3.31.2013

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3.30.2013

Tweet summary on 03-30-2013 for the past day

3.29.2013

Dining out - Los Molcajetes - Bryan, Tx.

Saturday night  I was in College Station for AggieCon.  I'm looking for good BBQ and Mexican food places in towns I go to often, so I chose a Mexican joint for dinner.  I wish this place was in my hometown.  We'd be going there often.

Loc Molcajetes impressed me.

I had the enchiladas verdes, my usual choice when trying a new joint.  The sauce was nice and tangy and the chicken was tasty.  The charro beans had a nice flavor, the broth was a bit cloudier than I like, but that's a very minor issue.  The rice was nicely done, as well.  The chips were mostly scraps and not very warm, but the salsa seemed to be fresh, with a nice amount of heat.

For dessert, I had the Tres Leches and I actually enjoyed it.

Here's the score card

Atmosphere: 5
Green Salsa: unrated
Red Salsa: 5
Chips: 3
Rice: 5
Beans (charro): 5
Enchiladas: 5
Margaritas: As I was alone, I did not try a margarita




I expect I'll be back to Los Molcajetes, although there is one at least one more joint I'd like to try.


Los Molcajetes Mexican Food on Urbanspoon

Dining out - J. Cody's - Bryan, Tx.

Friday night  I was in College Station for AggieCon.  I'm looking for good BBQ and Mexican food places in towns I go to often, so I chose a BBQ joint for dinner.  I wished I'd gone to one K. and I had visited in the past.

J. Cody's was a disappointment.

I had the regular combo with Sausage and Brisket and a dessert of peach cobbler.  I waited for the plate to be delivered to me, and then went up to the sides bar.  I picked up the corn bread, beans, cole slaw and potato salad.  The sausage and the corn bread were the best things of the meal.

The brisket was dry and flavorless.  The potato salad was not very interesting, the beans were ok, and the cole slaw was pretty standard..  The corn bread was nice and light, not the style we make at home, but pretty good.  The sausage had a nice flavor, but was a bit overground for my likings.  The peach cobbler seemed like a standard Sysco offering.




I'll be going to Martin's instead from now on.

J Cody's on Urbanspoon

Aikido Thursday Night - 3/28/13

No students, so no class

Wednesday workout - MIA

No workout.  Came down with con crud over the weekend and went home and slept for 14 hours.

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3.28.2013

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3.27.2013

Volleyball, 3-0

This week, the competition was not playing well.  We handled them easily, with the closest game at 15-8, I think.  I don't believe they scored more than 8 points in either of the previous games.

We don't play next week, but the following week we play "How I Set Your Mother", another team with a losing record.

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3.26.2013

Monday workout


Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 3,  2.0 miles, 192 cal

Leg press (both): 2 x 15@130 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs

Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@50 lbs

Standard chest straight motion: 2 x 15@100 lbs.

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3.25.2013

Aikido Thursday Night - 3/12/13

Aikido players: Dan the Elder

Ukemi:

A couple of warm-up falls

The Walk:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Releases:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Techniques:

We worked through #1 (shomen-ate)  and #2 (aigamae-ate) of Ju Nana Hon Kata

We spent a lot of time on the footwork of 3-step techniques.  Footwork improved and the techniques improved as well.  We did not spen much time on aigamae-ate, but got a few repetitions in.

Aftermath:

None of note. 

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3.24.2013

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3.23.2013

Tweet summary on 03-23-2013 for the past day

3.22.2013

Tweet summary on 03-22-2013 for the past day

3.21.2013

Volleyball, 3-0

After another week off from volleyball (because of Spring Break), we did ok as a team.  I was fairly incompetent, or at least did not play as well as I would have liked.  We almost lost the middle game, I think it was 21-17.

Next week we play "Bumpin' Uglies", a team with a losing record.

Tweet summary on 03-21-2013 for the past day

3.20.2013

Tweet summary on 03-20-2013 for the past day

3.19.2013

Weekend update

Friday:

Lunch at Casarez,
Stopped at JK's restaurant supply
Took me 40 minutes to get back to work due to beach traffic
Aikido
Back to work to investigate some database issues
Started refreshing the sourdough starter

Saturday:

Up at 6:15 a.m.
Made some banana muffins
Nap
Aikidostopped by work
Picked up Boots from my mom's fro her week long visit to our house
Worked on Sourdough and Pain sur Poolish
Dinner with K at nobi Public House
Dessert at Franca's
Stayed up til midnight working on breads


Sunday:

Breads
LoneStarCon3 skype meeting
Breads

Dinner with the in-laws

Monday workout


Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 3,  1.9 miles, 186 cal

Leg press (both): 2 x 15@130 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs

Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@50 lbs

Standard chest straight motion: 1 x 15@80 lbs, 1 x 15@90 lbs.

