This cheeseball has all the flavors of a caramel apple without the candy-making part! Continue reading
Tag Archives: fruit
Elvis Would Love: Peanut Butter Banana Bread
When I saw the discount bananas I couldn’t pass them by. Seriously, $0.38 for 4 bananas! How crazy is that? I love the discount produce. The discount alone was my motivation to make banana bread.
When I thought about Banana Bread, I figured I should consult a baker since I am not one. I stopped by Jess’ blog and she even has a whole banana section! Chippy Peanut Butter Banana Muffins (adapted from Noble Pig by way of Flying on Jess Fuel)
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3-4 ripe bananas
1 cup milk
1 cup chunky peanut butter
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
1 cup cinnamon chips
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flours, sugars, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl.
In another mixing bowl, mash the bananas. Then add the milk, egg, vanilla, oil and peanut butter and mix well.
Pour the wet ingredient into the dry and mix until just combined.
Fold in the chips.
Pour the batter into muffin tins lined with cupcake liners or sprayed with nonstick spray. Depending on how big you like them, the batter will make 12-18 muffins.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Mine made one loaf and 6 small muffins. They were pretty gooey since I upped the banana and peanut butter ratios. I really liked the peanut butter in there…it made it richer. Peanut butter and banana are so great together.
Guest Post: A Special Meal For The Birthday Girl
Here’s the special guest post I mentioned earlier from Justin:
While I do not share the same enthusiasm for my birthday, I know that birthday celebrations are one of the most important times of the year for my wife. I knew I wanted to cook a special meal for her, and I wanted something without a complex list of ingredients. I also wanted something I had cooked before, to save myself the pressure of testing new things. I went with Columbus’ Pork Chops, and substituted the suggested side of salad and crusty bread for wilted spinach. This recipe is from one of our go-to cookbooks, Rachel Ray’s 365: No Repeats (http://www.amazon.com/Rachael-Ray-365-Repeats-Deliciously/dp/1400082544). When I first started reading through the directions, I was thinking it was too simple for a guest blog post, but once I started preparing and taking photos, I felt like there was enough substance for the many readers of The Three Bite Rule.
Columbus’ Pork Chops
Ingredients:
4 boneless, thick-cut pork chops
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pint strawberries, sliced
1 cup basil leaves, chopped
1/4 balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375. Season the chops with salt and pepper and let them come to room temperature, about 20 minutes.
In a medium bowl, toss the strawberries with the basil and vinegar and let stand for 15 to 20 minutes.
Heat an ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add the EVOO to the skillet and sear and caramelize the meat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side.
Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast for 10 to 12 minutes, until the juices run clear and the meat is firm but not hard (I always use our meat thermometer and it never fails to produce perfectly cooked meat!). Let the meat rest for 5 minutes.
Mound the macerated berries on top of the chops and serve.
I was really impressed with how it turned out, and even more impressed with my plating. I am confident it would have been enough to win over the toughest Chopped judges! It was a pretty straightforward, yet elegant presentation, and Emily was really happy with it.
I also wanted to add in a special dessert, and decided that I could gamble on baking something new after the success of the main course. I grabbed a box of Betty Crocker Decadent Supreme Molten Lava Cakes, and to my surprise they turned out perfectly!
Curry Chicken Salad fit for Dr. Seuss
Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss! This Curry Chicken Salad was the best I could do to honor the late writer of The Butter Battle Book, the Lorax, and Sneetches as an example of ooblek or wumbus because of the zing, bam, wow, pow this has.
I expect my birthday tomorrow to have the same kind of impact! My birthday food theme might be my best yet!
I pretty much only like sandwiches when I make one myself and eat it immediately, or if it has all sorts of crazy things on it and it gets pressed, and occasionally when a restaurant makes it. That might sound like all the sandwiches you can think of, BUT I don’t bring them to work as lunch. If I’m going to have one, it has to be packed separately and assembled and eaten immediately.
I thought of curry chicken salad because it doesn’t have to be a sandwich and it is different. It was a great use of some leftover rotisserie chicken.
Ingredients:
2 cups, chicken breast or rotisserie chicken
2 tbs curry sauce
1 cup red seedless grapes, halved
1 tbs light mayo
Directions:
Shred chicken into bite size pieces
Mix chicken with curry sauce, grapes, and add mayo to taste.
Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.
This made about 3 size-able servings. I had one as a sandwich and two other servings topped salads. I think the grapes are necessary to cut the spice with some sweetness. The zing makes this great.
Even More Calzones
I hosted bookclub for some super fun ladies and I was racking my brain about what to make. Mr. J and I were on the verge of officially owning the house and I wanted to host despite the boxes all over and Christmas gift wrapping station. There’s a core group each time we get together and a few others come and go so I was looking for a crowd pleaser that would be easy for me to enjoy the crowd while dinner was almost ready. I went to my trusty signature calzones.
I knew I could make these and cook them 75% the night before, which would allow me to visit with them. It also meant most of my cleanup was already done!
I made a broccoli and cheddar one in wheat dough and prosciutto, apple, and brie. I started with carrots and hummus since all other apps were seeming to compete with the calzones and I served some salad and we finished with s’mores bars.
