I’m an excellent cook, for the most part. I have a few things that tend to elude me — like banana bread. For some reason, mine is always dry or heavy. My former mother in law makes GREAT banana bread and today she sent her recipe, so I am going to give it a try. In the meantime, I thought I would share it with you.

No.1
2 cups all-purpose flour )
1-1/2 tsp baking powder )
1/2 tsp baking soda ) combine and make a well in the middle
1/4 tsp salt )
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon )
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg )

No.2
2 eggs, beaten lightly )
1-1/2 cups mashed bananas (I usually use 3 large bananas) ) combine – do not
1 cup sugar ) over work it
1/2 cup Canola oil )

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- grease (I use butter) bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of one 9×5x3 inch (or two 7-1/2×3 – 1/2×2 inch loaf pans); set aside (I have the habit of dusting flour on the buttered pan then turn it upside down and shake off the extra flour.

- Now add No.2 to No.1
- fold in wallnuts

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes for 9×5x3-inch pan (or 40 to 45 minutes for 7-1/2×3 – 1/2×2-inch pan.)

At the end of 60 minutes, insert a toothpick to check doneness – it should come out dry.

(If necessary, cover loosely with foil the last 15 minutes of baking to prevent overbrowning)

Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before slicing

Lately, this soup has been one of my favorite things to eat, but I cannot justify goin gin to pay for a bowl every time I have a craving. So, I looked online and found someone who said they got the recipe from someone who used to work for the Olive Garden. She adapted the recipe to feed 6-8 people.

INGREDIENTS
1 lb ground Italian sausage
1½ tsp crushed red peppers
1 large diced white onion
4 Tbsp bacon pieces
2 tsp garlic puree
10 cups water
5 cubes of chicken bouillon *
1 cup heavy cream
1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes
¼ of a bunch of kale

Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients.

In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic for approximately 15 minutes or until the onions become soft.

Mix together the chicken bouillon and water, then add it to the onions, bacon and garlic. Heat until boiling.

Add potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.

Add heavy cream and cook until fully hot.

Stir in the sausage and then add the kale just before serving.

*Personally, I find cubed bouillon too salty. I use either a good chicken stock or a soup base called Better Than Bouillon.

Since I live in Florida, I love eating local seafood. Oddly, the best prices at the market are not usually for local seafood, but I can still find domestic products for a good price. I am pretty picky about only buying domestic seafood and I even go as far as to only buy wild caught fish. After all the stories I have read about the way fish and shrimp are farm raised in China, I’ve become super choosy about from where my seafood originates.

One product we can often find around here is Key West shrimp. I love shrimp and I will go to great lengths to find pink shrimp caught in and around Key West. Yum.

My friend Priscilla has a dish she makes called Shrimp Mozambique. You can find several different versions online and they all have their own unique twist. I based mine on the typical Mozambique recipe, but I omit the packaged seasoning and substitute white wine for the beer. Plus, I make it super spicy. The recipe calls for serving it over rice, but its better just served in a dish so you can dip crusty bread into it.

1-pound medium-large shrimp (shelled)
1 stick butter
1 cup white wine
6-7 teaspoons chopped garlic
1-2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup chicken stock
1 Tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon crushed Red pepper flakes (or to taste)
Red hot pepper sauce (to taste)

Add chicken stock and butter to a saucepan and simmer on low until butter melts. Add garlic, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Stir and simmer on low for 3-4 minutes. Add shrimp and wine, stir, then turn up the heat. When the sauce just begins to boil, lower heat, cover and simmer on very low for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add lemon juice, parsley, and hot sauce to taste. Stir, cover and simmer on very low 4-5 minutes.

I really should work up a version to enter in a seafood Cook off. One of the best is the Fifth Annual Great American Seafood Cook-Off Aug 2-3 at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center. They know their seafood in New Orleans. Can you even imagine some of the dishes that they’ll be cooking up?!

Louisiana invited all of the states to send their best and Florida answered the challenge by sending Andre Bienvenu of the renowned Joe’s Stone Crab Shack. In 2006, Chef Justin Timineri of Florida won the title of King of American Seafood. You never know – Florida might being home the prize again.

I’m visiting with my dad and his wife at his house on the Shenandoah River. Dad is retired, but his wife is not, so I often offer to do the cooking while I am here. Tonight I am just doing rosemary chicken breasts, roasted red potatoes and greens. Dessert will be fun, though. Dad handed me a recipe to “look at”, which means he wants me to make it. And so I will.