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3.18.2013

Weekend recipe - Best Ever Banana Muffins from cooks.com

Looking for a muffin recipe to use up some stored away bananas.  This recipe looked promising, but after trying it, I'm going to try to alter my Blueberry muffin recipe to use bananas instead and see how it turns out.

This one ended up being too sweet, with not enough of a crown on the muffins.  The tops were too flat.  I did not manage to get any pictures.

2 1/4 cups all purpose or white whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup melted butter
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 large extra ripe bananas (peeled and mashed)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.
In a separate bowl, mix the butter and brown sugar. Stir in the eggs, then add the bananas. Stir in the vanilla.

Combine the liquid mixture with the dry ingredients, stirring together only until all ingredients are moistened.

Stir in chopped nuts. Transfer the batter into greased muffin cups, filling 2/3 full.

Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a center comes out clean.

Makes 18 muffins.

Weekend recipe - Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Bread from thefreshloaf.com

Another recipe tried this weekend.  Another one with a minor flaw on my part.  I think I did too many rise/degas cycles.  Mainly becuase of a meeting I had, I wasn't going to be able to put it in the oven on time.

The taste was great, but the final appearance lacked any oven spring.

     Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Bread
    Makes 3 loaves
    24 oz (5 1/2 cups) bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
    8 oz (1 7/8 cups) whole wheat flour
    5.3 oz (1 5/8 cups) rolled oats
    20 oz (2 1/2 cups) water
    3.5 oz (3/8 cups) milk
    2.4 oz (3 tablespoons) honey
    2.4 oz (5 1/2 tablespoons) vegetable oil
    .7 oz (1 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon) salt
    .37 oz (1 1/4 tablespoon) instant yeast
    .5 oz (2 tablespoons) ground cinnamon
    10.6 oz (2 cups) soaked and drained raisins

At least half an hour before you begin, soak the raisins in warm water.


Doing so plumps them, which makes them softer and moister in the loaf and also prevents the ones on the surface of the loaf from burning. Just prior to adding the raisins to the loaf, you'll pour the water out.

Next, soak the oats in the 2 1/2 cups water for 20 to 30 minutes.

If you are using active dry yeast instead of instant yeast, which I did, withhold 1/2 cup of the water to proof the yeast in.

Mix the flours, yeast, milk, honey, oil, salt, and cinnamon into the oats. Mix well, until all of the flour is hydrated. Knead by hand for 5 minutes or in a standmixer for 3, then mix in the drained raisins. Knead or mix until the raisins are distributed throughout the dough.

Cover the bowl of dough and allow it to rise for 1 hour. Then remove the dough from the bowl and fold it, degassing it gently as you do. The images below illustrate this technique.

Place the dough on a floured work surface, top side down.

Fold the dough in thirds, like a letter, gently degassing as you do.

Fold in thirds again the other way.

Flip the dough over, dust off as much of the raw flour as you can, and place it back into the bowl.

Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise in bulk again for another hour. Then divide the dough in thirds and shape the loaves.

Place each shaped loaf into a greased bread pan.

Spray or gently brush each loaf with water and sprinkle with some more oats.

Cover the pans and set aside to rise until the loaves crest above the edge of the pans, roughly 90 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450. Place the loaves in the center rack of the oven. After 5 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 375. Rotate the loaves 180 degrees after 20 minutes, and bake for another 15 to 25 minutes, until the tops of the loaves are nicely browned, the bottoms of the loaves make a hollow sound when tapped, and the internal temperature of the loaf registers above 185 degrees when measured with an instant read thermometer.


Weekend recipes - Pain Sur Poolish from thefreshloaf.com

This recipe came from thefreshloaf.com.  This was my first attempt with it.  The dough was a bit too wet, but I attempted to follow it exactly.  Next time, I'll add flour to get the right feel.  The crust and crumb were nice, but it did not hold a shape well.

