Jumbo Banana Cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1t vanilla
1t distilled white vinegar
3 cups flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
* 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions
Mix together shortening, butter, sugar, eggs, bananas, vanilla, evaporated milk and vinegar until light and creamy.

Add flour baking soda and salt.  Mix in nuts.

Chill one hour in the fridge.

Drop by teaspoonful on greased cookie sheet about two inches apart.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. Cool completely, then frost.

Frosting:
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 T butter, softened
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 t vanilla

Mix and beat until soft.  Spread on top of cookies. 

Eat and enjoy.  They are a very soft cookie!

Breakfast Cookie Bars

I wanted to come up with a healthy cookie that might be good for a quick, easy and filling breakfast.  This creates a healthy, yet soft and chewy bar.  Cut them up and wrap them up individually and freeze for a quick breakfast on the go!  Also great for camping or hiking.

Ingredients

3 cups wheat flour

2 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups sugar

2t cinnamon

2 t salt

1/2 T baking soda

1t baking powder

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup craisins

2 eggs

1 cups mashed banas

2t vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350, line bar pan with parchment paper.

Mix the first 9 ingredients in large mixing bowl.  In small bowl, whisk the eggs and add mashed bananas and vanilla, add to dry ingredients and blend well.

Spread out evenly in bar pan and bake for 20-30 minutes until edges are golden brown.  Cool completely in pan, cut into bars.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread

What goes better together than chocolate and peanut butter?  This twist of an old-fashioned favorite banana bread is a heavenly delight.  Very moist and rich and great for a treat, dessert bread anytime of year.  This recipe past the test of my kids, and everyone at work!

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups flour

2t baking powder

2t baking soda

1t salt

1 bag chocolate chips

5 medium bananas, mashed

1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 large eggs

3t vanilla

1 cup milk

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease bottom of 2 9in loaf pans

In medium sized bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips.

In large bowl, mix together peanut butter and bananas until creamy.  On medium speed this takes about a minute.

Add in the egg and vanilla until just blended.

On low, slowly add the flour mixture and alternate with the milk until well blended.

Remove half of the batter from the mixing bowl.  Add the cocoa to the batter left in the bowl and mix.

Place batter in the pans in alternating spoonfuls, then swirl with a knife to marble.

Bake for a good 70-80 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. 

This is great for muffins, mini loaves or other treats!

If you're anxiously awaiting the banana recipes...

I am working on them!  They will be up by Wednesday evening.

Until then - holy COW!  Are we really almost half way through the year??

I'm embarking on a couple of big things here.  One being a real focus on getting healthier.  So, you may see a change in some of the recipes coming out.  Hopefully just as yummy, and perhaps a bit on the healthier side.

Also, I am hoping for more writing.

SBe my muses!  What type of recipes do you want?  What types of things do you like to read on blogs?

Going Bananas!

It's a Banana Baking THROWDOWN!

Yesterday I mentioned on my Facebook page that I have some bananas that are ripe enough to be made into some type of baked good.  Normally I bake banana bread, but I was looking for something a little different. My good friend, Nelson, at The Breakfast Cook has a weekly cooking challenge, and his upcoming one just happened to be bananas.  He thought it would be fun to challenge me to a baking Throwdown!  Always up for a good challenge, I accepted.  Then remembered that he's a professionally trained chef! 

He and I will each be developing and making a dish (or several) and will have them posted by Wednesday.  On Thursday, YOU guys get to start voting.  And I may even have lots of samples if you need to stop by or something.... (I make no qualms about bribing people to like me with food)

This is going to be a crazy weekend!  I think I might need to stock up on more bananas!

Best Peanut Butter Cookies Ever

I love big, soft, chewy cookies - so I came up with these!

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 t baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

Directions
Cream together butter, peanut butter and sugars.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Slowly add to batter.  Refrigerate for 1 hour (makes the dough easier to handle and bakes more even).
Roll in to large balls and roll in sugar.  Flatten with fork, making the fun criss-cross pattern.  Or, if you have them, use a cookie press.  Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes, until edges are light brown.  Cool for 10 minutes on cookie sheet, then move to wire rack.
Trust me, these are NUMMY!

I like to double my recipes, then freeze half the dough to use later.  When you do this, you can bake up just one batch at a time, so you don't have too many cookies in the house tempting you to eat them all.  And trust me, you'll be tempted! ;)

The First Hatching

Our first batch of incubator chicks have started to hatch.  These are Ringneck Pheasants from the ones we either purchased as chicks or incubated last year.    I'm trying to upload the video of one hatching out of the egg (a process that takes up to a day) but blogger is being a pain.  So, you'll have to head over to my facebook fan page to get a peek at the video itself.

This is what the Roosters will look like when they're mature.

And, in true Circle of Life, Farm fashion - the above rooster is now all cleaned and packed up and in the freezer to be a tasty meal one night. I've only eaten wild pheasant up until this point, so it'll be interesting to see the taste difference in the wild vs hand raised. 

Who wants to come over for dinner?