Because I couldn't live by bread alone.

one year ago: Sausage Party!

well friendlies, we made it through a year together! A year full of bad puns, a few new ideas, one lonely video (working on more, just wait...), and hopefully some tips that helped you in your own kitchen. I have really appreciated the positive responses from you guys and really enjoy the comments and questions you leave me. Thanks very much for following along and I hope that all of us continue to polish our skills.

When I realized that the one year post was coming up, I wanted to do something special or extravagant, but as I thought that over, I realized that's not really what we're about here. Our goal is to become super savvy with what we have and to make the most we can out of as little as possible. Totally not into wasting stuff.

ok, enough of that nonsense...to foodstuff:

Look at that beautiful banana bread. I wrote about it last week, thought I would share a pic and a recipe. hopefully McTuff's (the artist formerly known as wifeshow) mammy won't mind. Made some white beans (have become too frugal to buy canned, but realize don't care because dried have such better texture) with kale and tomatoes on monday. Had a few ham scraps that I threw in there also and some onions and peppers too. topped with some LeQrotons, olive oil, and fleur de sel. pretty ridiculously easy, pretty ridiculously tasty. Last pic is pizza crusts that I took home from the bakery and topped with cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, and goat cheese. It was a very good combo. I've realized that I prefer really simple pizzas, I think that sometimes the ingredients get lost in each other, and in the summer, when produce is rampant, it's especially nice to appreciate how well a few ingredients can compliment each other. Thanks for a great year peepsters, hopefully you've all tried some of the recipes/tips out. I look forward to all of us becoming better cooks in the next year.

DISH recommends:

LeQuartier pizza crusts. Made by the fearsome foursome (Marth, Dish, P-bear, and JQ). Don't even think about buying some crappy grocery store variety, or we'll come to your house and...well, we'd probably give you some so you would peacefully convert. Sorry we're pacifists, and generous. bread missionaries. pick some up at meridian park location or southridge.

super covert (not really), possible excommunicating, delicious banana bread recipe:

2.5 cups ap flour (they call it all purpose, but I only use it for food...)

1 cup sugar

3.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch grated nutmeg

1 egg (farm fresh fool!)

3/4 c milk (at least 2%. whole is better, but seriously, who drinks red-lid?)

1 cup chopped nuts (it's a free for all here, have used almonds, wals, and pecans, all tasty)

3 tbs. veg oil

1 c mashed super ripe bananas (about 3, maybe four tinys)

preheat your oven to 350F. Spray and flour loaf pan. Mix all of your dry and wet ingredients together in two separate bowls. add the wet ingredients to the dry stuff. mix until incorporated, scraping down the sides of bowl as necessary. pour into prepared pan and bake for about an hour (60-65 minutes, until skewer inserted into center comes out almost clean). Let cool for 10 minutes, then take out of loaf pan.

tip: make sure that when you insert your tester into the loaf that you don't confuse banana bits for crumbs, the banana stuff will look like batter. I did this once and ended up totally overbaking it. pieces.

oh yeah, makes great muffins too. Just shorten the time to around 18-20 minutes.