Best Ever Banana Bread

Ever heard of Nurse Maid's Elbow? We found out about it the hard way yesterday. It sounds all simple and insignificant. "Nurse Maid's Elbow. Aw. That sweet little nurse maid has a tired elbow." Ha! Hardly. Basically it's a dislocation of the elbow in children. It's super common and it happened to Mini Mac yesterday. It scared the bejeezus out of me. 

See, this pigeon has been showing up in our backyard this week while I have been on vacation. We're talking huge, fat, blue-headed, downtown pigeon that should be perched on top of the courthouse. NOT in my neighborhood. (For some reason my yard is a favorite hangout for all types of wildlife. Pretty fun for us and Mini Mac.) The first day it appeared, it flew off before I could get Mini Mac to lay eyes on it. Yesterday, I called her to the back porch quickly and she came running. As I held her hand, she stepped off the back stoop and began to lose her footing. I lightly lifted her by the hand to keep her from hitting the ground. Immediately she started crying and holding her arm to her body. Last year one of the bloggers I follow posted about her 1 year old dislocating his elbow and I automatically knew that was what had happened. Off to the ER we went. She was not hysterical but crying and in pain.

Now, those who know me and the men in my family, know that we have "trick knees." They dislocate without warning and for no reason at all. (In fact, it just happened to one of my brothers a few days ago.) I am never doing anything cool like snowboarding or mountain climbing. I am usually just reaching for a paper towel or getting groceries out of the car. This has happened many times and I have made a few ER trips to get it popped back into place. Not fun. Not pretty. NOT a good sound when they pop it back into place. Needless to say, all I could think of was how uncomfortable and in pan Mini Mac was.
 

We got to the emergency room and luckily were the only ones there. Mini Mac was not happy about the triage activities that took place even though it was just temperature taking and heart rate checking. The nurse tried to tell her the electrode was just like a band aid and I had to interrupt her quickly to tell her Mini Mac is the only child in the state who does NOT like band aids. We called it a sticker instead. 

Once Mr. Mac got there, he held Mini Mac at her request for her daddy and the doctor came in to check her out. I talked with the registrant about payment for about a minute and by the time we were done the doctor had put her elbow back into place. She didn't even make a peep. And right away she was moving her arm like a champ. She thanked the doctor for making it "Aww betta" and told me later in the day she wanted to go back to see him. 

The tricky thing here is that apparently she is now predisposed to Nurse Maid's Elbow. It can happen again. I have had friends on Facebook tell me they know people who have been to the ER 4 times in 2 years. Fantastic. I CONSTANTLY walk around aware of my knees and their odd and totally useless superpower of taking on characteristics of Optimus Prime and now I have to do the same for my daughter's elbow. Fingers and toes crossed that we get blessed and never have to go through this again. 

Needless to say, the morning was so exhausting we both napped for 3 hours in the afternoon. When we woke, I had a hankering for the best banana bread you will ever eat so I participated in some baking therapy. 

Seriously, this banana bread will knock your socks off. The addition of sour cream or yogurt just amps up the flavor and keeps the bread very moist. And it's also super simple. 

Best Ever Banana Bread  (Recipe Credit: Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup (1 stick) room temperature butter, plus more for pan

1 Cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 & 1/2 Cup unbleached flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 Cup very ripe mashed bananas

1/2 Cup sour cream (or plain yogurt)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 Cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions:

~Preheat oven to 350 and butter a 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan. Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and beat to incorporate. 

~In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt and baking soda together. Add to butter and sugar mixture and beat until combined. Add bananas, sour cream and vanilla again beating until combined. Add nuts and pour into prepared pan. 

~Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes. Let rest in pan for about 10 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack. 

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Here are some variations:

-Add a cup of fresh blueberries with the nuts.

-Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners to make an easy grab-and-go breakfast muffin.

-Remember the banana cake I made a while back? I used this recipe for the cake the other day and it was SO much more flavorful. I will do this from now on.

Pull Apart Pecan Sticky Rolls

I actually call these Christmas Sticky Buns. Since it is now unofficially summer, I thought I would forgo that title and just stick with something more descriptive and less out of season.

These became a tradition in our house two Christmas's ago after our daughter was born. (My plan is for her to never know a Christmas without them!) A coworker gave me the recipe and I am oh so grateful she did. I love the kind of breakfasts you prepare the night before. It makes for a much easier morning as I stagger around the kitchen searching for that first cup of coffee. Not to mention that these taste like something from a fancy bakery.

Have you heard of Monkey Bread? It's the same concept. The main difference is that the recipe calls for frozen yeast rolls instead of canned biscuits. Big difference in my opinion. Also, it uses a small box of cook and serve vanilla pudding mix. Are you intrigued yet?

The recipe that was given to me was not very exact. I have played around with it a few times and finally got what works for my bundt pan. Mine is not very large. Maybe 10 inches? But not to worry. I will give you tips so that you can make it work for whatever size pan you have on hand. Regardless, you can't really mess this recipe up as long as you don't over do it on the number of frozen rolls you use.

