Growing Up Gabel

Banana Bread

Camille — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:12:41 +0000

I made some banana bread last week and I couldn’t believe that I haven’t shared this recipe yet! I have tried many, many banana bread recipes. They were all OK, but nothing spectacular. This banana bread recipe, however, is perfect. The bread turns out moist, sweet and banana-y. My friend, Kim, always brings this banana bread to our cookie exchange in December and it’s a huge hit.

The original recipe calls for buttermilk (as written below), but you can substitute plain milk or I’ve even made it with plain yogurt as a substitute. This week I made this recipe with 1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour and 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour and I couldn’t tell a difference.

Banana Bread

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

Serves: 1-4 loaves

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Mix sugar and butter in large bowl or in bowl of stand mixer.
Stir in eggs until well blended.
Add bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla and beat until smooth.
Stir in remaining ingredients.
Pour in to 2, 8 x4; 1, 9 x5; or 4 mini-loaf pans that have been greased on the bottom.
Bake at 350 degrees for around 1 hour — more for the larger loaf and less for the mini-loaves — or until toothpick comes out clean.

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Post tags: Banana Bread, Bread, Recipe

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Homemade Turkey Sausage

Camille — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:05:46 +0000

We don’t really eat that much breakfast sausage as we much prefer bacon (and really, who doesn’t?!). But occasionally I’ll need breakfast sausage for a recipe. This homemade version is super simple to make and it lacks all the chemical preservatives in the store bought kind. This recipe calls for turkey, but you could really use any ground meat. Most sausage is made out of pork, but chicken or even beef would work. If you don’t have time to let it sit overnight, just use it right away. The recipe doubles and triples easily so make a big batch while you have all those spices out and freeze.

Homemade Turkey Sausage

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 1 pound

Ingredients

1 pound ground turkey
3 Tablespoons minced onion
1/4 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together.
Let sit overnight (preferred) or use immediately or freeze for later.
To cook, fry up in butter.

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Recipe adapted (slightly) from Heavenly Homemaker.

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Post tags: Breakfast sausage, Recipe, sausage, Side Dish, Turkey, turkey sausage

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Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup

Camille — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:52:25 +0000

Cream of mushroom soup is one of those pantry staples that is no longer in my pantry. Every time I look at the ingredients and the amount of sodium in a can, I just can’t bring myself to actually pay money for it. I do, however, have an easy homemade “cream of” soup recipe that is so much tastier, cheaper and healthier than the cans. I usually just make a batch when a recipe calls for the soup. It’s an extra step, but for me, it’s worthwhile. Then I saw a suggestion to make a large batch of soup and can or freeze it! DUH! Homemade cream of mushroom soup in your pantry or freezer ready to go!

I did not actually seal these jars according to the manufacturers directions, so I can not with good conscience tell you that this method is 100% safe. For me, it’s fine, but if you want a guarantee – freeze the jars. Glass can go in the freezer so you can just pop these in to the freezer. You could also use any other freezer friendly container you like. Also note that the jars pictured are only 8 ounces (1 cup) and that cans of cream of mushroom soup are usually 10 ounces.

Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup

5.0 from 1 reviews

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 1 can

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour
1 cup milk or broth
1/4 cup diced mushrooms
1 Tablespoon finely diced onions

Instructions

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add onions and mushrooms and cook until soft.
Whisk in flour and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Slowing whisk in liquid, a little at a time to avoid lumps.
Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until soup reaches desired consistency.

Notes

This recipe makes the equivalent of 1 can of store bought condensed cream of mushroom soup. Multiply ingredients times the number of “cans” you want to make.

To store: divvy out soup in desired containers. Freeze.

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Post tags: Cream of Mushroom, Recipe, Soup

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Homemade Caramel Corn

Camille — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:30:43 +0000

Popcorn is a favorite snack around here. The preferred toppings are the normal butter and salt, but every once and a while I get the urge for some caramel corn. Caramel corn is surprisingly easy to make. All you need is about an hour and you will have a sweet snack ready to go. Someday I’m planning to play around some other toppings like nuts and chocolate!