    My Pain Sur Poolish (Daily Bread)
    Makes 2 loaves

    Poolish
    1 cup flour
    1 cup water
    1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

    Final Dough
    1 pound flour
    10-12 ounces water
    1 teaspoon instant yeast
    2 teaspoons salt
    all of the poolish

Combine the ingredients for the poolish in a small bowl the night before baking. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave the poolish out at room temperature overnight.

The next day, prepare the final dough, either by using the autolyse method of flour and water first then the rest of the ingredients with minimal mixing or by combining them all and mixing until you have decent gluten development (8 to 10 minutes).

I typically fold the dough once an hour twice during primary fermentation, then shape the loaves and give them a longer final rise, typically around 90 minutes. Meanwhile, my oven and baking stone are preheating as hot as they can safely go.

Baking, with steam, takes me 20 minutes, 5 minutes or so at maximum oven temperature, the remainder at 450-475. I rotate the loaves once half way through the baking.










Weekend recipes - Basic Sourdough

I've been using the recipe here from northwestsourdough.com for my basic sourdough and it's been turning out well.  It turned out quite well this weekend.

I made two loaves.  I'd bumped up my reserve of starter so that it was overflowing the container by the time I used it.

510g starter
397g water
1 Tbsp oil
935g bread flour
22g salt

Mixed the following:

510g starter
397g water
850g flour
1 Tbsp oil

Let it rest for 20 minutes

Added in:

22g salt
85g flour

Placed the dough in an oiled bowl to bulk ferment, with plastic wrap over the top to prevent drying.

I stretched and folded the dough several times during the ferment.

After about 10 hours, I turned it out of the bowl and shaped it into a batard, and then placed it in a well-floured banneton, covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator.

Sunday afternoon, I did a bunch of baking.  The sourdough loaves were the last to get baked, so they cam out of the fridge late after noon.  I left them warm up for a couple of hours.

 I turned the loaf onto the bread peel, slashed the top with my lame, spritzed it heavily with water and then slipped the loaf onto the baking stone.  I then covered the loaf with the steam catcher, and let it bake for 20 minutes.  I then removed the steam catcher and let it bake for 10 more minutes.  I then rotated the loaf 180 degrees and let it bake for a final 10 minutes.  I did the same thing for the second loaf.

The crust was nice, and the crumb was nice.

Below are the results:







Dining out - nobi Public House and Franca's Italian Restaurant

Saturday night, K. and I went out to eat.  She'd not eaten much during the day and had worked hard, so she needed beer and sustenance.  We chose nobi Public House for the beer and sustenance due to recent notice in the Houston Press food blog and rumors from friends.

It's a nice little craft beer bar with some good food.  We got there around 5:30 and there were plenty of seats.  When we left, another group swept in and took our place.

It looks like they've got about 30 or 40 taps for draft beer and a vast selection of bottled beer.

I chose a Schneider Weisse Original for K. and a Guanabara Imperial Stout for myself, with a St. Arnold's Draft Root Beer on the side.  All 3 were quite good.

For dinner, K. had the Charbroiled Pork over Vermicelli.  I had the Chargrilled chicken over stir-fried noodles.  The pork and the chicken had nice, different flavors and were scarfed down quite quickly.




We weren't quite full so we tossed around a couple of ideas for dessert.  K. threw out the idea of Franca's for Tiramisu and it was settled.  We went there, got one Tiramisu to split and a glass of port for each of us.  We were in the bar, as we didn't feel I was appropriately dressed for the main dining room since I was in a tank top and shorts (we would have been welcomed there, but did not feel like spoiling other diners' dinners).

We got to say hi to Franca and catch up with her latest news and have a fabulous dessert.  We need to get back there for a full meal.  In fact, we've decided that our 25th anniversary meal will be there.  We've even invited one of our friends to the meal already.




Nobi Public House on Urbanspoon

Franca's Italian Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Lunching out - Casarez

Took the time to drive up to Hobby again to try Casarez. Houston Press reported it as being one of the 10 best places to eat around the airport, so I figured I'd give it another chance.  Short and to the point: good, but still not worth the 15 minute drive from work.  And definitely not worth the 40 minutes it took to get back to work due to Spring Break beach traffic.

The place was decently filled with locals grabbing lunch. I ordered Nachos Cadillac with beef fajita meat.

I seem to remember the green sauce for the chips being awfully spicy last time, it had a nice amount of heat this time.

