Banana Bread with Cinnamon Swirl

Photo Credit: Melody

I got this recipe from Mel. She had made it recently and brought some over to my house so I asked her to write the recipe down so I could make it too! Very delicious. The cinnamon swirl is an added yum to the always good banana bread.

To be honest, we complete blanked and forgot to put the butter in it even though I had made my brother go to the store this morning to get some. Looks like it turned out anyway, but I'd add the butter next time!

It pairs very nicely with the apple cider and goldscholger drink that I'm enjoying right now. Mm the taste of fall.




Ingredients:
3 bananas                           1 tsp baking soda
1 egg (room temperature)   1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup melted butter          1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar                      salt
1/3 cup sugar                      1 tbs cinnamon

Instructions:
Peel and mush the bananas in a large bowl. Mix in sugar, egg, vanilla and butter. Add baking soda & pinch of salt. Do not over mix. Add flour and mix.  Pour a little over half the batter into the baking pan. Mix cinnamon and sugar. Add 2/3 of it on top of the batter. Using a knife without going all the way to the bottom of the pan, swirl around the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Top with the remaining batter. Sprinkle the remaining sugar/cinnamon on top. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Shepherd's Pie II

 Shepherd's pie take two! I made a sweet potato shepherd's pie a few months back. This is different twist. I made enough to serve 8 people.

Ingredients:

• 7 medium sized potatoes 
• 1/2 cup milk (approximately)
• 2 tbs butter (approximately)
• pinch of salt and big pinch of pepper
• pinch of garlic powder
• 1 1/2 (small) packs of lean ground beef
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4-1/2 purple onion
• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
• sprinkle of salt and pepper
• 1/4-1/3 of a cup each (approximate) of spicy gourmet BBQ, chicken/ribs bbq sauce/ ketchup
• 1 tbs worcestershire sauce 
• 1 cup of frozen corn
• 1-2 stocks of celery
• 6 baby carrots

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 350. 
• Peel and cut potatoes. Place in pot of water. Bring to a boil until potatoes allow a fork to pierce easily. Drain water. Mash potatoes with a masher. Add butter, milk, salt, pepper and garlic powder. I also used a hand mixer to try and get them smooth. 
• While potatoes are boiling, put ground beef in a pan. Brown meat. Depending on how much grease there is, you may have to strain the beef or scoop some out. There was only a light coating so I used it. 
• Add chopped onion and garlic to the beef. Stir and let onions soften a bit. Add chopped celery and carrots. Add chopped fresh thyme, salt, pepper. Add BBQ sauce/ketchup/worcestershire sauce. Add frozen corn. 
• Line a baking dish (slightly greased, especially on the sides) with the meat/veg mixture. Top with a smooth layer of potatoes. 
• Bake for 30 minutes at 350 or until bubbling. Then broil for a few minutes to crisp up the top. 

You can add grated cheese on top of the potato, or even in the meat mixture, which would be super delicious. But my sister's boyfriend doesn't like cheese (you're weird Ryan) so I only added it on top to part of the finished product! 

Spicy Thai Beef

I found a Thai restaurant on Queen Street recently that had very good food and an amazing patio. Conor got a Spicy Thai Beef dish and it was SO good. I then wanted to learn how to recreate it so I looked for a few recipes. This was the best (looking) recipe I found, however I didn't follow it entirely.

Changes to the ingredients:

• no green bell peppers - red and yellow only. 
• extra garlic (approximately 3 cloves). 
• lots more red curry paste (approximately 4-5 tablespoons).
• an entire can of coconut milk
• zest of an entire lime and juice of 2 limes. 
• no bamboo shoot because I forgot to buy it.
• Around 4 tablespoons of fish sauce. 
• Green onions for a garnish. 

Changes to directions: 

• Cooked the beef first. Then put to the side. 
• Cooked the vegetables second. 
• Added lime juice when lime zest was added.

That's about it! My family really enjoyed it, but I think I was too critical because of the spicy beef I'd had recently at the restaurant. I wanted the sauce to be thicker, sort of like the thai soup I made this summer. Maybe less of the coconut water and more of the thick part of the coconut. I'm not sure. A good start though!