Showing posts with label family favourites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family favourites. Show all posts
Do you have family favourites in your recipe repertoire? I have plenty in mine. These recipes are my tried and trues.
Recipes that have been gleaned and collected through the years, handed down from family and friends. Shared recipes. Recipes that turn out every time and that never disappoint. Recipes with a history.
Don't get me wrong. I love trying out new recipes. I have lots saved on Pinterest to try at some point. There are some wonderful gems in the new ones that I try as well.
After a time, however, I do tend to gravitate back to what I have known, loved, cooked and baked for many a year.
Using one of these old recipes is like visiting with a long lost friend. A companion that has kept you company for many, many years.
Recipes like this are usually attached to fond memories, be they of family members or of friends.
This recipe I am sharing today is so old that I can no longer remember where it came from. It is one that I have been baking since before I finished high school.
I strongly suspect it is a recipe that was handed down from my grandmother to my mother, to me. Its hand written into my Big Blue Binder . . .
along with a bazillion other treasured recipes. I wish that I had been a bit better at writing down the sources of these things through the years.
I guess when I was writing them down I never dreamed that one day I would be sharing them with the world! Isn't that a magical thought?
To think that my Grandmother's banana bread recipe might could possibly one day be shared with the world. I wonder what she would think of that??
The whole idea would actually be quite mind boggling to her, as would the idea of her granddaughter living in the UK one day!
Most of my Grandmother's recipes were written on the backs of envelopes or on scraps of paper. There were no instructions included, just a title and list of ingredients and measures, and sometimes very vague measurements at that . . .
Things like butter the size of an egg . . . or five cents worth of flour. Recipes she might have shared with friends along with cups of tea and conversations . . . or maybe even recipes which had been handed down from her own mother . . .
I actually remember my Great Grandmother. She was this tiny little white haired lady, as tiny as a bird, slightly stooped over, with dark wire glasses. This was way back when a grandmother looked like a grandmother.
She had been a farmer's wife and the community mid-wife in her day. Oh what I would give to be able to sit down and talk about cooking and recipes with her.
She passed away on Christmas Eve in 1959. I remember the time very well. My mother, sister and I were staying with my maternal grandparents, who my great grandmother had also lived with in her old age.
She was in a bed in the back bedroom of the house, where everyone was gathered. They kept shooing me out of the room. I expect I was being a bit of a nuisance.
My mother wasn't allowed in the room because she was pregnant with my younger brother, and there was some wierd idea that my mother's pregnancy would be affected in some negative way by being in the presence of someone who was in the process of passing over. They were a superstitious lot.
That was back in the day when generations of people lived in and shared the same house. In that modest home there was my Great Grandmother, my Grandparents, my Aunt Freda, her husband Harold and their wee boy Danny, along with my mother, sister and myself.
As I recall it only had four bedrooms and an outdoor loo.
I can remember getting washed at the kitchen sink, whilst standing on a stool . . . while wood snapped and crackled in the kitchen wood stove. . . . the smell of the old linoleum floor and the noise it made when you walked across it. It was lovely and warm in that kitchen.
There was a huge trap door in the floor below the lineoleum which led down into the root cellar beneath the house. The lineoleum would be rolled up to get to it. My grandfather kept his home smoked hams and bacon and barrels of homemade Kraut down there, along with my grandmother's preserves and pickles. There was probably plenty of root vegetables as well.
There was plenty of love in that house and lots of simple, but very good food. It was 60 years ago this next Tuesday, on the 3rd of March, my brother made his entry into the world while we were living in that house.
I remember dancing around in the kitchen holding onto my 3 year old sister's hands, and singing out with joy, "We have a baby brother!" It was such an exciting time! We are a pair of old ladies and and an old man now.
And none of that has anything to do with Banana Bread, other than the fact that as much as we like to try new things, there is still a great great value to be found in the old. Things like this old family favourite Banana Bread.