Atmosphere: 5
Green Salsa: 3
Red Salsa: unrated
Chips: 5
Rice: unrated
Beans (refried): hidden by everything else
Enchiladas: unrated
Margaritas: no bar





Casarez Mexican on Urbanspoon

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 3/16/13

Aikido players: Tim, Troy, and Dan the Elder

Ukemi:

Got a full set in

The Walk:

Twice as usual

Releases:

We did round robin releases.  Troy and Dan uked for me (right and left side, respectively).  Dan and I uked for Troy.  Troy and I uked for Dan.

Techniques:

Dan and I uked for Troy for Hiki-otoshi.  Troy and I uked for Dan on Shomen-ate at 3-step distance

Aftermath:

None of note. 

Aikido Friday Night - 3/15/13

Aikido players: Tim, Troy, Marvin, Gail, Dan the Elder, and Hossein (we also had a potential new student sit and watch)

Ukemi:

A couple of warm-up falls.  I then watched over Gail and Marvin

The Walk:

Twice as usual

Releases:

I worked with Marvin. 

Techniques:

I worked with Marvin on Shomen-ate at 3-step distance. We worked on it quite a bit.  His footwork improved by the end of the evening.  We did one attempt at Oshi-taoshi, my knee complained so we did no more reps of that.  We did a few reps on Aigamae-ate

Aftermath:

None of note. 

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3.17.2013

Tweet summary on 03-17-2013 for the past day

3.16.2013

Tweet summary on 03-16-2013 for the past day

3.15.2013

Aikido Thursday Night - 3/14/13

Aikido players: No students

Aftermath: No class.  I turned the mat back over to the karate students for sparring

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3.14.2013

Wednesday workout


Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 3,  1.9 miles, 183 cal.  I guess I was just running a bit slower.

Leg press (both): 2 x 15@130 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs

Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@50 lbs

Still no arm work.

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3.13.2013

Tweet summary on 03-13-2013 for the past day

3.12.2013

Monday workout


Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 3,  2 miles, 193 cal

Leg press (both): 2 x 15@130 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs

Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@50 lbs

No arm work, as my left arm was still a little number from sleeping wrong over the weekend.  An old (20 years ago) volleyball injury making its presence felt

Tweet summary on 03-12-2013 for the past day

3.11.2013

Lunching out: Shuttle Burgers and More

I drove up to Shuttle Burger this past Friday.  It is hidden away in a strip center, away from the freeway.  It still only took about 10-15 minutes to get there.  It's received a high percentage of thumbs up on b4-u-eat and was listed as one of the 10 best places to eat near Hobby Airport by the Houston Press.

It was a nice place, with a little bit of a space program decor..  A crowd of regulars, I'd bet, made up the patrons.

Dive?   Not too bad.  Almeda mall and then a little bit west. (8405 Almeda Genoa Rd Ste A)

I ordered a double meat burger with fries, and a tea.  Total was a bit less than $8, iirc.

The fries were a bit limp, but tasty.  The patty was decent, not much spice too it, but a nice amount of ooze.  Tea was freshly made. 

This place is probably better than Burger House.  It's cheaper than Fudd's, but on a flavor/dollar ratio, it's right a bit better.  I'd have to try9'er's Grill again to compare.

They also do a breakfast, looking at their menu.



Shuttle Burgers & More on Urbanspoon

Weekend recipes: Blood Orange Marmalade Cream Cheese Braid

This is a recipe from thefreshloaf.com I altered the filling, as I did not want to use up a bunch of fresh blueberries.  We did have a bunch of Blood Orange Marmalade around the house, so I used that instead.


Makes 2 braids
Sponge
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cup warm milk
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Dough
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup sugar
3-3-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
Egg Glaze
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
Cream Cheese Filling
3/4 cup cream cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon egg glaze
For the sponge: mix the sugar, yeast, and flour together in bowl. Pour in the warm milk. Beat until smooth, then cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1/2 hour.

Add the eggs, salt, sugar, and one cup of the flour to the sponge. Beat until smooth. Then add the butter in small chunks and beat well. Add the remaining flour a handful at a time and mix in until a soft but kneadable dough is achieved and the butter thoroughly incorporated.

Knead the dough by hand or with a mixer until it is smooth and satiny, about 5 minutes.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise and room temperature until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Deflate the dough, recover the bowl, and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, make the fillings before shaping the loaves.

