Hearty Banana Bread

Again from Cooking Light, another banana bread. Their September 2003 issue had several recipes that I'm casually working through. This time it was Molasses Oat Banana Bread because I had all the ingredients on hand (molasses, oats, and icky, black bananas). The goal was to take the bread (and wine, and cheese, and crackers, ...) on our vacation so we'd snacks in the room. We had to get up at 4:30 am to catch our flight, and we had no time to pack the food. What a ridiculous idea that we could be that organized!

So we're back, from outer space, and we walked in to find the banana bread here in one piece - no cat teeth marks or anything. The bread gets bonus points for heartiness with use of oats and wheat flour, but it lacks some moisture you expect with banana bread. Tastes good with drizzled honey.

Rating: good

Easter Dinner

A lovely Easter family gathering on a lovely spring afternoon. We're not a religious lot (though some spiritual), but I like to take advantage of the holiday to make our own family traditions.

Menu:

Barbecued Pork Tenderloin
Potato Gorgonzola Gratin
Chardonnay Braised Radishes
Spring Salad with basic vinaigrette
Woodbridge Chardonnay (1999) and some red wine that I can't remember and we threw the bottle away already
and for dessert, Plum Ravioli and a refreshing lime-pineapple pie my mother-in-law brought

The pork was this wild recipe that had a marinade, then a rub, then a BBQ sauce - triple threat! More intriguing than that was the use of strong, brewed coffee in the marinade, and coffee grounds in the rub. In the end, the BBQ pork came out quite tasty and not as strong flavored as I predicted.

Because of the anticipated bold flavored pork, I picked strong side dishes that theoretically wouldn't get lost. This logic went for the wine as well.

I try to reserve one side dish for an experiment. Surprisingly no one had ever had braised radishes. Ok, not so surprising. But what was surprising was the total lack of interesting flavor. :-( They might have been okay sliced up in a salad, but otherwise, thumbs down.

The potatoes, on the other hand, were yummy. Again, I missed my mark guessing the Gorgonzola (blue cheese) would make the potatoes strong stuff. Nope. The cheese was a subtle flavor. So, yummy potatoes that cooked to perfection. Yeah!!

The menu was rounded out with a spring salad (bag it baby!) with a simple walnut oil and red wine vinegar dressing.

For dessert, Crisp Plum Ravioli with Lemon Thyme Honey and Yogurt Cheese. Whew, what a mouth full. And what the heck is yogurt cheese?? The nice feature of this recipe is nearly everything can be done the day before, leaving only the baking for the day of. The ravioli were stuffed with a cooked down plum compote thing. I didn't check my calendar to notice it wasn't plum season yet. Oops. Plum quality less than ideal... But the dessert gets points for uniqueness, presentation, and being good for you. I imagine the ravioli could be made with other stone fruit as well: nectarines, peaches, maybe even apricots?

Oh, and yogurt cheese is yogurt that sits in a strainer overnight so all the tart liquid drains out. The remains are the "yogurt cheese" which is milder and thicker than regular yogurt. Good for fruit dipping.

Barbecued Pork Tenderloin, from The Best of Cooking Light 5 (2003)
Rating: great
Reheat: same (makes great sandwiches)
Potato Gorgonzola Gratin, from The Best of Cooking Light 5 (2003)
Rating: great
Reheat: same
Chardonnay Braised Radishes, from Cooking Light April 2004
Rating: ok
Plum Ravioli, from The Best of Cooking Light 5 (2003)
Rating: good, but would improve greatly with fruit in season
Reheat: worse

BBQ

We've made a slight departure from our "book of the month" experiment. Didn't take long did it?

Our stove is currently non-functioning while we install the new tile backsplash. BBQ here we come!!

The other night we grilled frozen chicken wings with a raspberry BBQ sauce. We also grilled quesadillas (say what?!) with goat cheese, grilled asparagus and grilled onion. Oh man, were the quesadillas great! We had no idea we would stumble onto something so awesome. The wings were served with extra sauce, and the quesadillas were served with some leftover roasted red pepper sauce, and Dijon mustard. I thought some peach preserves would work as well, but not really. (Though today we had a goat cheese appetizer with orange marmalade and it rocked - guess I wasn't too off base.) Top it off with chilled white zin in chilled wine glasses and we looked like a couple of California cuisine snobs. :) The best part was we pulled it all together with stuff on hand. Amazing.

A well stocked pantry (fridge, freezer, ...) can make life easier. This fabulous dinner brought to you by the following staples: Dijon mustard, flour tortillas, BBQ sauce, frozen wings, assorted cheeses, and of course, good, cheap wine!