banana wheat muffins

threw a recipe together on the fly, and whaddayaknow, it's delicious!

• 1 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 mashed banana

bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. they come out and taste nice and hearty.

notes for next time:
- if i have 2 bananas, i could omit the egg. (1/2 cup mashed banana = 1 egg, for substitution in vegan cooking.)
- i could add 1/2 cup chopped nuts.
- i could add peanut butter.
- i have those frozen raspberries in the freezer...maybe i could throw some of them in.
- add some rolled oats for texture.

turnips

my obsession with turnips goes back several years to when i decided not to eat some heavily fertilized turnips grown in a field as deer bait and instead decided to grow my own (organically). they grow great in mississippi although the root (the turnip itself) never got big enough to eat due to the high clay content of the soil in the garden.

in cooking with turnips, i have learned that are different from potatoes (despite both being roots). turnips tend to absorb a lot of water when cooked with a wet method. boiling them waterlogs them the most. last night i steamed them (two turnips, about a pound between them, peeled, diced) and they were much better. quite plain and mushy- not like the starchy potato in the same situation- but nice and bitter. i went on to add S&P, a little butter, and a tiny bit of milk to make mashies. really tasty (with pork chop and green beans) but without the creamy and cohesive properties of mashed potatoes. in the future, i will experiment with steaming half potatoes and half turnips and mashing them together.

several days ago i roasted the same amount of turnips. this involved tossing in 1-2 T olive oil with S&P, garlic powder, and some other spices then baking at 350 for about 45 minutes. these were delicious and really good with the ham i had from arkansas.

sushi rolls

ingredients:
sushi rice
fish
cucumber
avocado
seaweed
soy sauce
gochujang (korean spicy paste)


process:
-put seaweed piece on bamboo roller
-smush rice onto seaweed
-add fish
-add vegetables
-add gochujang
-roll

-cut into 6-8 pieces

eat with chopsticks, dipping in soy sauce

sushi rice

ingredients:
1 C rice
1 T rice wine vinegar
1 T white sugar
pinch of salt (~1/8 t(?))

process:
rinse the rice several times.
drain pretty well.
add 1.5 C water.
bring to boil, reduce to low, 20 minutes (don't ever remove top).
remove from heat, let sit 10 minutes covered.

mix vinegar, sugar, and salt.

put rice in large (plastic) bowl, toss around a little to let cool.
add mix to rice, fold in.

this makes enough rice for sushi for 3-4 people and should be used in the sushi.
since it is so wet and sticky, leftover rice is not very good for fried rice.

pink velvet cupcakes

i have been wanting to bake a red velvet cake for a while...so why not do cupcakes instead? i used this red velvet cake recipe and used this recipe for cream cheese frosting. you may notice that my cupcakes are PINK rather than red...this is due to the fact that i did not have enough red food coloring! the pink did not detract from the yummy flavor of these cupcakes though. not one bit.

notes for the cake recipe: this recipe made 24 cupcakes. i eyeballed each cupcake liner to be filled 2/3 high when i put them in the oven, however, when i took them out, they were all different heights! nothing fancy icing tricks couldn't fix though. i baked them at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes.

notes for the icing recipe: this recipe calls for 1 package of cream cheese and 5 tablespoons butter and vanilla extract and 2 cups + whatever you like powdered sugar. i ended up using about 2.5 cups of powdered sugar and the icing was perfect...i'm not a big fan of super sweet stuff...so this was just sweet enough! an interesting observation...when i beat the cream cheese and butter together, it got very crumbly. i must admit that i got a little concerned that my icing was going to turn into crap. however, once i added all the sugar...BAM! it looked like icing! i don't know what happened, but it turned out just lovely.

and for the icing piping...i have a pastry decorating icing bag that i filled with both colors of icing. (i added a few drops of red food coloring to make it pink.) that's why i was able to do a dual-color icing! but of course you knew that already...haha.

i will DEFINITELY make these again! and once i have more than 1 useable baking pan (i destroyed one of my 9-inch circular baking pans by baking a cobbler in it...so FYI...DON'T BAKE COBBLERS IN NONSTICK BAKING PANS!)...yeah, so once i have more than 1 baking pan i will make a fabulous red velvet CAKE complete with cream cheese frosting and chopped nuts for garnish.

pan-fried breaded tilapia

the recipe for this dish came mostly from a paul prudhomme cookbook though i don't think they used tilapia back when it was published... i fry one fillet at a time.

1. mix some spices together
2. make an egg wash (egg and milk)
3. wash and dry fish
4. start heating skillet with 1/4 inch of vegetable oil
5. rub spices into both sides of fillets
6. dredge in flour
7. coat in egg wash
8. dredge through flour again
9. add to pan when oil is at medium heat
10. cook 3-4 minutes each side

11. place on paper-toweled plate
12. serve

man it is good and crispy and moist and tasty.