Strawberry Banana Coffee Cake

I've been making my own yogurt and I am really enjoying baking and cooking with it.   It enhances the flavor of so many things.  This is a stack of miniature coffee cakes, made with the yogurt ... ripe bananas and crushed over-ripe strawberries.   I work really hard at not letting anything go to waste in my kitchen ... so when the berries started getting soft, I quickly stirred them into this good, good recipe!   I used a combination of cashews and pecans in the topping for these cakes.  I keep a little grinder jar 'at the ready' all the time and toss the ends of portions of nuts in it, so it almost always has a combination!  The cashews were left over from making cashew chicken a couple weeks ago!

You can tell in this picture that these little cakes were moist.  I love them that way and I've found that this recipe  can easily be microwaved to reheat it, so don't hesitate to freeze it in the portion size that you like ... one or two pieces at a time.  You can pop it right out of the freezer and microwave it for less than a minute and have warm, moist ... flavorful coffee cake to get your morning started the right way!

Banana Strawberry Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas

1 ½ cups chopped strawberries

1 cup Greek yogurt

½ cup butter, softened

1 ¼ cups sugar

1 teaspoon rum extract

2 ¼ cups flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

Topping:

1 cup chopped nuts

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a big mixing bowl, whip the bananas, strawberries, yogurt, butter, sugar and extract until creamy.  Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda and continue to whip until thick and smooth.    Pour the batter into a prepared 13 x 9 inch baking pan.  Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle on top of the batter.   Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes until the top is browned and the center springs back when you touch it with your finger.  

Let cool for 20 minutes before serving.  

Mrs. John A. Logan's Home Manual

Civil War General and Vice Presidential Candidate John A. Logan is celebrate at the General John A. Logan Museum in my hometown ... Murphysboro, Illinois.  I serve on the Museum's Board of Directors and I really enjoy doing volunteer projects that support the goals of the Museum.  This summer, I'll be hosting a series of cooking classes entitled, "Contemporary Turns on the Foodways of Loganland"!  I've been working toward this for the last five years and finally I'm ready to share some neat vintage recipes that we've rewritten for today's busy home cooks!   In the process of preparing, I purchased a reproduction of a book that Mrs. John A. Logan prepared.  I don't use the word "authored", because she really just compiled the works of lots of other experts and authored just one small section.  Nonetheless, the book is filled with treasures of information about the way things were done in 1889, when it was published!

This past week, I found the real thing ... an original 1889 edition of Mrs. Logan's Home Manual and bought it for a small price.  While looking for that, I learned that the book has been reprinted again, and is available from Amazon.  If you are interested, search for it by title.  It is a part of a series of classics reprinted.   It is filled with information on thousands of topics ranging from how to make a bag to store shoe buttons ... to how to prepare food for the folks who are ill.  The reprint includes copies of the original illustrations, and if you like these kinds of historic works ... it is a bargain!

If you want to learn more about the General John A. Logan, take a look at their site!

General John A. Logan

General Logan's Reception!

I serve on the board of directors of a small community museum, the General John A. Logan Museum in Murphysboro, Illinois.   The General is a notable Civil War Union General who was later on the ticket as a candidate for Vice President of the United States.  He and I share home towns and I am delighted to work to preserve the history of the Logan family and the fact that Logan created Memorial Day.

I had the honor of catering a reception a few weeks ago and I'm sharing a few pictures from our event.  My daughter, Nicole ... and our friend Stephanie, who I claim as a second daughter ... prepared the food and hosted the reception.  We had about a hundred people attend ... and that is a really good number for our small town events.

I created a menu that showcased the foods of the Civil War era ... but made in somewhat contemporary ways!  The recipes will be in the next cookbook I publish!

 A variety of 

cheese wafers and cheese Spritz ... lots of bold flavors to go with local wines ...

 Sweet potato focaccia
topped with caramelized onions, pecans and almonds

Goat Cheese Balls

made with a combination of cream cheese and goat cheese, rolled in pecans.   

Tiny biscuits filled 

with chicken salad

made with

pineapple and almonds

Sweet potato hummus flavored with cumin and chili pepper ... atop a cucumber slice, garnished with a radish and cilantro

I like to send guests away with a treat ... even 

adults at a special reception!  So, we packaged 

jelly beans in cute little paper bags 

and tied them with twine ... here's why:

Springtime Appetizers on the Deck!

I can hardly wait to get on the back deck and start enjoying food!  We have ample opportunities to invite family and friends to stop by and enjoy a glass of wine and something good to eat.  These appetizers are fresh and simple to make.  I've combined some fresh vegetables, chopped in small bits and dressed with a vinaigrette ... scooped into  crisp leaves of Belgian Endive.  I used carrots, radishes, onion and celery, with plenty of chopped oregano and mint.