Blood Orange Marmalade: I just grabbed a pint jar of Blood Orange marmalade from the pantry.
Egg Glaze: combine the egg and milk in a bowl and beat until combined.
Cream Cheese Filling: combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until combined
Once your filling has cooled off, take the dough out of the refrigerator and gently deflate it. Divide it into two pieces. Use a rolling pin to shape each piece into a thin (1 cm.) rectangle.

Spread your fillings in the center of the dough.

At an angle, slice the sides of the dough into tabs approximately 1 inch wide.

Alternating from side to side, fold the pieces in over the filling. When possible, gentle press on the tabs to seal the folds.

After it has been fully folded, glaze the braid with egg wash. Cover loosely with plastic. Set aside to rise until doubled in size, approximately 45 minutes. While it is rising, preheat the oven to 350.

Just before placing the braid in the oven, glaze it again with any remaining egg wash. Bake on the center rack of the oven for approximately 35 to 40 minutes, rotating it once after 20 minutes so that it bakes evenly. Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool for at least half an hour before slicing.

Results:

Good stuff!









Weekend recipes: Pain de Provence

This is a recipe from thefreshloaf.com

We bought a container of Herbs de Provence a couple of months ago and I thought this would be a great recipe when I spotted it.

Pain De Provence
Makes 1 large loaf
Poolish:
1 cup bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
Dough:
All of the poolish
2 cups bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup Herbes de Provence
1 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup liqueur such as Beauchant, Grand Marnier, or orange Curaçao
1/4-1/2 cup water, as necessary
The night before baking, make the poolish by mixing together 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of water, and 1/2 teaspoon of yeast to make a batter. Cover the container with plastic wrap and set aside for 8 to 16 hours until you are ready to make the final dough.

To make the dough, combine the remaining flour with the remaining yeast, salt, and herbs. Add the poolish, the liqueur, and 1/4 cup of the additional water. Mix the ingredients, and, if necessary, add more water or flour until the proper consistency is reached (tacky but not so sticky that the dough sticks to your hands).

Knead by hand for 10 to 15 minutes or in a mixer for 5 to 10 minutes. Place the dough in a well-greased bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Set aside to rise until doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes. Remove it from the bowl and gently degas it, then return it to the bowl, cover it, and allow it to double in size again.

Remove the dough from the bowl and shape it into a ball or long loaf. Cover the loaf with a damp towel and allow it to rise again until doubled in size, which takes between 60 and 90 more minutes.
While the loaf is in its final rise, preheat the oven and baking stone, if you are using one, to 450. I also preheat a brownie pan into which I pour a cup of hot water just after placing the loaf in the oven. This creates steam in the oven which increases the crunchiness of the crust.

Just prior to placing the loaf in the oven, score the top of it with a sharp knife or razor blade.
Place the loaf in the oven and bake for 20 minutes at 450, then rotate it 180 degrees and reduce the oven temperature to 375 and baked it another 25 minutes. The internal temperature of the loaf should be in the ball park of 200 degrees when you remove it from the oven.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least a half an hour before serving, if you can resist.

My loaf did not come out nearly as dark as the version on the link above, but it was still quite tasty.


Weekend recipes: Banana Bread V

This is a recipe from allrecipes.com

We baked 3 recipes this weekend.  We had a ton of bananas in the freezer, and still have enough to make some more.  We would have baked 4, but could not find our usual recipe.  It's got to be somewhere in the house.

2 cups all-purpose flour 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup white sugar 
1 egg 
5 tablespoons milk 
1 teaspoon baking powder  
 1/2 teaspoon salt  
1/2 cup butter 
1-1/2 cup mashed bananas   
1/2 cup chopped walnuts  

Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and mashed bananas. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt just until combined. Pour into prepared loaf pan.
  3. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. If top begins to brown too quickly, decrease heat slightly. Center should be soft and chewy, while the outside, crisp and crunchy.

Result: 

This was my favorite.  It had a nice banana flavor and the esthetics of the loaf were nice: not too terribly dark, not overly sweet.  
 


Weekend recipes: Thess’s Nana’s Banana Bread

This recipe comes from gourmeted.com

We baked 3 recipes this weekend.  We had a ton of bananas in the freezer, and still have enough to make some more.  We would have baked 4, but could not find our usual recipe.  It's got to be somewhere in the house.


