dream pie

Life sure has been busy for the past few weeks. Along with lots of holiday fun, there was lots of work to be done as well. Presentations, proposals, lots of designing and a bit of coding here and there...and one of the highlights of this busy season was working with a fellow food blogger with a redesign of her blog! Alanna over at A Veggie Venture needed a new look and new functionality and I was so flattered that she felt that Cornelius and I were up to the task. She knew what she wanted from the get-go (hooray for clients with vision!) which made our working relationship as sweet as pie. Working with Alanna was great, so head on over to her blog and take a peek at all her yummy veggie recipes (well needed at this time of year)!

And speaking of sweet relationship pie, the day after New Year's Day was Cornelius' birthday! Before the big day, I sat Cornelius down and made him select his dream cake recipe from a skyscraper pile of post-it note marked cookbooks. And instead of a dream cake, he picked a dream pie! Coconut-banana cream pie with a dark chocolate lined crust, to be exact. Oh my! Lucky for me one of my resolutions for this year is to eat more healthy...so I was more than pleased to make a cream pie that I didn't want to eat (you know, back to the banana thing again). But don't worry about me, I loved making this pie! There were quite a few steps involved but I loved that intensity. Not that it was that difficult, but I did have to do things that kind of scare me...like making custard and pie crust* from scratch. But the pie was a success and well worth the effort (according to Cornelius and his parents who all sampled the pie). The recipe I used was adapted (I subbed light coconut milk for whole milk for that crazy coconut twist!) from the banana cream pie recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.

* The only problem with the crust was that it shrunk during baking quite a bit. Any thoughts as to why it happened? I didn't use pie weights so might that be the problem? Regardless of the shrinking, it apparently was tasty!

drink it up!

Alright, I swear, this is my last beverage post for a little while. 3 drink posts in a row? Well, I guess it's time to bottoms up!

For anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows that I'm not a big fan of bananas. Sure, I do love a slice of banana bread once in awhile, but I certainly can't stomach one outta the peel, caramelized with butter or popped into a smoothie. No way, not this girl! But, my husband is smitten with the fruit and because I'm smitten with him, I'll go ahead and caramelize some bananas as a topping to his waffle and I'll blend up a frozen banana into his smoothie. He's definitely a lucky man and he knows it!

This morning I decided to surprise him with a special seasonal smoothie....and I used another ingredient that he loves and I hate: eggnog. I remember my mom making eggnog from scratch around the holidays and loving it. It wasn't sickly sweet or gag-inducingly thick but ever since those long ago days, I've stayed away from the stuff. Commercial varieties - even the organic stuff in a bottle from Avalon - still makes me gag. But Cornelius loves eggnog and my special breakfast smoothie didn't disappoint.

banana eggnog smoothie
1 1/2 frozen banana
1/2 c eggnog (from a carton)
skim milk
1 pinch nutmeg
1/2 t cinnamon

Add frozen banana and eggnog into a blender and add enough milk to cover. Blend on high. Add in the nutmeg and cinnamon adding more milk if necessary. Blend again to combine.

banana fana fo fana

Cornelius loves bananas. I hate 'em and I welcome their untimely demise. There is only one instance where I welcome their sickly sweet and slimy texture...it's a version of banana bread that won me over at our local bakery, called "UBC cake" which stands for Ultimate Banana & Chocolate cake. It is the ultimate! A crispy cinnamon sugar topping studded with chocolate chips. What's not to like? A few years ago a friend in San Francisco sent me a recipe that she called "Willie Nelson's Famous Banana Bread". I'm not sure if Willie made the bread or if it really was some kind of famous secret recipe, but I baked it and it tasted just like the UBC cake I loved! Ooooh, I was sooooo thankful for the recipe and it's delicious results that I didn't even care that bananas were a part of the mix.

NOTE: When I made the cake this morning, I reduced the amount of sugar the original recipe called for by 1/4 cup. I also reduced the amount of chocolate chips by half. Feel free to stick to the original recipe below.

willie nelson's famous banana bread AKA ubc cake
3 really ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/4 c sugar
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla
1 T cinnamon
1 c chocolate chips
1/4 c sugar mixed with cinnamon

1. Mix bananas with eggs and stir well. Add flour, sugar, soda, vanilla, and cinnamon and mix well. Add 3/4 c of the chocolate chips into the batter.

2. Pour batter into a buttered square cake pan. Sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mix and the remaining chocolate chips.

3. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.