Ingredients
1 ball of pizza dough
6 slices of prosciutto
1 granny smith apple
6 oz brie
Directions
Spread room temperature dough out.
Core and chop apple into thin slices.
Roll prosciutto into logs and chop chiffonade.
Slice brie.
Layer brie, apple, and proscuitto. Layer and layer until you think there’s too much and keep going.
Close the dough around the filling and make a few slices across the top.
Brush with egg wash for a shiny outside.
Bake 375 degrees for 40 minutes on a pizza stone or lined baking sheet.
I freeze the brie to make it easier to slice. 15-25 minutes should be enough to cut through. I chiffonade the prosciutto because it can be tough to bite through when the pieces are too big. Let it sit for 5 minutes before slicing so the filling doesn’t ooze out.
Check out just how crazy the filling looked and then when baked it looks like the right amount. That is my prime suggestion for calzones.
I usually put sage in, but I forgot it when grocery shopping. I wasn’t sure if it would be everyone’s taste so I thought the broccoli one would be well liked too. Now, How many pennies?
Here’s the costs for the Proscuitto Brie and Apple Calzone:
Pizza dough: $1.50
1 Granny Smith apple: $0.79
1/4 pound Prosciutto: $1.68
6 oz brie: $4.99
total: $8.96 or $2.24 per person for 4 servings
Swappin’ Cookies
I think this is the last of my holiday items to catch you up on. Do you have today off? Great! Make some of these cookies! If you’re working today then just stay tuned this week for a guest blog recipe post and a calzone!
I love all the cookies that come along with the holidays. Growing up I don’t think I realized how lucky I was that Mum made so many cookies, from scratch. I thought everyone was so lucky.
Normally when cookie swaps are mentioned everyone groans and isn’t into consuming more calories this time of year so I think I haven’t been to one since 2008? Wow.
Ms. L invited me to one at Flour that is also a fundraiser for Cradles to Crayons. I’m so glad I took on the challenge but brining cookies to Flour Bakery? Talk about pressure! Let’s also talk about the recipe I chose considering I don’t bake very often: Apple Oatmeal Toffee Drop Cookies. Go ahead, you can laugh.
I made a sugar cookie base thinking I’d make some more cookies soon afterwards…what was I thinking? During packing, buying the house, and preparing to move all during the holidays, I had no time.
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used granulated brown sugar)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup quick oats
1 green apple, chopped
1/2 cup toffee bits
Directions
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Cut in butter and sugars together. Add egg and vanilla, and mix until well incorporated.
Add oatmeal and apple and stir by hand until combined.
Form dough into ping-pong sized balls. Form an indent on the top and fill with toffee bits (see the top row). Cover the toffee with the dough from the sides of the well (see the bottom row).
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges start to turn golden brown. Then transfer to a cooling rack.
I made a double batch since we were asked to bring 2-4 dozen. These suckers had lots of butter, brown sugar, and oatmeal. I mixed in granny smith apples but filled them with toffee bits. I think the apple did a lot to keep them soft and the toffee melts so much faster and might leave these with burn toffee oozes if it isn’t stuck in the middle.
Baking a double batch and filling each cookie was a test of my patience. I tried to just go slow and make them all perfect. They came out awesome but baking cookies is hard work! I had 2 trays going and my apt oven was terribly uneven. Two timers, fifty million cookies, and creative cooling racks I was done and ready for the swap. (Mine are in the middle in the back).
There were some awesome cookies at the swap. I had to admit there were a few I thought were below par. I’d never bring chocolate chip cookies to a swap unless they were perfectly cooked and the best ever…these weren’t.
I was hoping Joanne Chang would talk more about baking, about Flour, about holiday cookies, etc. She talked about why they hosted this event again but I would have liked to hear about her cookbook or her favorite goodies. She had made Butter Breton Cakes that she was testing for her next cookbook. They were reallllly good.
Apple Something
It’s sweet, tangy, and everything I wanted. Plus, it meant I didn’t lose any apples I picked myself!
Ingredients:
6 apples mostly pealed (peel gives some color)
½ cup water
½ cup apple cider
1 tsp lemon juice
¼ cup brown sugar
Directions:
Roughly peel and chop apples.
Drop them into a pot with water, cider, lemon juice and brown sugar.
Cook low and slow, stirring occasionally until cooked down.
I probably cooked mine for 30 minutes. You could definitely puree the apples if you don’t want any chunks. Apple sauce is just like peanut butter, the more chunks the better for me. I thought adding some vanilla would be good. If I’d had some vanilla ice cream I probably would have tried some warmed up as an ice cream topping. Seriously, the brown sugar makes it that good.
What a good jar gift! I keep seeing cookie kits on Pinterest (where else?) but a lot of my loved ones will be getting some sort of edible gift this year. (shhh!) The applesauce will be long gone by then. Since I’m no baker, I wouldn’t prep a jar filled with cookie ingredients no matter how cute it looks since that’s not really me. Maybe somebody in your life would like some homemade applesauce?! I have a few ideas for goodies but I won’t be sharing those until the gift-giving has commenced! Just 19 more days!!