Banana Bread

We are having some real cold days in Madrid and all I want to do is curl up with my computer, books, and cook the winter classics.

So here is a pretty good recipe, perfect for winter days, that I got down at a Thanksgiving party in Madrid this fall. The girl who gave it to me said it was jewish!
I don't think there is anything really jewish about it, but it is quite good and super easy....for a long time I have looked for a banana bread recipe for dummies, that you just can't spoil, and really, it's very difficult to mess this one up.


Ingredients:

1. One cup and 1/4 of flour, or 125grs.
2. Two eggs.
3. 1 loaded teaspoon of baking powder (levadura)
4. 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
5. 1/4 cup of sugar, or 4 spoonful.
6. 4 spoonful of margarine
or 1/4 cup.
6. 3 small bananas or 2 big ones.
7. A cup of walnuts o un buen puñado.

STEPS:

1. Mix the flour, eggs, baking soda, salt, and sugar. It becomes a really thick paste.
2. Add the bananas to the mix. The softer the bananas are the better.
3. Add the walnuts.
4. Grease the "baking tray", with butter and then sprinkle with flour.
5. On to the oven for 30 mins or 35, at 180 degrees, only button rack!!! not grill!

That's it!  Enjoy. I used this "molde de corona", because it distributes the heat very evenly but maybe you could try another type of baking container and let me know how it went.

 What do you think? I think this recipe is a keeper. I brought it the other day to my friend's dinner and they loved it :)

Delicious baked cinammon apples

I have about 10 recipes I want to post but cannot find the time for these days.

Still, I didn't want this fall to leave me and not post an apple recipe...I did these last night..so simple, and yet so good!  Dont let November go without trying a recipe like this one. HIGHLY RECOMMEND it for the dessert.

• 4 Apples ((you need acidic-like cooking apples, reinetas or granny smith)
• Brown sugar. (4 spoonfuls, 1 for every apple)
• Ground cinammon. (1/2 teaspoon)
• Nutmeg. (1/5 teaspoon)
• Butter (Like 2 spoonfuls)
• A tiny bit of hot water.

1. Core the apples with a knife. Only half way, you dont want to empty them out completey or the sugar will "come out" while its baking.

2. Mix sugar, with cinammon and nutmet or fall spices.

3. Fill up the cored apples with the mix. Then dab, a teaspoon of butter in each apple to top it off and close it.

4. Put a little water in the baking container so that the apples dont try out when you bake them.

5. Stick them in the oven for about 1 hour. 200 grades for the first half hour and then turn up the grill full blast for about 20 min, but make sure you dont burn them.

DONE! so fast, easy and good...honestly...they were so good...my flatmates agreed wholeheartedly, so hey, it is not a "biased" recipe. :)

A piano cake for "big sis"

Inspired by Betty Crocker, I made this cake a while to my musical older sister María, who plays the piano.  You can see her beautiful piano that inspired me here.

Mine, as you can see above, didnt quite turn out that way, but hey! I tried..

1. I did not make the cake either, because I was so busy around that time of year....so I cheated and used a mix, a Betty Crocker one as well, Devil's Food cake...yes please. 

2. So good, so easy..okay and now off to cutting the pattern of the piano. 

3. I had to do some thinking here...and look at many "patterns". Then I picked up a piece of paper, drew and cut off the shape of my favorite piano. 

4. Pick your bread knife, and carefully follow the pattern...

5. Now time to spread the icing. 

Again, I used Betty Crocker Devil's Food chocolate icing...it's so good...so as I was spreading the icing, the whole cake was falling apart, because the cake was sticking up to the icing, lifting it up and just coming undone! 

FRUSTRATION!

My american roommate Angela came to my rescue. She explained to me that the right way to spread icing is to just drop a big amount of icing onto the cake and then with a butter knife move it around and spread it around.

 So kinda like in the photo, be generous and follow this trick that will prevent you from ruining your cake.



 6. Okay, so once I spread the icing, easier said that done for sure, I did the "seat" which was the left over  part of the cake that I cut off.

Not very even this piano of mine...but it was hard...

The next step....and how do I carry this guy now to the birthday place?? 

I thought it would be fun to have a "partitura", music sheets, to make my piano more fun and musical. So I what I did was to pick up my oven tray for cookies and wrapped it with "Happy Birthday" music sheets that I printed at work....

 Then I picked up this big box to carry the box and leave the pretty tray intact till the serving moment.

So this is the way I decorated the cake, at the house where I served the cake, I used 2 Kit-Kats, and one white chocolate bar. With my edible markers I drew some notes to make a little music sheet. I held it with toothpicks. Also, I bought velas magicas, sparklers that keep sparkling.



It was a fun cake to make it....I recommend it for anyone you love that is musical.

try it!

mexican three layer dip appetizer

This is a VERY AMERICAN recipe that my very american roommates have showed me! and it is awesome blossom!!!!!!!! perfect for a lazy night when you dont want to cook but are hungry. 

Hey, not very healthy but it's not too bad either. 

Super easy:

1. Philadelphia cheese (250 grams).

2. One can of chili con carne beans, or just refriend beans.

3. Grated cheese. 

4. Nachos to eat it with. 

Steps: 1. Spread the cheese in a glass tray.

2. Spread the chilli beans.

3. Top it off with the grated cheese. 

4. Stick it in the microwave for about 5 minutes, until it all melts....

5. That's it...okay I wish I had a photo of the cheese melted but I forgot to take it...but basically you eat with nacho chips. So good! and so easy! perfect for a movie night. Enjoy! (I told you it was super american!)

grape and cheese Christmas tree!

This is a fun project for a Christmas game night we had at home last night. It's easy to do and makes your party look so festive! 

• 
  
• Ingredients
• Get some red and white grapes. 
• Cheddar cheese cut up in dices.
• A little bit of pepper for decoration cut up in slices. 
• A biscuit with a star shape.

1. Place a line of cheese cubes and alternate with a line of grapes, each line of grapes of a different colour, and keep adding the layers up until you make a Christmas tree! 

2. Cant think of how else I can explain how to make this apart from adding photos so that you can look at it. 

3. Now add the pepper layers...and cut of the edges to make it look like beautiful red lace around the tree.

4. Now add the final magic touch! I added this star cookie I got in my cesta de Navidad. 

TADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

                                              

enjoy your party! 

Apple cider

I have a ton of recipes I've been meaning to post....
A crazy job schedule and a broken computer has meant no posting...sorry readers!

Here is a quick recipe I want to jot down  before I go to the gym that really impressed me! 
wow, so fast, and so good and BEST OF ALL: SO EASY!

• Ingredients
• Apple juice ( 1 litre)
• Half a teaspoon (slightly more perhaps, like 60% of a teaspoon) of cinammon
• 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg (perhaps slightly more)
• 1/4 of a cinnamon stick for every cup.
• 1 slice of apple for each cup.

1. Stir the spices first in a little bit of the juice so that is all well dissolved.

2. Heat it up in the stove until it is almost boiling...stir well the spices!!!











3. Pour on glass with a little stick of cinnamon and a slice of apple.

 4. Pick a good movie and enjoy the night!  (and enjoy your Christmas lights if you have them!)

PS: I never went to the gym! bummer...