Hostess Gift

 I'm an old fashioned girl at heart really.  I have always loved the idea of hostess gifts but very rarely do I get the opportunity to give one.  When we were invited to our ministers house a few Saturday's ago I was as excited to go and talk as I was to be able to bring a gift.  

The tag was the most fun to make and I have to say it turned out better than I thought it would.  I attached it to a jar of the Orange Honey Butter I had made the day before.  Underneath is a loaf of Oatmeal Banana Bread wrapped in plastic with a layer of Kraft paper over top (a brown shopping bag works great).  It was just so nice to be able to walk up to the door and have something to say thank you for inviting me into your home.

Oatmeal Banana Bread

1 C. all-purpose flour

1/2 C. stone ground whole wheat (or AP whatever is fine)

1/2 C. old fashioned oats with more for on top

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/3 C. buttermilk

1 TBSP. melted butter

1 TBSP. vanilla extract

2 whole eggs

1/2 C. light brown sugar

1/4 C. honey

2 medium mashed bananas (I like to leave them a little chunky)

1 1/2 C. frozen (or fresh in season) cranberries

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cardamom (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease and flour a bread pan.

In a medium bowl mix together the flours, rolled oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a measuring cup measure out your buttermilk and add the vanilla extract and the melted butter

I like to add the cinnamon and the cardamom into my mashed bananas

 

With an electric mixer beat the eggs, brown sugar and the honey until well combined it turns thick and pale in color (approximately five minutes).  Mix in the spiced mashed bananas and the buttermilk mixture.  In two batches add the flour mixture.  Do not over mix you just want to combine these things.  Fold in the cranberries by hand and pour into the bread pan.  Sprinkle with more oats on top.

Bake for 1 hour or until a tester comes out clean.  Cool the bread out of the pan on a rack. 

A Little Brightness

Today is one of those gross ugly days that just make me want to hide.  It's the exact end this week deserves really.  Too much homework, too much time inside, too many meltdowns all the way around this week.       

Really I want to wallow in it but I know that I've already promised to go to the gym later tonight and that will make me feel loads better so I'm running on optimism and made something bright and yummy.  

In the Better Homes and Gardens canning magazine I kicked  moved earlier I saw this gem and decided that since we have all the ingredients the colors were just want I needed to brighten up my day.

All we have here is one stick of butter, a quarter cup of honey (local), zest from an orange and a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon.  Whip that all together and viola! sunshine in a jar!  Now on to dinner then getting ready for the gym wish me luck!

Dorm Cooking EP: 1

ohmigosh it has been soooo long since I have posted anything. Recently I have been perfecting the art of dorm cooking and wanted to share with you my first dinner that turned out amazing!

Now to let everyone know, I recently moved to PA to live with my boyfriend and have been doing a lot of living on campus, he finally just recently got a mini fridge so we can now keep some things cold, but the Kitchen is broken so, I decided to try to make homemade meals anyway, using our neighbors microwave. And here are the results:

Dinner: Chicken, boiled carrots with butter, and colcannon.

The first dinner I made was my take on a homemade irish potato leek soup, I'll post pics of the leftovers when we warm them up on a later post.

Now the chicken part was super easy, I just bought a rotisserie chicken and cut it to bits taking off the wings and legs and breast and warmed in the microwave with some butter on it. Followed by sliced carrots in water, which I put in the microwave to boil/steam, when I took them out I added more butter to them ^^ and last but not least colcannon, I microwaved the cabbage and potatoes together in water, when the potatoes were done so was the cabbage, I mashed them together with butter (if you have cream, add it for an extra yummy).

recipe:
rotisserie chicken
4 peeled and sliced carrots
3 peeled and diced potatoes
2-3 leaves of cabbage washed and diced
butter(we used Irish butter because its delicious)
salt and pepper

slice up the chicken and put onto a plate with butter set aside. Put the sliced carrots into a microwave safe bowl with enough water to cover, cook for about 15-20 minutes or until the carrots are cooked all the way through (alternately you can out the carrots cabbage and potatoes in the same bowl but you have to dig the carrots out after) add the potatoes and cabbage to a microwave safe bowl with enough water to cover. cook 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are mushy tender. Drain the carrots and the potatoes. Add butter to carrots, cover, and set aside. add a good glob or two of butter to the potatoes and cabbage and mash, I didn't have a potato masher but I had purchased, the day before, a soup ladle, so I just used the back of it to mush the potatoes. You can do the same thing with any large spoon, or if you are daring use a small plastic spoon, just know, it will take you longer. Before you mash the potatoes put the chicken in the microwave and nuke for about 3-4 minutes just check it to make sure it doesn't get all dried out. The butter will help with that.
Plate it up and you have a delicious Irish inspired dinner, home cooked and better for you, and better tasting than take out, or cafeteria food. Happy Dorm Cooking!!

~Alisha

The finished dinner, this is my boyfriend's plate, I ate the breast meat. If you put a glob of butter in the middle of the colcannon, dip each bite into the well of butter instead of mixing it in, it's more traditional and waaay yummier.

This is my prep space ^^

And the tiny crummy microwave we use, it's my boyfriend's suite mate's. It's nice of him to let us use it though.