Yield: 2 loaves (8 X 4 inch)
Family Favourite Banana Nut Bread
I like to try new things, but I keep going back to the classics. Simply because they're the best. One to eat now,and one to gift or freeze.
ingredients:
- 280g plain flour (2 cups)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 120ml vegetable oil (1/2 cup)
- 195g granulated sugar (1 cup)
- 2 large free range eggs, lightly beaten
- 4 medium, very ripe, bananas, peeled and mashed
- 120g chopped toasted walnuts (1 cup)
instructions:
How to cook Family Favourite Banana Nut Bread
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter two 8 X 4 inch non-stick loaf tins. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, soda and salt together in a bowl.
- Whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. Stir in the mashed banana combining well together. Add the flour mixture and stir together to blend completely. Stir in the walnuts.
- Divide the mixture between both of the baking tins. Smooth the tops. Place on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of each comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
- Slice to serve, with or without butter.
NOTES:
Use the ripest bananas you can. If they look like they need to be thrown out, then they are perfect for banana bread. Bread can be stored, wrapped tightly, for up to 5 days. Alternately you can freeze it wrapped in plastic cling film, and then in aluminium foil for up to 3 months.
I like to toast my nuts before I use them in baking. Simply pop them onto a baking sheet and into a hot oven for 8 to 10 minutes. They are usually done when you can smell them all toasty and nutty! have a great Sunday everyone!
Yes, you read that right . . . OVEN Fried Chicken. The eagle has landed and my oven is now up to scratch! It took them long enough, right?
Not complaining, I am just happy its working again. I love my stove, and am not keen to start over with one I'm not familiar with.
My Canon and I are familiar friends . . . partners in crime . . . we know each other well and are happy to keep it that way!
To celebrate it being up and running again, I thought I would make one of my husband's favourite dinners, Oven Fried Chicken . . . . along with Chive & Buttermilk Mash!
He loves his mash. He is a real mashed potato fiend and will eat them any way, any how, any time! They are his preferred form of potato, even over chips!
Not me. I love chips/French fries! But again, having said that, the potato is my favourite vegetable and I enjoy them in any way, shape or form!
The chicken is a fairly simple and easy recipe, one which I have been making for years. No, it's probably not any healthier than oil fried chicken.
It is rather tasty, and not quite as messy to cook, however. Once in a blue moon, I cook it as a real treat! And trust me, it is a treat!
My ex BIL used to love it when I made this chicken. He often requested it if they were coming over for supper.
I used to make about 3 roasting trays full to feed all of us, with firsts and seconds . . . it is that good. Even the cold leftovers are good, which makes it great for picnics as well.
The mash is also a favourite, with plenty of buttermilk, butter and snipped chives. The buttermilk gives it a lovely tang.
Buttermilk is great with potatoes! The chives give a touch of onion flavour, but without the sharpness and strength of an actual onion. It is just right.
The skin and coating on the chicken get nice and crisp in the oven. Its really not as hard to do as frying chicken on the top of the stove.
This is a lot easier, and I think it is every bit as good. In fact I prefer it in many ways.
You melt some butter and oil together in a baking pan first . . . in the oven, until they are lovely and hot. While that is happening you mix together some flour and seasonings.
I use mixed herbs, which are a mix of different dried herbs. Usually equal parts of basil, oregano and marjoram . . . all of which work well with chicken.
If you can't find it in the shops, mix up your own. Just equal parts as above.
The chicken pieces get rolled in the hot melted butter and oil and then shaken/rolled in the flour mixture before you place them back into the pan to bake in the oven.
You bake it for a time and then flip it over and bake it for a while longer, until crisp, golden brown and finger-licking, lip-smacking good!
Prepare yourself to fall in love. Totally and completely in love.
Oven Fried Chicken
Yield: 4 - 5
This is delicious. I don't really think it's any better for you than the deep fried, kind, but once in a blue moon it makes a really tasty treat! It's even good cold. I usually leave the skin on, but you can remove the skin prior to dipping and coating if you wish.
ingredients:
- 80g of butter (1/3 cup)
- 80ml of vegetable oil (1/3 cup)
- 140g of plain flour (1 cup)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
- 10 pieces of chicken
instructions:
How to cook Oven Fried Chicken
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Have ready a large rimmed baking sheet. Put the oil and butter on the baking sheet and set it in the oven to melt the butter while the oven heats up and you get the chicken ready.