Banana Split Pie

Ingredients:
2 bananas sliced
8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
8 oz. Whipped Topping
8 maraschino cherries, drained
prepared graham cracker pie shell
1.5 cups powdered sugar
1 cup crushed pineapple
.5 cup chopped pecans
chocolate syrup

Preparation:

• Line the bottom and sides of prepared pie shell with sliced bananas.
• Whip the cream cheese with a blender and slowly add powdered sugar and vanilla.
• When cream cheese mixture is fluffy, stir in drained pineapple and mix well
• Fold whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture.
• Put final cream cheese mixture into the pie shell.
• Sprinkle nuts on top and then place drained cherries on top of the nuts.
• Drizzle chocolate syrup on the nearly completed pie.
• Chill for one hour before serving.

If I think about it, I will take a picture.

I’m going to make my own pie shell. It’s tastier fresh. And, I may add some real whipped cream to the top of the cream cheese mixture before topping it with cherries, nuts and chocolate syrup.

I used to be a regular coffee drinker. I actually started at age six. Yes, age six. My pediatrician told my mom to give me coffee with lots of milk so that the caffeine would help my asthma. I learned to love the taste of the bean very early in life.

I was never a coffee fiend. I was a two or three cup a day drinker. It was just enough to keep me happy. And, on the weekends and barely touched the stuff.

In 2000 I went off caffeine as a regular thing. I had read that caffeine helps with migraines, but only if you are not addicted. You may not think that 2 cups a day is a caffeine addiction, but when I went off of it, which I did slowly, I had headaches, gastrointestinal issues, and mood swings. I got sick to my stomach and tired easily. Yes, my body had been addicted.

So, here I am 8 years later. Days like to today quite literally make me have fantasies about yummy caffeinated drinks. I have a fiend who manages a Second Cup location Canada and she was telling me about some of their coffee drinks. I was nearly drooling on my keyboard. How pathetic is that? I’ve been a smoker and I have always been able to easily pass on alcohol. However, a good cup of coffee makes me want to jump off the proverbial wagon.

It’s getting hot outside here in Florida. In fact, now that it is June, it is getting hot in most of the United States. So, mind wandered over to some of my favorite recipes that are great for hot weather. Today, I started mentally planning some summer lunches for me and my daughter. The first thing that came to mind was the recipe my former mother-in-law gave me for Cracked Wheat Salad / Tabbouleh.

Tabbouleh

2 Cups cracked wheat (bulgur)
1 Onion, peeled and finely chopped
4 Large tomatoes, chopped
2 Bunched scallions, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
2 Small cucumbers, peeled and chopped
1/4 Cup olive oil
2 Juice of lemons (about 6 tablespoons)
1 Teaspoon salt
1/4 Teaspoon pepper
6 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
3 Table spoons chopped fresh mint or 1 tablespoon dried mint
6 Leaves romaine lettuce

1. Place cracked wheat in a colander and rinse under cold running water. Squeeze with your hands to remove excess water and drain for 1 hour.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine cracked wheat with all remaining ingredients except lettuce.

Hints: Line a salad bowl with lettuce leaves and add cracked wheat mixture. Chill before serving.

Are you getting ready for Father’s Day on June 15? Whether you buy Dad a tie, or a fine cognac or some Ping golf supplies, one thing that won’t change is that grilling out is the perfect way to celebrate Father’s Day. Not only will it be smack dab in the middle of prime grilling season, it is also a tried and true fact that most Father’s are pretty skilled at outdoor cooking.

So, I have a couple of recipes for you. One comes from generations back in my father’s wife’s family in Southern Georgia. It’s a thin sauce called Hot Moppin’ that you spoon over pulled pork or beef. Holy cow, it’s good!

Hot Moppin 
• 1-teaspoon Black Pepper
• ½-teaspoon Salt
• 1-teaspoon Chipped Red Pepper
• 1-teaspoon Dry Mustard
• 1-teaspoon Yellow Prepared Mustard
• ½-teaspoon Sugar
• ½-cup vinegar
• ½-stick Margarine

Can add more red pepper to taste if desired.

Stir continually until a rolling boil. Use on Pork or beef as a vinegar based barbecue sauce.

This second recipe is something I love to whip up to use on the grill. It is also great spooned over pulled meats, but keep in mind that ketchup and the molasses is going to caramelize on the grill, and that’s half the divinity of BBQ.