Thess’s Nana’s Banana Bread

Ingredients:

  • 5 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas (I used 2 cups, which was about 6-7 regular size bananas)
  • 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • optional: 1/3 cup chopped walnuts and 1/2 cups raisins
Preparation:
  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Use a non-stick 9×5×3-inch loaf pan. If you don’t have a non-stick pan, spray it with non-stick cooking spray or line it with two parchment paper sheets along the width and length of the pan. I prefer the paper route because it makes it so easy to take out the bread.
  2. Beat butter in large bowl with an electric mixer set at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add both sugar and beat well. Add eggs, egg whites and vanilla and beat until well-blended. Add mashed banana, beat for 30 seconds on high speed.
  3. Add all dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add this mixture to the banana mixture, alternatively with cream. Add walnuts and raisins, mix well.
  4. Pour batter evenly unto the prepared loaf pan. Baked until browned and toothpick inserted near center comes out clean; say about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 ins.
  5. Cool completely and serve. I would recommend that you bake this at night and allow it to completely cool and “rest” overnight.
Makes one 9′x5′x3′ loaf.

Result: 

This was K.'s favorite and my second favorite of the weekend.  It was nice and moist, but I did undercook it a bit.  I think it may have been a little too sweet for me.  Maybe it was the brown sugar.  I did use dark instead of light.


Weekend recipes : Janine's Best Banana Bread

This is a recipe from allrecipes.com 

We baked 3 recipes this weekend.  We had a ton of bananas in the freezer, and still have enough to make some more.  We would have baked 4, but could not find our usual recipe.  It's got to be somewhere in the house.

1/4 cup butter, softened  

1 cup white sugar  
1 egg 
3 ripe bananas, mashed  
2 cups all-purpose flour  
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
 
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and mashed bananas. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt just until combined. Pour into prepared loaf pan.
  3. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. If top begins to brown too quickly, decrease heat slightly. Center should be soft and chewy, while the outside, crisp and crunchy.

Result: 

This was the least favorite of the three.  We tried one slice each and that was it.  It wasn't bad, but did not compare to the other two.
 



Weekend update

Friday:

Lunch at Shuttle Burger
Grocery shopping for weekend bread baking
Aikido

Saturday:

Started work on Banana Breads
Aikido
Finished work on Banana Breads
Started work on Pain de Provence and Fruit/Cream Cheese Braid
Dinner with K. of a nice crock pot recipe

Sunday:

Sprang Forward
Worked on the braids and the Pain de Provence
Art Show work
Long Nap

Sunday's breads:



Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 3/9/2013

Aikido players: Marvin, and Dan.  Tim arrived late.

Ukemi:

A couple of warm-up falls

The Walk:

Twice, as usual.

Releases:

Marvin and Dan worked together, with my oversight

Techniques:

We worked on Shomen-ate at 3-step distance.  The big problem at the moment is the footwork.  Doing the proper approach to the technique would help them get their timing and their technique in better shape.  They are not taking consistent steps from attempt to attempt and that messes with distance and timing.

Aftermath:

None of note.  Slava dropped by and we sat and chatted with him for a while.

Aikido Friday Night - 3/8/2013

Aikido players: Tim, Marvin, Gail, Dan the Elder, Hossein, and Rob

Ukemi:

A couple of warm-up falls.  I then watched over Gail

The Walk:

Twice as usual

Releases:

I worked with Hossein.  We spent a good portion of the evening on releases.  I think most of the other folks did, as well.

Techniques:

We worked on Shomen-ate.  He needs to take the off-balance in his playground and get the footwork correct.

Aftermath:

None of note.  I was wearing volleyball knee pads and was able to do my first lap of knee-walking since my injury in June.  It was nice.  I look forward to the day when I attempt to do it without the knee pads.

Aikido Thursday Night - 3/7/13

Aikido players: Sal, and Dan the Elder

Ukemi:

A couple of warm-up falls

The Walk:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Releases:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Techniques:

We worked through #1 of Ju Nana Hon Kata, Shomen-ate. 

We spent a lot of time on the footwork of 3-step techniques.  This was review for Sal and new learning for Dan.  Still more work to do for Dan in getting the footwork correct.

Aftermath:

None of note. 

Tweet summary on 03-11-2013 for the past day

3.10.2013

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3.09.2013

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3.08.2013

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