Hominy Stew

I got this recipe from a friend of a friend, who invited us over for an all girls New Year's Eve party a few years ago. It's very filling and delicious.

1 big onion...I used purple
"lots of butter" (or olive oil)...about 1/4 cup
a few cloves of garlic
zucchini 1 or 2
1 chopped up jalapeno (lose the seeds)
salt (about 1/2 tsp)
bunch of cilantro (I skip this)
chili powder (I put about 1/8 cup)
4 cans of hominy (about 60 oz total)
cheddar or other shredded cheese

Chop the onion and garlic, saute in butter/oil, and throw in the zucchini. Throw in the rest. Simmer for 5 or 10 minutes. Open up the cans, pour off about 1/2 the water, and dump it in. Heat on the stove for about 20 minutes until boiling. either stir in grated cheese or sprinkle on top.

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!