Gomer's Banana Bread Pyle

My Mom seriously makes THE BEST banana nut bread I have ever had in my life...and I have tried a lot of banana bread.

This is a family recipe, so I have gone back and forth on even posting it. But I figure....I don't have many people who look at my blog, and even if they did, I like braggin about my Mom's cooking (and mine of course!). :)

This makes quite a big batch, but it never stays around for too long.

Enjoy!

* 1 C butter or oil (I use butter)

* 2 C sugar

* 4 eggs, well beaten

* 6-7 bananas, mashed

* 2 1/2 C sifted all purpose flour

* 1 tsp salt

* 2 tsp baking soda

* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

- Grease 2 large loaf pans or 5 small ones. I actually do 1 large loaf pan and 1 pan of muffins. Works out perfectly!

- Cream butter with sugar.

- Add eggs and beat well.

- Add the mashed bananas, stirring to blend.

- In a separate bowl sift together the dry ingredients.

- Fold the dry ingredients into the batter, mixing well.

- Add the nuts

- Pour the batter into the pans.

- Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until done

** For muffins, fill 12 muffin cups 3/4 full and bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes

I usually cook for about 45 minutes for both. It might seem a little doughy when it first comes out of the oven, but it's just all the bananas. Once it's cooled, the bread is perfectly baked. Another thing I love doing is sprinkling sugar on the top of the bread. Do this about 15 minutes before it's done and it adds a nice crunchy topper to it.

Chicken Fajita Soup

I realize that I love chicken, but I promise I cook other things with different meats too! I just had to share this soup. My Dad is huge a fan of it, and he's pretty stubborn about trying new things. He knows what he likes, so why change that? Ha ha.

Chicken Fajita Soup

* 1-2 tbsps vegetable oil
* 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
* 1 (1.27 oz) packet fajita seasoning
* 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
* 1 green bell pepper, cut into thin strips
* 1 poblano pepper, cut into thin strips (will work with Anaheim pepper as well)
* 1 large onion, cut into thin strips
* 1 (14.5 oz) can fire roasted diced tomatoes
* 1 (15 oz) can seasoned black beans
* 1 (14 oz) can chicken broth
* 1 dash hot sauce
* salt and pepper to taste

-Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.
-Place chicken in the hot oil; cook, stirring occasionally, until brown-about 10 minutes.
-Sprinkle fajita seasoning over the browned chicken and stir well to coat.
-Add the red and green bell pepper, poblano pepper, and onion to the seasoned chicken; Stir and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are soft-about 10 minutes.
-Pour the fire roasted tomatoes, black beans, and chicken broth into the pot with the chicken and vegetables.
-Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
-Season the soup with hot sauce, salt, and pepper to taste before serving.

It's good by itself, or get some French Bread to dip. I love French Bread!

Chicken Pot Pie

I love chicken pot pie. I even love the frozen ones! My homemade chicken pot pie is the bomb.
I have made the handmade crust before, but as most everyone knows, dinner time is always crunch time. Both Alex and I work, so taking the time to make dough and let it refrigerate before using just takes too long. So I have made some changes to my old recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie

*Pillsbury Pie Crust-2 in box
*3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts-cubed
*handful of fresh green beans-cut into small pieces (not diced or cubed)
* 1 can niblet corn
* 3 red potatoes-cubed
*1 can Cream of Chicken soup
*1/3 - 1/2 cup sour cream
* 1/2 cup shredded cheese
* 1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
* 1 tbsp garlic powder
* 1 tbsp onion powder
* 1 tbsp Mediterranean seasoning


-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pie pan and place bottom crust into pan and up sides
-Cook chicken over medium-high heat. Season with crushed red pepper flakes, garlic powder, onion powder, and Mediterranean seasoning
-Mix veggies/potatoes with soup and sour cream
-Add cooked meat once finished
-Add shredded cheese to filling
-Fill pie pan/crust with filling
-Once filled, place the second pie crust over filling and crimp bottom and top pie crusts together.
-Cover edges of pie crust with tin foil to keep from burning
-Brush melted butter on pie crust
-Make a slit in top of pie crust
-Cook at 350 degrees for 20 minutes; Remove tin foil from edges
-Cook for another 10-15 minutes or until pie crust is flaky and slightly browned

You can put any veggies you would like into your chicken pot pie. My family likes peas and carrots in theirs, but Alex and I like to keep it simple. We have also made a spicy rendition of the chicken pot pie by using chorizo sausage, hot peppers as veggies, and potatoes (or spanish rice). Sounds a little strange, but I promise it's AMAZING! Try it out and mix it up!

Bon appetite!

Sausage Dip

I guess I will start my awesome new recipe blog with a little appetizer. I always get requests for this dip from family and friends. I have passed this on to my Mom and she's gotten people addicted too.

This recipe makes a lot, and I really don't have any pictures I have taken myself, so I will improvise with an image or two from Google.

Sausage Dip

* 4-5 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese
* 1 (16 oz) container sour cream
* 2 rolls regular sausage
* 1 roll spicy sausage
* 1 green pepper (diced)
* 1/2 onion (diced)
* 1 can Hot Rotel (drained)- You can also use regular Rotel if you don't like it too spicy
* 1 (8 oz) can diced green chilies
* 1 (8 oz) can diced jalapenos - Only if you don't mind the spicy part of it all
* 1 tomato (diced)
* 1 1/2 tbsp crushed red pepper
* Pinch of garlic powder

--Cook sausage on stove top over medium heat.
--While meat is cooking, put cream cheese into crock pot and turn to high to begin melting.
--Once meat is thoroughly cooked, add to crock pot over cream cheese. This should help to melt it down a little more.
--Add sour cream.
--Stir together as best you can-It will still be thick, so just get it mixed up.
--Add Rotel, peppers, chilies, onion to cream cheese mixture.
--Allow to cook in crock pot on High for 60-90 minutes.
--Once all cream cheese is melted and the dip is mixed, add tomato.



Serve with toasted bread or tortilla chips. A lot of people enjoy putting it on biscuits for breakfast, but this isn't a true sausage gravy (well, by my standards it's not ha ha).

Like I said before, this recipe makes a lot. It's very easy to half or even quarter it to meet your needs. It does go pretty quickly at parties though, from my experience. For a while I was actually chopping up all fresh peppers instead of the canned Rotel. It works the same way so you can always try that. I just love the taste of Rotel, so I figured I would make it easier on myself.

Dig in!

Coming Soon!

I have now started my own little online recipe book. Of course, I have homemade recipe books here at home for me to look at when needed, but I love sharing my favorite things.

I will be posting my first recipe on here soon, I'm just now getting it up and running. It will definitely be a challenge to maintain two separate blogs, but I'm up for it.

This might not reach many people, but if it reached a few, then I'm happy.

Keep checking back for updates!