Let’s get this straight. I hate bananas. Can’t stand ‘em. I only came up with this recipe to get rid of the ones that were rotting on my counter. I have only made these and not tasted them*, but have gotten rave reviews, so take that for what it’s worth.

*ok, I made these again and…they were good – but don’t tell anyone or I’ll be ousted as head of the ‘I hate bananas’ club!

ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla

crumb topping
1/4 cup white sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
1/8 cup butter, cubed
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake pan with paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Mash bananas with sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.

In a small bowl, mix together the crumb topping. Liberally sprinkle it over the tops of the muffins, obviously, cleanliness is not a factor here.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Testing with a toothpick til it comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack. These are delicious! Or so I’ve heard…

Of course you can make this as spicy as you want, but this is just a plain, simple, stick your guts kind of delicious soup. Perfect on a cold winter’s day.

ingredients:
6 corn tortillas
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
2 medium carrots
2 celery stalks
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 cans chicken broth
3 cups water
½ cup corn
2 cups roasted chicken
1 cup baked ham or cooked smoked sausage
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon oregano

corn tortillas
jack cheese
avocado
lime

Cut the corn tortillas into thin strips. Heat the oil in a pan and stir the tortilla strips around until crispy. Let drain on a wire rack, add salt to taste. Set these aside, you will use these at the end to garnish the top.

Heat oil in a soup pot. Add the garlic, onion, carrots and celery, until softened. Add the tomatoes, chicken broth and water, stir and heat through. Add the chicken, corn and the ham. Add in the seasonings, pepper, cumin and oregano. Let simmer for 10 minutes.

Cut up a few corn tortillas into strips and put them in the bottom of the bowls. Ladle the soup on top.

Garnish with cheese, avocado, lime wedges and your fried tortilla strips.

When I was a kid my mom made trifle all the time. It’s a great dessert for parties, because it’s so pretty. And when you dig down and get the layers, that there’s the good stuff. Here’s my version, not your traditional English Trifle, but good flavors, just the same.

ingredients:
3 pkg ladyfingers (1 box at Trader Joes)
16 oz heavy cream
8 oz. cream cheese
3/4 sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 (6oz) box lemon pudding
berries

Wash and dry the berries. I like to use a mixture of raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. But you can use strawberries, bananas, even mandarin oranges if you want.

Whip heavy cream with an electric mixer until it forms a nice thick whipped cream. Set aside. In another bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar, add vanilla. Then slowly mix in the whipped cream.

In another bowl (I know, lots o’ dishes) make the lemon pudding according to package directions.

Now for the assembly. Trifle bowls are obviously the first choice, since they have straight sides, but any nice glass bowl will do. I pour a little bit of the cream cheese mixture on the bottom of the bowl, just so that the lady fingers will stand up nicely. Line the edge of the bowl.

Now layer. Anyway you want, really. For this one I put the cream cheese mixture first, then the pudding, then blueberries.

Then cream cheese again, pudding again, and this time I laid out some of the extra lady fingers that I had. They are porous, so really good for the center of the trifle, they absorb all the goodness. Then a cream cheese layer again, berries, and pudding. I just keep going until everything is gone. I like to finish with the cream cheese mixture on top though, because the white is pretty and it holds the berries nicely.

The best part about trifle is the mixture of flavors. So put it back in to the fridge and chill. Anywhere from 8 hours to overnight.

This is a stunner at parties and looks complicated, but couldn’t be easier.

Pumpkin Mochi – just in time for the end of fall! This recipe is similar to the Blueberry Mochi recipe that I have, and just as tasty! It’s almost a hybrid cake/mochi, still, very yummy.

dry ingredients:
1 pound (16 oz box) mochiko
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

wet ingredients:
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed millk
2 blocks of butter, softened/melted
2 teaspoons vanilla

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9×13 pan by melting butter, and greasing the bottom and sides.

Combine dry ingredients together in a bowl. In a larger bowl, mix the wet ingredients. Combine the wet and dry together and mix well. Pour into your prepped 9×13 pan. Bake for one hour.

When it comes out it looks almost cakey, but don’t let the looks fool you, it has a nice chewy, not too sweet mochi consistency.

I let it get good and cooled before I even try to dig in, but it’s worth the wait!

This recipe is incredibly simple. By putting all the ingredients in a bag, sort of like a marinade – the chicken becomes nice and flavorful. When it bakes it comes out crispy and tasty!

Ingredients:
6 chicken thighs
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons garlic salt
pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced (or 1/4 cup bottled lemon juice)

Wash and pat dry chicken. Put all ingredients into a freezer bag and let sit to marinate. 6-8 hours is best. I usually do it in the morning before I leave for work, then it’s ready to cook by the time I come home.

When you are ready, to cook, preheat oven to 450F. Grease a 9×13 pan or I prefer to use non-stick foil, that makes for easy clean up. Put the chicken in, skin side down. Pour remaining marinade on top.

Bake for 15 minutes, turn over and bake for another 15 to 20.

Let rest for a bit, then you are ready to serve!

Also, kids love this. It’s crispy and tasty and an all around good meal.

No, not everything on this blog is mini, it just seems that way. This is the old recipe you remember as a kid. Nothing new, no new ingredients, although you could add a slice of cheese in there if you were so inclined.

Ingredients:
1 pack little smokies
1 can Pillsbury Crescent rolls

What makes this recipe so easy is that kids can do all of the work. Just open the packages, cut the crescent rolls small and let ‘em roll. Literally. Let the kids roll. Well, wash their hands first of course.

You can even add a tiny slice of cheese if you want. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

I serve these in addition to pancakes. This happened to be our Sunday night dinner. Don’t forget the syrup. 3 kinds. And the whipped cream. Oh and the pig sprinkles…no dinner is complete without pig sprinkles.