Beer Bread

I first had beer bread at my brother's house at least a year ago. I remembered it was good and so decided to try making some myself tonight.

Ingredients
3 cups flour (sifted)
3 teaspoons baking powder (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
1 teaspoon salt (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
1/4 cup sugar
1 (12 ounce) can beer
1/2 cup melted butter (1/4 cup will do just fine)

Optional Ingredients
Any spices you like.
I added oregano and garlic powder.

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients and beer. (and butter if soft crust desired)
Pour into a greased loaf pan.
Pour melted butter over mixture if crispy crust desired.
Bake 1 hour, remove from pan and cool for at least 15 minutes.


For the beer, I used an irish red. I didn't have any self-rising flour, so I went the baking powder and salt route (as listed above). I also put about 2/3 of the butter in the mixer while it was mixing, and saved the rest out to pour over the dough in the bread pan before baking; one of the websites I was referring to said this would make the crust nice and crispy. Yum!!

Note: I used a glass bread pan; they absorb heat evenly and hold that heat evenly around bread loaves as they bake. I greased the pan with olive oil using a misto sprayer.

Banana Muffins

I had 3 mushy bananas sitting on my counter this afternoon. I don't much like eating raw bananas when they've gotten to the mushy stage. I was on a banana kick for a while there but I must have forgotten to eat them and once they're past they're prime they're not so appetizing anymore, so I decided to make some muffins.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted (p.s. I didn't melt it and it was fine)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners, or silicone muffin cups.

Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Then add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.

Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes, and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.

LoseIt calculates the calories at 187 per muffin if you make 12 muffins from this recipe.

Update:
Check them out with fresh blueberries dropped into the top after filling the muffin cups! Yum!

Edamame

A friend just asked me how to prepare edamame. I had some tonight (pictured at right, with my ginger glazed mahi mahi), but it was using some steamer packets in the microwave from the frozen food section :) Here's how to do it the old fashioned way:

-Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the uncooked edamame
-boil some water
-dump the edamame in
-boil for 3 or 4 minutes
-drain in a colander
-spread out to cool & serve as is.

Just squeeze the beans out of the pods at the table.

Vegetarian Chili

I have made this recipe many, many times and it is super good. One of my old roommates joked that she was going to stage an intervention if I cooked it one more time. Guests always seemed to enjoy it too. The picture at right is the batch I made tonight, all stacked up in my snapware for lunch next week.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon salt
2 green bell peppers, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 (4 ounce) cans chopped green chile peppers, drained (optional, but tasty)
3 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, crushed
1/4 cup chili powder (to taste --- I like lots)
1 tablespoon ground black pepper (I forget to add this sometimes and it's still good)
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
1 (15 ounce) can black beans (choose whatever beans you like)
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn

DIRECTIONS
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and season with bay leaves, cumin, oregano, and salt. Cook and stir until onion is tender, then mix in the green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, garlic, and green chile peppers. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 5 minutes.
Mix the tomatoes into the pot. Season chili with chili powder and pepper. Stir in the kidney beans, garbanzo beans, and black beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 45 minutes. Stir in the corn, and continue cooking 5 minutes before serving.

I like to serve it with a little dollop of sour cream on top and a sprinkle of shredded cheese.

Tahini

One of the ingredients in the hummus recipe I have on here is tahini. I've bought that at the store before but never made it from scratch, and it looked like it would be pretty simple to make, so I decided to give it a go. Besides, it is pretty expensive if you buy it pre-made. I bought the raw, hulled sesame seeds in the bulk section of a local grocery store.

Ingredients
-1 C sesame seeds
-1/4 C vegetable oil (I used olive oil)

Directions
-Preheat oven to 340°F (170° C).
-Spread your sesame seeds on a roasting tray, and toast in the oven for 15 minutes, stirring regularly to toast evenly. Do not allow to brown.
-Remove the sesame seeds from the oven and allow to cool briefly.
-Put the toasted sesame seeds in your food processor, with metal blades fitted, and add the oil.
-When the mixture is evenly smooth, transfer your tahini to a tight fitting glass jar using a flexible spatula, to reduce waste.
-Tahini may be kept in the refrigerator for many weeks in a well sealed jar.

One thing though, is that I do not have a food processor. So I'm trying it with a Magic Bullet MBR-1701 17-Piece Express Mixing Set instead. My kit came with two blades, and I tried the normal mixing one first but it wasn't doing the job. The flat blade did much better.