Tangy Sweet Balsamic Barbeque Sauce
• In a 2-quart pan, combine
• 1 cup ketchup
• 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dark molasses
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
• 1 teaspoon garlic
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture is reduced to about 2 cups, 12 to 15 minutes. Best warm or at room temperature. Makes 2 cups.

I have been pondering on and writing about the alarming rise in grocery prices for months now. My grocery bill and my gasoline costs are taking over my budget.

So, when I saw a headline proclaiming that sales of Spam are up due to consumers looking for less expensive ways to fill out their cupboards, I was…well, I’m not sure what I was, but I stopped to read the story.

When I was a child, in the 70s, Spam was around quite a bit. We did not actually eat it all that often in my household, but when I would spend the night at my friend Carol’s house, one of the biggest treats was when her mom would make us slices of friend spam along with buttered noodles for dinner. For me, Spam was right up there with Vienna Sausages as those mysterious foods I only got on what seemed like special occasion. Little did I know my parents just did not share my love for processed meats and served them seldom to avoid having to eat them.

Spam has been around since 1937 and due to amazing increase in sales this year; Hormel is planning the first national advertising campaign for Spam in years. They are even going to roll out new Spam products, like individually wrapped slices.

Overall food prices are up 4% since last year. White bread is up 13%, bacon is up 7%, and peanut butter is up %. And, if food prices keep going up like they are right now, it will mean that 2008 will see an overall increase of 6.1%.

My mother is a child of WW2 and her parents grew up in the Great Depression. I admit that my daily household habits are much more wasteful than what I have been taught by my family and I need to take a step back and implement what I have been taught. Meals can indeed be made for just a couple of dollars. I can put in a bigger garden, can fruits an veggies, save more cans and jars and bags, re-use foil, eat is restaurants a lot less often, and hundreds of other things.

It all startds with Spam, but it marches onward from there.

Our whole family loves this recipe. We picked it up during a visit to Williamsburg, Virginia when we ate in the Tavern one night. I have made it often for us.

1 1/3 cup boiling water
1 1/3 cups fresh milk
1 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoons butter
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon baking powder.

Preheat oven to 350û.

Grease two-quart, shallow baking dish.

Mix sugar, salt, and cornmeal. Pour boiling water over mixture, stirring constantly. Add butter and let stand until cool. Beat eggs with the baking powder until light and add to mixture. Add milk and stir.

Pour into prepared dish. Place dish in a shallow pan of hot water and bake at 350û for 35 minutes. The texture should be soft and custard-like. Serve with a spoon.

In honor of the apples that are finally getting ripe in the back yard, I want to give you my mother’s apple pie recipe. I know it seems like a funny time of year to have ripe apples, but here in the sub-tropical region of Florida, the only apples that grow are a couple of varieties of Israeli apples and they are finally coming into their own this month.

We have five trees planted in massive pots out back and each tree is positively loaded with apples. So, what better than a decadent apple pie?

My mom prefers to use Ida Reds or Winesaps, at least three pounds. There need to be enough apples to slice and make a heaping 9-inch pie plate full.

1 1/4 – 1 1/2 cup sugar
3 – 4 Tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
dash of salt
2-3 tablespoons butter, in small pieces

Combine all ingredients, except butter, well with sliced apples. Put apples onto bottom crust in a 9-inch pie plate and top with the butter pieces. Place top crust, crimp edges, cut air vents and bake at 375º for 45-50 minutes or until crust is golden brown and the juices are beginning to peek out of the slits. Juice should begin to look thick.

If you have a microwave, you can put the pie in and cook on high for 2 1/2 minutes. Rotate a quarter-turn and cook 2 1/2 minutes, etc. until you have turned the pie three times and cooked about 10 minutes.

Then, put the pie into a preheated 375º oven and bake 20-25 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the juices are thick. I really like this method, as the apples are tender and the crust is crisp without overbaking.

My mother and I have spent years trying to recreate my great-grandmother’s recipes for Chicken and Dumplings. The problem is that my great grandma never used a recipe and when questioned on her techniques, she would say cryptic things like use two fo the blue scoops full of flour. She was a country cook from the coal mine fields of southern West Virginia. She was a cook to end all debates – hands down one of the best cooks I have ever met. But, most of her techniques have been lost to time.

I have also spent untold hours trying to recreate my former mother in law’s chicken curry. She learned from her mother in law, back in India. The order and quality of spices is important, as are how you still and the heat of your pan. It’s something I was never able to prefect, even after taking meticulous notes. My daughter and I had dinner with my ex mother in law the other night and it was like a slice of Heaven to sit down to some of her curry – that curry I cannot seem to replicate.

