Thirty Things to be Thankful For #19

I'm thankful for the ability to cook. I love experimenting with new recipes. I love sharing my creations. Cooking is my downtime, my creative time, my fun time. There is a lot that I want to learn in the cooking arena, which must be why I enjoy TV Food Network so much! I also love browsing cookbooks. Cooking is one of those things that makes life more enjoyable for me, so I'm grateful that I can! And, yes, I even take pictures. (I'm a dork, I know!)








And because I'm always looking for an excuse to share my favorite recipes, here are some from the pictures - Dutch Baby is the baked pancake with blueberries and the Hawaiian Banana Bread was to die for (makings of a dessert, but don't worry, I still ate it for breakfast!). They are both extremely easy and so good. Plan on making these soon!

HAWAIIAN BANANA BREAD (from this cutest blog http://laraellingson.blogspot.com/)
ingredients:
*3 ripe bananas, smashed
*1/3 C melted butter
*2-3 Tbs milk
*1 C sugar
*1 egg, beaten
*1 tsp vanilla
*1 tsp baking soda
*pinch of salt
*1 & 1/2 C flour
*2 handfuls coconut flakes
*2 handfuls of macadamia nuts
*2 handfuls milk chocolate chips

instructions:
*no need for a mixer for this recipe
*preheat oven to 350 degrees
*mix butter into the mashed bananas in large mixing bowl
*mix in milk
*mix in sugar, egg, and vanilla
*sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. add the flour last, mix.
*pour mixture into 1 buttered 4/8 loaf pan or 4 mini loaf pans.
*add the coconut, macadamia nuts, & chocolate chips to the top and "fork-whirl" it around
*for large loaf, bake 1 hour & 15 min - 1 hour & 30 min
*for mini loafs, bake 30 min -50 min
*the bread should slightly crack at the top, and coconut will be dark brown...make sure you can stick a toothpick in and pull it out with nothing on it.
*cool for 15-20 min
*remove from pan and drizzle icing on top

icing:
*1/2 C - 3/4 C powdered sugar
*3-4 cap fulls of milk
*mix two together until the consistency is bright white and runs slowly off the spoon. add more powdered sugar or milk to reach desired consistency. Make sure it's not too runny b/c it won't stick to the bread.

BERRY GOOD DUTCH BABY
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (I omitted)
1/3 cups sugar
pinch of salt
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup milk (I used non-fat)
2 cups blueberries (or any berries you see fit + extra if you want)
4 tablespoons butter (I thought this was more than necessary, could get away with half that)
powdered sugar for topping

Preheat the oven to 425 and heat a 10 inch cast-iron skillet in the oven (I used a dutch oven pan). In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs with lemon zest, sugar, and salt until combined. Add the flour and milk and whisk until smooth (about 1 minute). Add 2 cups of berries.

Remove skillet from oven and put butter in it to melt. Add the batter spreading fruit evenly. Bake in the center of oven for about 22 minutes, until the edges are browned and puffed and the center is slightly browned in spots. Tranfer the skillet to a trivet and dust with powdered sugar. Cut into wedges and serve with additional berries if you wish.