- Place all of the dry ingredients into a plastic bag, shaking them together to mix.
- Remove the baking pan from the oven. Roll the chicken pieces, one at a time, in the melted butter and oil, then shake them in the bag of seasoned flour to coat. Set them on a piece of wax paper until you have them all coated. Once they are all coated, place them presentation side down in the melted butter/oil in the pan, leaving some space in between each.
- Bake in the heated oven for 45 minutes. Flip the chicken over and bake for a further 15 minutes, until crisp and golden brown.
The potatoes are just as tasty and just as easy to make.
Its just mashed potatoes, mashed together with some butter, buttermilk and seasoning . . .
with a nice smattering of snipped chives stirred in at the end for additional flavour.
If you wanted to you could also stir in some grated cheddar cheese . . . but today, I thought we were in deep enough!
Chive & Buttermilk Mash
Yield: 4
Delicious fluffy mash, with the tang of buttermilk and sharpness of chives. Your family is sure to love this. Goes with anything and everything!
ingredients:
- 2 pounds floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- ( a maris piper, or a russet type of potato)
- 2 ounces milk (1/4 cup)
- 2 ounces butter (1/4 cup)
- 4 to 6 ounces of buttermilk (1/2 to 3/4 cup)
- 1 bunch of chives, finely chopped
- salt and black pepper
instructions:
How to cook Chive & Buttermilk Mash
- Place the potatoes into a pot of lightly salted water and bring to the boil. Cook until fork tender and then drain well. Place back into the saucepan and shake over the residual heat of the burner to dry out. Mash well with a potato masher. Beat in the milk, butter and buttermilk until light and fluffy. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir in the chives. Keep warm until you are ready to serve.
I simply served some mixed vegetables on the side. Coleslaw would also be very good I think! In any case, colour me one happy camper! Let the baking begin once more!
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One of my favourite meals has to be a good old fashioned boiled dinner. This is very much a Maritime thing. Or even a New England thing. (The Eastern side of Canada is called the Maritimes and consists of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.) A lot of people in the Maritime provinces can trace their lineage back to the Loyalists who moved up from the American Colonies, after the War of Independence. And a lot of Maritimers left the Maritimes and moved to New England after WW2 looking for work. I have family on both sides of the border, and I would wager that we all enjoy a good old fashioned boiled dinner from time to time!
A boiled dinner is a one pot dish, from the days before slow cookers, which consists of simmering salty meat (ham or beef) until tender in cooking liquor and adding vegetables at the end to cook in that same liquid.
The long slow simmer of the meat, lends such a tender quality to the meat and flavours the liquor, which then imparts flavour into the vegetables when you cook them in it.
For the cooking liquor I use a combination of half apple juice and half water, along with some aromatics such as carrot, leek and celery . . .
I also add a cinnamon stick, some black peppercorns, parsley stalks and bay leaves . . .
All of these help to give a lovely flavour to the meat . . . on this day I used a small dinner ham that Todd had picked up for me. I had asked him to get a gammon, but he brought back this uncooked Danish dinner ham. Never mind . . . it worked out alright, and was probably not as salty as the gammon would have been.
He tries. That's what counts. Actually it worked very well, and was only a fraction of the cost of a large piece of gammon, so really it was a win/win.
Once your meat is tender (and you can use salt beef, or corned beef, or even just a beef brisket) you remove it and set it aside to rest and keep warm . . .
I like to scoop out the leek, carrot and celery and discard them as I will then be adding fresh vegetables that will be served along side of the meat . . .
I like carrots, swede (rutabaga) cabbage and potatoes . . .