Homemade Caramel Corn

5.0 from 1 reviews

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

Serves: 16 cups

Ingredients

1 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
1 stick butter
1/4 cup honey (or corn syrup)
pinch of salt
pinch of cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
16 cups of popped popcorn

Instructions

Put popcorn in a very, very large bowl.
In a saucepan, bring the sucanat, butter and honey to a boil, stirring constantly.
Once boiling, continue to stir for 5 minutes.
Turn off heat and add baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.
Pour mixture over the popcorn and stir well (and quickly).
Pour popcorn on to a large baking sheet (I put parchment down in case the honey stuck).
Bake at 200 degrees for 1 hour.
Break apart — it cools quickly so work fast.

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Cream Biscuits

Camille — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:17:51 +0000

Have any heavy cream leftover from making some homemade truffles? This is biscuit recipe is a great way to use up some leftover heavy cream, but it’s also a great reason to buy heavy cream if you don’t have any. This recipe is hands down the easiest and best way to get light, fluffy biscuits. And any biscuit recipe that doesn’t require cutting in butter is a winner in my book.

Cream Biscuits

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 12

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 to 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup (5 1/3 Tablespoons) butter, melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk to incorporate together.
While stirring constantly, slowly add in 1 cup cream.
Use hands to form mixture in to a dough and add more cream if necessary to form a dough.
Knead for 1 minute.
Pat dough into a square that is 1/2 inch thick.
Cut into 12 squares.
Dip each biscuit in butter, covering completely, and place on a jelly roll pan about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

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Post tags: Biscuits, Bread, Breakfast, Recipe

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Blondies

Camille — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:47:26 +0000

Blondies are brownies without the chocolate. I know, I know — why would you ever want brownies without the chocolate?! But trust me, these babies are delicious in their own right! They are a buttery, sugary mess of a treat. You can play these up by adding M&Ms, butterscotch chips or cinnamon to the top before baking or just leave them plain Jane.

Blondies

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 50 mins

Total time: 1 hour

Serves: 16 bars

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line an 8 inch square pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Grease pan with butter (just use the wrappers from your 2 sticks of butter).
In a large bowl, whisk together butter and sugars until smooth.
Whisk in eggs and vanilla.
Add flour and salt; stir just until moistened.
Transfer batter to prepared pan and smooth top.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until top of cake is golden brown and and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely in the pan.
Remove cake using foil or parchment and cut in to squares.

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Easy Chocolate Cake (or Cupcakes)

Camille — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:10:37 +0000

Happy Valentine’s Day! Aside from making a bunch of pink, red, and heart shaped food, we don’t have plans for today. We try to focus Valentine’s Day on the kids and as long as I have lots of hearts and glitter, they are happy!

If you are in need of a quick and easy last minute treat, these cupcakes will fit the bill. Last week, about an hour before dinner, I decided I wanted cupcakes for dessert. I had pinned this recipe for a chocolate cake and decided to try it as cupcakes. All it requires is two bowls, a wooden spoon and some basic ingredients. I baked the cupcakes for 15 minutes and they were DONE! I’d start checking them around 10 minutes — I’m guessing that around 12-13 minutes is the perfect baking time.

Easy Chocolate Cake (or Cupcakes)

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 40 mins

Serves: 1 cake or 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and warm
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar (or sucanat)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1/2 cup hot water

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
Grease the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch cake pan or prepare muffin pans for cupcakes.
In a small bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a large bowl, combine the melted butter and sugar with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
Add the eggs and vanilla; stir until well blended.
Add the flour mixture all at once and stir just until all the flour is moistened.
Pour the hot water over the batter; stir just until it’s incorporated and the batter is smooth. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean: 15-20 minutes for 1 dozen cupcakes; 30 minutes for an 8″ cake pan or 35-40 minutes for a 9″ cake pan.
Remove cupcakes and cakes from pans to cook on a rack.

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Adapted from Fine Cooking

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Post tags: Cake, Chocolate, Dessert, Recipe

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Homemade Cream Soda

Camille — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:42:04 +0000

Almost a year ago, my parents bought me a SodaStream soda maker. I didn’t even ask for it! But somehow my mom knew I needed one. I absolutely ADORE this machine! Basically, it allows me to make carbonated water. Then I add flavor to the carbonated water to make a sparkling drink or soda. You can purchase soda flavors in stores or on-line, but what fun is that?

My first attempt at homemade soda was cream soda, which is basically vanilla flavored soda. I’m not much of a cream soda drinker, but I had all the ingredients on hand and it looked pretty easy to put together. It was very easy and it’s very good. If you don’t have the SodaStream, you can purchase carbonated water and put the syrup in it. Just make sure that the carbonated water is cold and go slowly when adding the flavored syrup because the water will fizz up as the syrup is added.

