Banana Heaven!

I've been using this banana bread recipe since I got back into baking. Totally and absolutely amazing! (from the food network).

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar (this can be replaced with brown sugar)
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 large eggs
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (modified from original)
• 1/3 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.

Spread slices with honey or serve with ice cream

Food Adventures in Hong Kong and Taiwan

Here is just a glimpse of a few of the goodies I've been ingesting.

Afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong (Check out the yellow hermes lady in the back. :) I was amazed with her creativity and eccentricity)

Famous shaved Mango Ice in Taipei.

Side note: I made the Braised Ginger Chicken found on weekofmenus.blogspot.com for my parents this past week and they loved it! If you haven't tried it yet, I definitely think you should give it shot. I would recommend adding 1/4 cup of sugar (or less) instead of 1/2 cup of sugar. I've also made simplified versions of the chocolate chip cookie below. I excluded the rice crispy treats and toffee and it turned out amazing! Melt-in-your-mouth amazing.

Chinese Seafood Rice Noodle Soup (Thick Noodles)

I grew up eating my grandma's seafood rice noodle soup - it was one of her many "na sou xai" or "famous dishes" .  She made it for special occasions and it has always been one of my favorites.

My mom kindly provided the recipe via skype a couple days ago. Without any specific measurements, I took a shot at it and succeeded! :)! 

Thick Rice Noodle (found @ ranch 99)

Cooking in the pot

Ready to eat

Ingredients:

Soup base

1/2 lb of pork (Thinly sliced)

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 Teaspoon corn starch

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil or olive oil

1/2 Cabbage (Thinly sliced)

3-4  cups water

Some salt

Other ingredients

1.5 lbs cooked crab (you can find this at ranch 99)

1 Tablespoon oil

1 Chinese Style Leek (sliced thinly)

2 lbs clams

1/2 bag of thick rice noodles 

Directions:

Soak the rice noodles in hot water for 15-30 minutes (set aside)

Marinate the thinly slice pork in soy sauce and corn starch for 5 minutes

In a large pot, heat up the oil and add in pork. Stir fry until brown then add in cabbage. Once cabbage has been cooked, add in enough water to cover all of the ingredients and turn heat to low.

In a wok, stir fry thinly sliced leeks for 3 minutes. Add in crab and cook for 5 minutes then add ingredients into soup.

Let the soup cook for 10 minutes and add in clams and thick rice noodles. Cook for another 15-30 minutes until done. Season with salt.

Add white pepper before you serve. 

Welcome to the my cooking adventures. Here is baking goodness!

Thanks to Monica, I've recently discovered the blog 'Week of Menus" which has inspired me to experiment with cooking and baking. Two weeks ago, I tried her Soy Braised Ginger Chicken (added 1/2 the rec'd sugar) which turned out absolutely amazing, and last night I followed her recipe for Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Toffee Cookies. I let the dough rest in the fridge for a couple of hours. Again, amazing. Here are some pictures of my final product!

yum. the one on the far right was made per Gene's request to ensure more chewiness vs. crispyness.

Below is the recipe I took directly from Week of menus. I used two Heath bars for this recipe since that was the only option I could find at Safeway and only 1/2 a bag of Ghiardelli dark semi sweet chocolate chips :

Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Toffee Cookies (adapted from a recipe by Giada de Laurentiis) (approximately 4 dozen)

1 cup old-fashioned oats

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 ounces English toffee candy (recommended: Heath or Skor bar), finely chopped

2 cups rice krispies (optional)

1 (12-ounce) bag semisweet chocolate chips 

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Line 2 heavy large baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Stir in the oatmeal, toffee, rice krispies, and chocolate chips.

For each cookie, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful of dough onto sheet, spacing 1-inch apart (do not flatten dough). Bake until the cookies are golden (cookies will flatten slightly), about 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely. (The cookies can be prepared 1 day ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)