Trim you cabbage and then cut it into thick wedges, leaving the root end intact so it stays together. I peel the carrots, swede and potatoes, cutting the potatoes in half and the swede into thick slices. The carrots I leave whole. They cook in the cooking liquor and take on some lovely flavours.
When everything is all done, you just slice your meat and serve it with the cooked vegetables. You can strain the cooking liquor if it isn't too salty and serve the meat and veg in shallow bowls with some of the liquor spooned over top, but my favourite way is to just serve the sliced meat and veg along with a delicious parsley sauce. This makes for some really good eating, and you usually have plenty of meat leftover to enjoy in sandwiches the next day.
Yield: 6 to 8
Boiled Dinner
prep time: 30 minscook time: 4 hourtotal time: 4 hours and 30 mins
Simple ingredients done well. A bit old fashioned, but delicious nonetheless. Comfort food, plain and humble.
ingredients:
3 1/2 pound corned beef, gammon or salt beef
2 leeks, trimmed and cleaned
1 carrot
2 ribs celery
a cinnamon stick
9 peppercorns
6 stalks parsley
a couple bay leaves
cold water to cover
(If doing gammon, you can do half water and half apple juice)
For the vegetables:
1 rutabaga/swede peeled and cut into thick slices
1 small head of white cabbage, trimmed and cut into quarters
6 to 8 carrots peeled
6 to 8 medium sized potatoes, peeled and halved
For the Parsley sauce:
2 TBS butter
2 TBS flour
480ml milk (2 cups)
pinch dry mustard
grating nutmeg
salt and white pepper to taste
several handfuls of parsley choppedinstructions:
Place the meat, leeks, carrot, celery, cinnamon stick, peppercorns,
parsley stalks and bay leaf into a large saucepan. Cover with the cold
water. Bring to the boil. Scoop off any scum which has risen to the
top, then reduce to a simmer and partially cover. Simmer slowly for 3 to
4 hours until the meat is very tender. A fork should go through it
easily. Remove the meat and set aside to keep warm. Remove and discard the
carrot, leek and celery. Bring the liquid back to
the boil, add the cabbage and cook for about 10 minutes, then add the
potatoes and swede, cook for about 10 minutes longer, add the carrots
and cook for a further 5 to 10 minutes at which time all of the
vegetables should be tender.
parsley stalks and bay leaf into a large saucepan. Cover with the cold
water. Bring to the boil. Scoop off any scum which has risen to the
top, then reduce to a simmer and partially cover. Simmer slowly for 3 to
4 hours until the meat is very tender. A fork should go through it
easily. Remove the meat and set aside to keep warm. Remove and discard the
carrot, leek and celery. Bring the liquid back to
the boil, add the cabbage and cook for about 10 minutes, then add the
potatoes and swede, cook for about 10 minutes longer, add the carrots
and cook for a further 5 to 10 minutes at which time all of the
vegetables should be tender.
While your
vegetables are cooking make your parsley sauce. Melt the butter in a
saucepan. Whisk in the flour and dry mustard. Cook for about 2 minutes,
then whisk in the milk slowly. Cook, stirring, until the mixture comes
to the boil, then reduce to a slow simmer and cook for about 10
minutes. Season to taste with a grating of nutmeg, salt and white
pepper. Stir in the chopped parsley and serve.
vegetables are cooking make your parsley sauce. Melt the butter in a
saucepan. Whisk in the flour and dry mustard. Cook for about 2 minutes,
then whisk in the milk slowly. Cook, stirring, until the mixture comes
to the boil, then reduce to a slow simmer and cook for about 10
minutes. Season to taste with a grating of nutmeg, salt and white
pepper. Stir in the chopped parsley and serve.
To
serve slice the meat across the grain into thick slices, and place on
dinner plates along with some of the vegetables. Pass the parsley sauce
at the table.
serve slice the meat across the grain into thick slices, and place on
dinner plates along with some of the vegetables. Pass the parsley sauce
at the table.
Created using The Recipes Generator
Comfort foods like this are one of my favourite things about Autumn! Bon Appetit!
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