Some of the very best cooks and their very best dishes shall forever remain unique, simply because the recipes only seem to work if handed down orally and by example.

OK, I know this is traditionally a Christmas dish. An old co-worked told me how to prepare it and when I came to work the next day and told him I had baked it the night before, he was actually baffled. He associates the dish with Christmas in Venezuela so solidly that making it any other time of the year seems odd to him. Me, I just make it when I crave it.

Thaw a loaf of white bread dough and let it rise. Then, lightly coat it with olive oil and press it out flat and large.

Top the bread with as much as you want of the following:
cubed, sweet ham
bacon in small pieces
slices of green olives
white raisins
black raisins

Then, sprinkle about half a handful of powdered sugar on top of the whole mess and press it all into the bread.

Roll into a loaf, let rise an additional half hour, coat outside with egg yolk and bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

The latest flack in the McCain campaign surrounds a handful of family recipes that were placed on the John McCain campaign site and attributes to Cindy McCain.

Yesterday, the recipes were removed from the website. It seems that some members of the blogging community noticed that some of the “McCain Family Recipes” were identical to recipes on the Food Network website.

Of course, it would have been much more impressive had all of the recipes on the McCain website genuinely been recipes that had been passed down through the family for generations. Or, perhaps recipes that Cindy developed over her years as McCain’s wife.

It seems a tad picky, though, to let this get to you. How many of us find a great recipe online, give it a try, and add it to our own collection? This is how the majority of us accumulate recipes, rather than developing them all on our own.

It was a clumsy move, but ultimately forgivable.

My mom and I were talking about my aunt Elaine, mom’s sister, today. We were lovingly joking about how much Elaine loved zucchini and how she would go into full zucchini mode when her garden came into season. She would make zucchini bread and zucchini relish and a host of other zucchini recipes.

Elaine died in 1994, at the age of 45, from leukemia. I miss her.

In her memory, please enjoy her infamous zucchini relish recipe.

10 cups zucchini
4 cups onion
1 or 2 green or sweet red peppers
3 Tablespoons salt
4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 1/2 cups vinegar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons celery seed
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon turmeric

Grind zucchini, onions, and peppers. Add salt and let stand overnight.

Drain the veggies the following morning. Dissolve cornstarch in the vinegar and add spices, veggies, and other ingredients.

Boil 3 minutes.

Pack hot mixture into hot, sterilized jars and seal. Process in a water bath per canning instructions.

This will also keep in the refrigerator for a few weeks unprocessed.

I am posting this recipe is celebration of the fact that the blueberries we have growing in the backyard are finally ripe and ready to eat. We have the bushes in massive, terra cotta pots. That way we can move them in and out of the sun at will. Also, everything in my backyard is organic. The only thing we have used on any of our planst is a feed to help with growth, as well as Neem Oil (we grow the Neem tree for its leaves) to help with pests.

On a side note, the tomatoes are ripening every day. The Israeli apples are ripening in droves, too. I will have to post some of my favorite tomatoes and apple recipes soon. Not tomatoes and apples together, though. Ew.

I got this recipe off of PickYourOwn.org, a site I use all of the time to find local growers. That’s where I found the strawberry farm where we went picking a little over a week ago.

Ingredients
3 to 4 cups of Blueberries – fresh or frozen (without syrup)
7 Tablespoons corn starch
3 Tablespoons water (or grape juice)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
One 9-inch pie crust
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
2/3 cup Sugar (OR 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup Splenda)

Crumb topping:
1/4 cup sugar (OR 1/8 cup sugar and 1/8 cup Splenda)
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter or margarine

Rinse blueberries well, taking care to remove stems.

Combine the 2/3 cup sugar (or sugar/Splenda blend), corn starch, and spices in a bowl, mixing well. Then, stir the lemon juice and water (or grape juice) into the dry mixture.

Put the cleaned blueberries into the bottom crust, and then pour the mixture you just made on top of the berries.

Now, for the crumb topping combine the 1/4 cup sugar (OR 1/8 cup sugar and 1/8 cup Splenda), 1/2 cup flour, and 1/4 butter or margarine together in a small bowl and sprinkle it over the pie.

Bake at 375 F (or 190 C) for 1 hour. The pie should be golden and pie is bubbling. If it is not, bake at additional 3 or 4 minute intervals until it is.