Recipes and Restaurants

Buttermilk Bread and Friday Mornings

My husband woke early this morning at 5 am to head out to Augusta, Georgia to meet with a new client. I woke shortly thereafter. One of our cats, Nuri who was locked into the bedroom with me – had climbed on the bed and woken me up with her anxious kneading.

I decided since I was up before I got to work, it would be perfect time to make homemade bread. Buttermilk bread. The recipe I have makes two loaves.  Here’s the link to it: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/6972/buttermilk-bread-ii/

 

I have much on my plate today. Two skype phone calls with potential new clients. One phone call to investigate a new application for a realtor website. One website to finish. A website to start on. Two social media to schedule for the next week. Then before my husband gets home, I plan on getting food shopping done – I’ve planned out the menu for the week. Since we plan on going on a motorcycle ride through the Cherokee Mountains tomorrow, I am planning a crockpot dinner – Moroccan Beef Stew with Naan Bread and salad –  so that when we get home, we don’t have much to do. Dinner will be pretty much ready to go. I also want to pack lunch and snack in our trunk. We estimate it will be a five hour ride.  Rain is in the forecast Saturday evening, thus Sunday will be church and stay home day.

Bananas and Muffins.

I enjoy both. I eat a banana before going out to a work out. I also enjoy making muffins – my favorites are blueberries, bananas, and carrot muffins.

These are brown sugar cinnamon banana muffins – light and fluffy, great banana taste.

here’s the recipe:

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cups brown sugar (and more for topping)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoons salt

1 beaten egg

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup of milk and 1/4 cup of buttermilk (or 1/2 cups of milk is fine)

3/4 cups of mashed banana (two over ripe bananas)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

I line my muffin tins with muffin liners. You could spray the inside with oil or grease it with softened butter.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl (including the mashed bananas).

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredient bowl and pour the wet ingredients in the well of the large bowl. Don’t over mix, begin to mix until all the dry ingredients are wet. The batter will be lumpy.

Scoop or spoon into the muffin tins – they don’t rise that much so you could go up almost to the top.

After you have done that,  in another smaller bowl, mix together about 1 tablespoon of white sugar, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle over the top of each muffin. Sometimes its enough, sometimes its not. I like a lot on top. If it is not, I’ll make another batch, what’s left over  – I’ll mix it in with my yogurt with granola.

Put the muffins in the oven for 18-20 minutes until the toothpick comes out clean.  It makes about 12 -14 muffins.

On another note:

In a couple of months, it will be Restaurant week here in Georgia. It will be a good opportunity to check out restaurants around with friends and family. To stay up to date – follow their twitter #hashtag #GARestaurantWeek or their twitter profile @GARestaurantWeek.