Banana Bread

to end all banana breads. It was all I could do not to polish off the loaf. I followed Nigella Lawson, as usual, erring freely at whim, ending up with (for two loaves):

Six super-ripe bananas, mashed
4 eggs
4 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
1 C melted butter
1 1/3 plus 4 T spelt flour
3/4 C coconut flour
4 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
3/4 C sugar

Baked it all at 325 for 50 minutes and then just wallowed in the near-pudding that resulted, all golden butterscotch banana deliciousness.

Vegetable Lasagna

and salad.

Farmed Salmon

Yes, anti-biotic ridden, native species-destroying, environmentally disastrous farmed fish. It was fatty and delicious when grilled; we had it with a sauteed slaw of brussels sprouts and shiitakes, and brown rice.

Yellow-Eyed Pea Soup

A while back I posted about Rancho Gordo beans; the NYT magazine told me to buy beans from them, so I did. They are very good, and the Rancho Gordo marketing material is super cute, so I've kept buying them. (Incidentally, this means I have found a way to turn beans, the ultimate cheap staple food, into an expensive status symbol. I am a living entry in the "Stuff White People Like" blog, which you should read, if you haven't alredy.) Anyhoo, this is what I used:

1 lb. Yellow-Eyed Peas (super-silky when cooked)
One sweet onion, a bunch of carrots and celery, diced
One piece of the shoulder bone from our Christmas country ham, with rind attached

I cooked all of this for several hours. The beans were over-cooked, though still delicious. I strained the liquid from the finished soup, then pureed a cup of the beans with some liquid and added them back to the whole beans. The I thinned the whole thing with a few more ladels-full of liquid. It is extremely good; I had a bowl of it over brown rice for dinner.

Mustard Butter

Oh yeah, you heard me. It was like this: I had leftover buffalo bratwurst from an earlier meal, and wanted to combine it with shredded, sauteed brussels sprouts to eat with spelt angel hair pasta. It all sounded good, but I kept thinking, "bratwurst is really good with mustard." So I combined a teaspoon of dijon with a tablespoon of melted butter, whisked them up and dressed the pasta with it. It was very good, though next time I'd go even heavier on the mustard.

Fried Chicken

with quinoa and steamed carrots. The quinoa was overcooked, as it always is these days; I got a new rice maker and haven't figured out the proper water ratio yet.

The Shame!

We have in fact been eating dinner: little tiny lamb chops with spinach and brown rice, a potato fritatta with roasted cauliflower and carrots, cumin-spiced meatballs with roasted Brussels sprouts. As you can see, nothing new in the repertoire lately; sometimes dinner just has to get on the table with as little fuss as possible.

Lamb Chops

I broiled them, and they were gooooood. We had them with roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts.

Leftover Lasagna

which was better than it sounds. We had some broccoli with it.

Fried Potatoes

With sauteed red cabbage and apples, and leftover meatballs.

Vegetable Lasagna

My second attempt. Remember how proud I was of parboiling the noodles last time? This time I put them in raw, at the suggestion of many friends, and of course it's just as good. So that's lasagna one crucial step easier.

New Sweater

New sweater for an ever-bigger girl. She chose the yarn, I improvised the pattern.

Two Years Old

We celebrated New Year's Eve with our newly-minted two-year olds, with a cake from our favorite bakery. Big sister provides the concept which the baker then interprets and executes; she's never failed us.