 On this platter, you'll see grilled chicken wings, which are so easy to do.  I just marinate them for about an hour in any one of my favorite packaged marinade mixes and if you use one of those wing racks on the grill,  you don't have to even take a second peek at them.  Just close the grill and let them cook!   The other quick recipe is to core the center/seeds out of a cucumber and fill the cavity with deli ham salad.  Slice and serve!

There is nothing easier than making a ball of cream cheese and topping it with your favorite honey or jam.   Sometimes, I pulse the cheese in the food processor and add a little bleu cheese to it ... or an even more tart Stilton cheese.   This one is topped with Lemon Jelly from Darn Hot Chili Peppers.  You can buy that online by visiting Rancho Bella Vista!  Right here in Southern Illinois, we have a fantastic pepper grower and he and his wife know exactly what to do with them, so they have several packaged items.  

We love celebrating springtime by entertaining under our fruit trees, sitting on the back deck and enjoying the smell of freshly mowed lawns, Lilac and Mock Orange blooming in the side yard.  Don't take too much time preparing food ... choose these easy appetizers that you can make ahead and assemble quickly.  Put those wings on the grill to cook as your guests arrive, and the smoky aroma will lure them in through the garden gate! 

Easter at Grandma Debbie's!

For a couple week,s Phoebe and I talked about baking some cookies for Easter and she declared that we should bake 105 cookies!   She is big on the number '5'!   So, I got out the trusty cookie shooter, knowing that one recipe would make about 100 cookies!   We made cute little oval shaped 'blue eggs' and dipped one end in simple white glaze.   We also baked a batch of cookies from the seasonal and new pink lemonade cookie mix.   I've gotten attached to some of the cookie mixes ... which is unusual for an old scratch cook like me!   Phoebe's job was to decorate the tops of the cookies with Easter sprinkles of green grass and colored eggs, but she went a little overboard on a few!  They were beautiful!

Here's a collage of our Easter tablescape.   I bought this china pattern that is delicate lilac colored pansies years ago to use at the Sunday afternoon party I had for my parents' 60th wedding anniversary, which is March 30th.  I get them out almost every year for Easter dinner and mix them with my collection of china odds and ends that feature paintings of tiny violets.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope springtime is treating you well.  Today, I'll be spending lots of time in the yard and enjoying every warm minute of it!

Sedona Tablescape!

I've been selling lots of sets of dinnerware in my antique mall booth ... but not enough to justify buying a new set.  Oh well, I bought a new set of Pfaltzgraff anyway.  I just needed some bold color for everyday!  So, I got online and ordered 12 placesettings ... so I could enjoy them while entertaining ... and use them everyday, too.  I love the bold colors and had place mats and napkins already ... and a set of flatware that works well with this pattern!

So, the really big dinner plates are kind of simple ... but ... the "pop" comes later!

Don't you just love the primary colors? Looks like a Fiesta!

The homespun napkins repeat the colors of the bamboo place mats and someplace, I have a big tablecloth that matches those napkins!

Yes, I have all kinds of things stored and en route to the antique mall booth, so if you are ever at the St. Mary's Antique Mall, in St. Mary, Missouri ... just south of St. Genevieve ... look for Booth #272 ... Rolling Red Truck Treasures.  You will probably find something that you need ... that I don't need anymore!

These fabulous salad plates are where the color really pops.  This is a "southwest" pattern .. .but it also reminds me of the 1950s ...  Either way, I love it!

I can see it set with cobalt blue glassware ... or red glassware ... or big wine glasses with yellow stems ... and yes, I have all those!

The soup bowls are also extra large ... and I need them for this menu ... We're having ...

Manhattan Clam Chowder

with

Sweet Potato Focaccia

Chicken Parmesan 

with Spaghetti and

Homemade Red Sauce

Served with a Side Salad of 

 Greens with Braised Brussels Sprouts,  &White Asparagus in a warm

Balsamic Reduction 

Doesn't that sound incredible ... and Oh, did you notice that this dinnerware works for an Italian theme, too???

This deep oval plate is actually called
a dessert plate, but it works so well for a side salad that you want your guests to eat along with their entree.

It is deep enough to keep the salad dressing in the plate and fits nicely into the overall place setting.

Following this picture is one of the flatware.  This is Cambridge and I've had it for several years.  I just love the shape of the handles and the multiple colors.

