A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Banana Bread Brownies

 

I kept seeing a Banana Bread Brownies recipe on Pinterest and even pinned it myself. What a clever idea, I thought, especially for those of us who don't care for chocolate all that much or often.  Banana bread brownies...something about it just sounds right.

And it is.  So right.

Baked in a large jelly roll pan, the brownies make 35 pieces and come out to be little squares of OMG delciousness. 

I looked at the recipe I had pinned, one that had been adapted from another recipe, and looked at the original as well. Then I changed a bunch of stuff, not because anything was "wrong" with the original recipes, but because I've been trying to eat a little cleaner by add more whole grains to our diet, change out sour cream for Greek yogurt, use honey instead of refined sugar, etc., and I know from experience with banana bread that it's a great vehicle for whole grained flour.  Banana bread made with half whole wheat is actually tastier, in my opinion, than banana bread made with all all-purpose flour (and Gene can't tell the difference). 

These are truly not to be missed!

Merry Christmas Eve: Cranberry Nut Bread and Cream Cheese Cookie Press Cookies

 

Happy Christmas Eve and I'm just barely started!  I was a big slug yesterday and laid around most of the day watching Stephen King's The Stand, okay well I've read the book so I watched and napped while Gene watched--all four parts in one afternoon!  Felt good to slug out especially since my knees have been killing me.  Whine whine.

But today I will bake in earnest and post all weeks about the things I've learned and succeeded and failed at.  Hee hee.

I did have great luck with a new cranberry bread recipe from "The New Best Recipe" cookbook from Cook's Illustrated.  We had a smaller party of just my brothers and sister and their kids on Saturday night and that was a huge hit with requests for more for the big family Christmas evening party. I think it's the combination of the orange zest with the cranberries that really swings that recipe into something special.

Since our Mom died many years ago, it's a big thing with us kids when i make the old-fashioned cookies and dishes we grew up with--it's the memories that help make our holidays special so in the depths of the closet I finally found the cookie press I bought years ago and reworked Mom's recipe for cream cheese almond star cookies like we grew up with.  Our mom would make dozens of a dozen kind of cookies every year but but I'm not quite that motivated! They'll take what they get and they'll like it. :-)

I'm also a day late and a dollar short so I will be making the Daring Bakers Yule Log but not until today and, unfortunately, not in accordance with the directions.  I told my family about it and they were all excited except they didn't like the flavors in the challenge and whined and cried until I promised to make the yule log as a pumpkin roll, something my sister used to do every year until she lost her favorite recipe, and they want the pumpkin to be topped with maple instead of cappuccino buttercream.  Nothing like the folks who are going to be eating it making their desires known, eh?  :-)  But in the meantime (I'll be baking today) check out all the lovely yule logs already having been constructed by Daring Bakers all over the world:  Daring Bakers Blogroll

And now for those recipes for today...