I could see what they actually look like. So anyway, just let me know if you think you want to do this. And don't think you have to post a picture for EVERY recipe, but try, because I think it would up the chances of it getting tried by anyone reading our recipe blog!

Eskimo Cookies

For our Beehive activity, we had an alphabet picnic where the girls were assigned a letter and had to bring something that started with that letter. We weren't thinking when we assigned one girl the letter P. She got creative and brought "poop". Only it tasted amazing. I thought they were like No Bakes, but they were so much better. They taste like cookie dough. She refuses to give out recipes (she's 13!) but she mentioned they were called Eskimo somethings. So, I looked them up on Allrecipes and gave them a try. They're very quick & easy. And, it's like eating cookie dough! I was surprised I've never had them before.

Eskimo Cookies

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 TBSP water
2 cups rolled outs (you can use less--depending on your taste)
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar for decoration

Soften butter & beat well. Add sugar & mix well. Add cocoa, vanilla & water. Then add oatmeal. Shape into 36 balls and roll in powdered sugar (I skipped this step). Keep in refrigerator.

Recipe Contest Idea

First, I just am wondering what happened to Destiny. MIA!!! Miss you!

And, I was thinking the other day it could be fun to maybe have an Iron Chef competition (is that what it's called). Everyone choose an ingredient and maybe we come up with a meal? I've never come up with my own recipe before, besides a fried chicken. But, it could be fun and a little scary.

Let me know what you think!