Bananaberry Walnut Bread

I had a few bananas that had ripened before I could get to them. So I decided to make banana bread. We also had chopped walnuts & dried blueberries on hand, so why not add them in too. J This recipe is based on this on that I found on BettyCrocker.com with my little additions. Simple enough, but it made it made the house smell delicious!!

Bananaberry Walnut Bread

1 1/4 Cups Sugar

1/2 Cup Butter, softened

2 eggs

1 1/2 Cups mashed very ripe bananas

1/2 Cup Buttermilk

1 Tsp Vanilla

2 1/2 Cups Flour

1 Tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp salt

1 Cup chopped walnuts

1/2 Cup dried blueberries

 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom & sides of 1 loaf pan

Mix sugar & butter in a large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk, & vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt, just until moistened. Mix in nuts & blueberries. Pour into your loaf pan.

Bake for about an hour and 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from pan and setting on a wire rack to cool completely (about 2 hours)

Sage Meatballs with Gorgonzola Walnut Sauce

So as with most Rachel Ray recipes, this recipe looks like it has about 50 ingredients. Relax, it’s only 19. J I love Rachel but I think her recipes can look a little intimidating due to the long list of ingredients. Well, it’s usually all worth the fuss because her recipes turn out great and if you just try one little thing, it will make it way easier… be your own Sous chef and prep all of your ingredients before you get started. It will make everything move along much smoother. 

Getting back to business… I found this Rachel recipe on foodnetwork.com. Really, the only change I made was making the meatballs from lean ground turkey instead of ground veal.  Cancy & I both thought it turned out pretty good. I hope you like it.

Sage Meatballs with Gorgonzola Walnut Sauce

1 pound gemelli pasta or other short cut pasta

Salt

1 pound ground veal

1 egg

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

6 to 8 sage leaves, finely chopped, a couple of tablespoons

1/2 cup bread crumbs, a couple of handfuls

1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, eyeball it

Ground black pepper

Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

3/4 cup chopped walnuts, divided

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup cream

1 cup Gorgonzola, crumbled

3 to 4 cups (1 bunch) arugula or baby spinach, cleaned and trimmed

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Place water on to boil for pasta. When it comes to a boil, salt the water and cook pasta to al dente. Drain.

While pasta is working, place veal in a mixing bowl and add to it the egg, garlic, sage, bread crumbs, cheese, nutmeg and salt and pepper, to taste. Drizzle a little extra-virgin olive oil into the bowl, mix and roll small 1-inch balls. Arrange balls in a single layer on a nonstick cookie sheet and bake 8 to 10 minutes in a hot oven until meat is golden and firm.

Toast the walnuts and place them into a food processor. Grind the walnuts and reserve.

In a deep skillet over medium heat melt butter. Whisk flour into butter and cook a minute then whisk in wine and reduce by half. Whisk in stock, when it bubbles and begins to reduce, stir in the cream and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer to thicken the sauce a bit, 2 to 3 minutes, melt in the Gorgonzola and stir in the ground walnuts then season the sauce with pepper, to taste, and maybe a pinch of salt.

Shred the greens into thin strips.

Toss the pasta with the sauce. Serve pasta garnished and topped with a generous mound of greens to mix in as you are eating.

Bavarian Style Cinnamon Walnuts

I wasted no time on this one. I saw this recipe from Joelen pop up in my Google Reader, & I think it was about 5 minutes later; I had walnuts in the oven making the house smell delicious. Oh and the taste? They are wonderful.

Bavarian Style Cinnamon Walnuts

2 egg whites
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or extract)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups pecans halves, divided (I used walnuts)

2 quart sized resealable bags

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.

In a bowl, combine the egg whites, vanilla and water. Whisk until frothy and place in 1 resealable bag.

In the other resealable bag, combine the sugars, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Mix thoroughly to fully combine.

Place 1 cup of pecans in the egg white mixture. Seal bag and toss to coat. Remove only pecan halves and place in a medium bowl. Be sure to keep any remaining egg white in the bag.

Coat the remaining pecans with the egg white mixture in the sealable bag and set aside in the bowl.

Place 1 cup of the egg white coated pecans in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Seal bag and toss to coat. Remove pecan halves and place in a medium bowl. Be sure to keep any remaining sugar in the bag.

Coat the remaining pecans with the cinnamon sugar mixture in the resealable bag and set aside in the bowl.

Pour any remaining cinnamon sugar mixture from the resealable bag into the bowl of nuts.
Stir all the nuts once more in the bowl to thoroughly coat.

Place coated pecans on parchment lined baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 1 hour - stirring every 15 minutes. Store in an airtight container.