Pull Apart Pecan Sticky Rolls

12-18 frozen yeast rolls (golf ball sized)

1/2 - 3/4 cup chopped pecans

1 small box cook and serve vanilla pudding (I have been told butterscotch works great, too)

6-8 tablespoons melted butter

1/2 to 1 cup of brown sugar

cinnamon

Directions: 

-Spray bundt pan with cooking spray. Be sure to get every bit of the inside covered. This is important so that the rolls turn out of the pan with no issues. 

-Sprinkle in the chopped pecans. Lay the rolls in one layer. The rolls are not perfectly round and in fact are a bit flat. I tilt them up on their sides so that I can fit more in my pan. (My pan fits 12 rolls.) Be sure and fit only one layer of rolls. It may seem like there is way too much of the other ingredients in comparison to the small rolls, but trust me, these things rise a lot. 

-Sprinkle the pudding mix and brown sugar over the rolls. For my size pan I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar. If you have a larger pan that fits 16-18 rolls, you can use a cup of brown sugar. 

-Drizzle on the melted butter. Again, for my size pan I used 6 tablespoons. For a larger pan, use 8.

-Finally, sprinkle on cinnamon. The recipe I was given gave no amount. I use about a tablespoon.  If you love cinnamon, use more.

-Spray a sheet of aluminum foil and place it sprayed side down over the pan and secure. Allow rolls to rise overnight. (This is where the number of rolls is crucial. If you have more than one layer of rolls you risk the rolls rising to the point of pushing the foil off the pan and ending up on your counter or they won't bake thoroughly and will fall when you turn them out of the pan.)

-The next morning,  preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the rolls covered for 15 minutes and uncovered for 10-15 or until done. Cool for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a dish and dig in!

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These rolls are prefect for overnight guests. Heck, they are perfect for anytime. I made them this past weekend and they were a delectable Memorial Day breakfast. No one would ever guess they are so easy!

Brown Sugar Raisin Bread

For me, bread is the ultimate comfort food. Give me a plain old piece of white bread and a dab of butter and I'm no good to anyone for the next half hour. Throw in some brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins and this girl can just call it a day.

Making bread by hand is a true talent and lost art. I have patience for many things when it comes to baking and while I enjoy eating homemade bread, kneading the dough exceeds my patience quota.

Thankfully, my stand mixer is equipped with a dough hook. To me, that is simply a magical thing. You mean I don't have to knead by hand? I can stand there with a glass of iced tea, file my nails, chat on the phone (yeah, because THAT is what I do with my free time) and watch my little green machine do all the grunt work? And you mean to tell me, at the end of it all I will have soft, warm slices of heaven that melt in my mouth? Sign me up!

My cousin Ellen gave me "Bread," a Williams-Sonoma cookbook when I got married. While flipping through it recently, I came across their recipe for Brown Sugar-Raisin Bread and knew right away that it had to be the inaugural bread for my mixer.

This bread, like most traditional recipes, rises twice. The trick is, after the first rising the dough is flattened into a rectangle, sprinkled with a brown sugar and cinnamon filling, rolled into a log and tucked into a loaf pan.

Once in the pan, it rises for the second time...

and is then baked until golden brown.

What results is a soft and chewy treat full of raisins, interrupted by a swirl of gooey filling. It's fabulous as is, but is even better toasted with just a smidge of cinnamon butter. The latter kept me in breakfast for about two weeks. There's not a better way to start the day, in my opinion!

Brown Sugar-Raisin Bread

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1-1/4 cups warm water (105-115 degrees F)
1 cup warm milk (105-115 degrees F)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
1 tablespoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
6 to 6-1/4 cups bread flour, plus extra if needed
3/4 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup dark raisins

For the filling:
 2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar mixed with 4 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


Directions:

-In a bowl, sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of the granulated sugar over 1/2 cup of the water and stir to dissolve. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

-In a heavy duty mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the remaining water, the milk, melted butter, remaining granulated sugar, salt, egg and 2 cups of the flour. Beat on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute.  Add the raisins , then beat in the remaining flour, one cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

-Switch to the dough hook. Knead on medium-low speed, adding flour 1 tablespoon at a time if the dough sticks, until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes. Transfer the dough to a greased deep bowl and turn to coat it. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1-1 1/2 hours.

-Lightly grease the bottom and sides of two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Divide the dough in half and roll or pat each half into an 8-by-12-inch rectangle. Lightly sprinkle each rectangle with half of the filling, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. Beginning at the narrow end, tightly roll up each rectangle into a compact log. Pinch the ends and the long seam to seal the filling. Place each log, seam side down, in a prepared pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until about 1 inch above the rim of each pan, 1-1 1/2 hours.

-Preheat over to 350. Bake until the loaves are golden brown and pull away from the sides of the pan, 35-40 minutes. Turn out onto racks and let cool completely.