Homemade Cream Soda

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour 35 mins

Serves: 2 cups

Ingredients

2 cups cane sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
1/4 cup water

Instructions

In a medium pan, heat sugar and water over medium high heat until carmelized (I had no idea how to tell when brown sugar is caramelized, so I just cooked it until it smelled like caramel).
Remove pan from heat and carefully add 2 cups water and lemon juice.
Add vanilla bean and seeds, return pan to heat and bring to a boil.
Remove from heat and allow to stand for 1 hour.
To keep syrup: pour into an airtight container.
To make cream soda: add syrup to taste to carbonate water.

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Adapted from Martha Stewart.

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Post tags: Beverages, Cream Soda, Recipe

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Weekly Menu Plan, February 12

Camille — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:19:43 +0000

This is one of the busiest weeks of the year for us (February is always like that!). We have Valentine’s Day on Tuesday and my husband’s birthday on Friday (and it’s a BIG ONE!) all topped with high school basketball play-offs every night except one. I’m thinking about making cupcakes to take up to the band kids on Friday as a special treat for my husband’s birthday and for all the hard work they’re putting in this week supporting their teams.

In addition to regular meals, I have a list of freezer cooking for the week. The plan is to make and freeze: bread; banana bread; breakfast burritos; pudding pops; chicken rice bake; chicken spaghetti; chili verde; and cookie dough. That’s quite an ambitious list for me. I’ll be happy to get even some of it accomplished. Some of these are new recipes, which I will share if they turn out well. We’re going to a fundraiser for dinner on Wednesday so I’m thinking that may be the best day to do cook. I’ll probably “live blog” about it on Facebook so make sure to “like” my page if you want to follow along!

Monday: Adobo steaks, refried beans, asparagus

Tuesday: Shrimp dish (I’m still hunting for one), asparagus, garlic bread, chocolate pudding

Wednesday: Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser

Thursday: Tomato Soup with grilled cheese sandwiches and carrot sticks

Friday: Pizza

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Homemade Chocolate Truffles

Camille — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:00:16 +0000

I’m so excited to be a part of the Show Some Love Blog Hop hosted by One Tough Mother! If you’ve missed any of the 10 previous posts, scroll down the end of this post and click away. There is some serious Valentine inspiration going on with these ladies on the hop.

Today, I am sharing my all time favorite treat to make for Valentine’s Day: Homemade Truffles. Chocolates are the epitome of Valentine’s Day and there is absolutely NO NEED to go out and buy them when they are so simple to make in your very own kitchen.

I have been making this truffle recipe for years and it is the highlight of our Valentine’s Day. Making your own chocolates for your sweetie is unbelievable quick and easy with infinite variations. The ingredients are pretty basic: chocolate, butter, cream and extract.

You pick the chocolate (milk, dark, semi-sweet or a combination); you pick the flavor (mint, almond, vanilla, rum, coconut, orange, etc) and you pick the outside topping (nuts, cocoa powder, coconut, crushed candies, etc) for a truly unique and personalized gift.

This recipe is basically a ganache that you put in the fridge to firm up and then scoop the chocolate in to balls. For some reason my truffles were very soft this time around. If that happens to you, just put the ganache back in to the fridge to let it harden up some more. I think that the truffles I made (pictured above) are also way too big. I used a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop and they are a mouth full of chocolate! I’d stick to a teaspoon or so for a good sized treat.

Homemade Chocolate Truffles

4.0 from 1 reviews

Recipe type: Dessert

Author: Allrecipes.com

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 2 hours

Total time: 2 hours 10 mins

Serves: 1-2 dozen

Ingredients

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon almond (or any flavor) extract
2/3 cup chopped chocolate or chocolate chips
Toppings:
1/3 cup finely chopped hazelnuts or almonds (for nut truffles)
Cocoa powder (for cocoa truffles)
Coconut (for coconut truffles)

Instructions

In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until bubbles form around the edge of pan, stirring constantly.
Remove the pan from the heat.
Add extract and chocolate; stir until smooth.
Press plastic wrap onto surface of mixture.
Refrigerate for 2 hours or until easy to handle.
Using a cookie scoop, scoop chocolate into a ball shape and drop in to desired topping.
Coat truffles with topping by rolling them around.
Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm.
Store in the refrigerator.