B for Banana bread

I have always skipped this recipe as I already have a favorite banana Bread recipe. one I have made for years and years that always comes out perfect. its from a Betty Crocker cookbook and if one follows that recipe its wonderful.
the recipe in this book is a bit different and actually a bit easier, not so fussy about when and how things are added. its pretty much wet ingredients mix, then dump in the dry, stir and be done with it. I wasn’t real fond of the dumping in the dry ingredients though I felt as if they should already be mixed before dumping as the time between measuring each of the dry seemed to cause the flour to clump more. whereas I find mixing the dry then adding slowly while mixing saves a lot of time since one is not chasing and squishing out the flour clumps. but that is just me.


once all the flour clumps were successfully removed it was time to add the nuts. now in keeping with the recipe I added walnuts but I must say if given a choice of nuts in a banana bread I would prefer pecans, and better yet I actually prefer it without nuts at all. then it is into the oven to cook for an hour or so.
this once again was an issue, it took significantly longer to cook then the stated time in the book. but I actually think this is something with my oven, I really need to invest in one of those oven thermometers because I have been having this issue with other recipes as well, so it must be the oven not the books.


it smelled heavenly as it cooked and made me want to eat it right away, but I behaved and waited till it cooled. and I must say it turned out pretty good even for having nuts in it.
would I make it again? sure it tasted good, and I am sure it will be just as good without nuts. maybe even a bit more moist. not that this wasn’t moist it actually was. and it top it all off the next day it was sliced and made into banana bread french toast which was pretty awesome but was eaten before even the thought of a picture could be had.

A for Apple crisp

the first recipe in the book is Apple crisp.
we ate apple crisp a lot when I was a child, was it from this book?  I have no idea, but it is something I always enjoyed eating.
one reason we had it a lot is we had a apple tree. the apple’s were not exactly the best eating apples they were a bit on the tart side ( not that that really stopped us from eating them straight off the tree)  but they sure cooked up nicely. so for about a month every year we ate apples till we were sick of them. for only having the one tree it sure produced a lot of apples.
 I miss that tree unfortunately the tree was lost to drought a few years back, but I still remember that tree.

making the recipe was fairly easy, as I do believe most Apple crisp is.
it called for sliced apples, which is something I have never actually done when I made Apple crisp. I always just chunked the apples. but since the recipe called for sliced I use an apple slicer then  using a knife cut each slice into three thinner slices. I find it goes faster that way.<

 the recipe also said I could used peeled or unpeeled apples.   I opted for the unpeeled  because they umm... have more nutrients in them right?   not to mention its a bit faster  and I actually like the peels on apples.
I used a combination of green and red apples,  not for any type of flavor combination but because I had them in the fridge already.

the cook time was a bit longer then the book called for which may have been the type of apples I used (not that I actually have an idea what type of apples I used. just the ones I had.)  or my oven which sometimes cooks slow could have been the reason<

the smell of it cooking was absolutely heavenly, but how can it not be? anything with Apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter has smell good cooking.  the hardest part of the whole thing was waiting for it to cool enough to eat!
but it was worth the wait  the flavors were spot on  and the it had just the right amount of crisp to the topping while the apples were soft and perfect as well.
and of course I had to end it all by topping it with Vanilla ice cream! definitely a make again type of recipe.

the Alpha-bakery cookbook.

when I was a child gold metal offered this cook book. I can’t remember if you had to save proof of purchases or if you just sent in an order form and paid like $2 for it. or maybe it was both I don’t remember, what I do remember was how exciting it was to get this book! . and we used it... a lot. in fact this is the second copy as the first fell apart, and we were able to get it again. (I actually think this belongs to my sister, but shh, she left it at the parents.) the book offers a different recipe for each letter of the alphabet we had our favorites from the book of course, (turtle bread, and quick cheese burger pie being two of them) and all the recipe we made turned out good. some are super easy while others are bit more advanced for kids. but all are basically made from scratch. I love that they don’t tell you to buy mixes, like so many recipe books tend to do. I don’t think we ever made all the recipes though. so that is my goal, to go through the alphabet with this book and follow the recipes and directions as closely as possible, while still sticking to what I can and cannot eat. anything I change I will mention, but for the most part it will be the same. and I will finally get to make all those wonderful chocolately deserts my mother would never let me make.