Papa Joe tried to teach Miss Phoebe her primary colors using this flatware, but she was in her "blu-u-u-u-" stage and she didn't care about any of the other colors!



I'll be posting with ...

Let's Dish!

Wow Us Wednesdays!

Tablescape Thursdays

Seasonal Sundays

Make sure you click through and visit those parties!

Cactus on the Kitchen Table!

I'm tired of winter ... and it isn't over.  I needed a big dose of bright colors, so I treated myself to some new dinnerware, which you'll see in time for all the tablescaping and dishing parties this week!  Right now, take a look at my new centerpiece for the kitchen table!

I seldom set a table without some little pig slipping around behind a coffee cup or tucked into a composed centerpiece!   This time, I decided to put a couple center stage ... filled with faux cactus.  Miss Phoebe has been real interested in cacti lately, and although she has a real one growing in a little pot at home, I didn't want to have to take care of real ones ... or deal with the stickers in her little fingers.  She will, of course, handle all these when she sees them.

I love my big candle hurricanes.  I fill the bottoms with different things and enjoy wrapping the simple white candles with ribbon or raffia to bring it all together!  This is burlap ribbon ... (Hope these qualify this post for the cloche party!!)

I'm sharing this post with Tabletop Tuesday and the cloche party on the same site ... so make sure you visit the parties and check out some of the other posts!  But, before you go ... look around my site!

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

I worked on my newspaper cooking column today, so I wanted a crock pot supper that was easy to throw together!  My mother used to make the most wonderful barbecued pork ... long before there was a BBQ restaurant on every corner or even before we had crock pots!  Mama would bake a big pork roast on Saturday, then chop it up; cover it with BBQ sauce that she made herself (with plenty of brown sugar); and throw in chopped onion.  She'd put it in a covered roasting pan and bake it while we were at church on Sunday morning.   I'm sure the old gas oven was barely on ... because that meat just melted in your mouth and made the best sandwiches!

So, I decided that I'd do the same thing today.  Almost.  Mama was cooking for seven people ... I was cooking for one!  I placed 4 chicken tenderloins in my tiny crock pot with 1/2 cup of bottled BBQ sauce and some chopped onion.  I added a dash of Worcestershire sauce, ground pepper and a pinch of brown sugar.  It really just took about 2 hours on high ... The meat was frozen when I started it.  Oh, it was good and all I needed after tasting cooking column goodies all day!

I'm posting with Mix it Up Monday!   Make sure you visit the party to see all the other yummy foods!

If you want to see my cooking column from last week, here's a link to the newspaper column!  Good Food: Local Cooking Column

Prayers for the Folks in the Northeast

Thoughts and prayers to all our blogging friends experiencing this winter blast in the Northeast ... Maybe this will be the last storm of the season.

Little Red Pepper Poppers!

Here's a quick video that shows you how to make mini peppers stuffed with corn pudding ... great little appetizers or side dish!   

I'm posting with Red Wednesdays, so be sure 

you click through the favicon on my 

idebar to visit other red posts!

Blue Winter Days!

This will be my last wintertime post ... maybe!  It will have to snow again to get me to set another winter tablescape!  I'm ready for Springtime, you see!

I have many sets of blue and white china and several sets of blue collectible plates.   The beauties are Royal Copenhagen and are intended to be used as 

decorations, but I have frequently served salads in them and nobody 

died from the lead in the paint!

This china is Nikko and it is called Heartland.  The patterns reflect the four seasons.  I have 16 place settings and enjoy using it year-round when I entertain.  

My followers are going to think that I've started dealing in rags!  Here are the kitchen table rag decorations I made for Christmas!  Love the colors.  

The centerpiece looked great with everyday dinnerware and looked even 

better with my  Spode Winter's Eve!

In addition to the trees and wreath, I wrapped Styrofoam balls in the matching fabric to put in the bottoms of my candle hurricanes.

If you are interested in my work world these days ... cooking classes for 1000 students ... 

check out Good Food: Local

I'm posting with a few blog parties so be sure you check out ...

Let's Dish!
Wow Us Wednesdays!
Tablescape Thursdays
Seasonal Sundays

I'm Back!

Haven't posted any tablescapes for several months!   Been busy setting up a new not-for-profit agency and making some changes in life ... but I'm back at it and wanted to participate in Tablescape Thursday so I've posted several of my favorite collages of past designs!  I'll be back with some new things soon ... I'm back writing my newspaper cooking column ... will be teaching cooking classes to over 1,000 students of all ages in six counties ... published another cookbook while I've been "away" and I'm having a blast!  I've managed to incorporate all my passions into a business and it is wonderful!