Banana and Cream Cheese Filled French Toast Waffles! Whoa.

Dude(ttes), I am not joking. I first read about this after I clicked Bobby Flay's link on Twitter. It said: "didn't/ see/already recycled yesterday's Parade Mag? (cont)" It made me giggle as there are a lot of jokes about Parade Magazine. But I really miss it, it has some great articles and comics! Along with the awesomeness of Parade Magazine, it had a recipe for the yummy looking Waffle/French toasts! My children's favorite breakfasts are waffles and French toast, so I HAD to give them a shot. My husband was away last night, so what a perfect time to have breakfast for dinner!

I used bananas and cream cheese, because that's what I had on hand. I had peanut butter, but I wanted something a bit different.  I used some bananas I froze, and  it gave the cream a thicker texture than unfrozen bananas would, I believe. And it added the perfect touch of sweetness.

 Biting into one of these is like a present for the soul. You get the sweet crunchiness of the bread, and then you are hit the smooth, sweet cream cheese mixture. I am definitely making this again!

I made this with Bacon, but do what you want. I LOVE Bacon. In fact, I capitalize the "B" in Bacon because Bacon is that important to me. And I put it in the oven for 10 minutes on 400F and it's perfectly crunchy and I am not covered in Bacon grease pop burns (not so sexy).

Recipe

Banana-Cream Cheese Filled French Toast Waffles

or try Bobby Flay's orginal version here!

French Toast Batter:

8 stale slices of whole-wheat bread

4 eggs

3/4 cup of milk

2 tablespoons of sugar

1/4 tsp orange extract (or use 1 teaspoon of orange zest)

1/4 tsp of  cinnamon

pinch of salt

Banana -Cream Cheese Filling

1 banana, chopped (i used frozen)

6 tablespoons of cream cheese (full fat or neufchatel) 

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

pinch of cinnamon

a little orange extract

Directions

Heat your waffle iron on medium

Put all ingredients for filling in a blender and blend baby!

Pulse for about 5-10 seconds. don't want it too thin!

Now put that in the fridge and start your French toast batter.

Add all the ingredients for the French toast batter EXCEPT the bread. Stir up nice and gently.

Now, get that cream cheese out of the fridge and slab some cream cheese on the bread and make a cream cheese sandwich. Resist the temptation to eat it right then and there are keep making sandwiches.

Dip a sandwich one at a time into the batter,

then place in waffle iron. 

Cook until waffles/toasts are all cooked. And voila! Easy, yeah?

 I used powdered sugar on mine but the kids preferred maple syrup. Use whatever your heart desire. Bobby used an amazing looking mixed berry sauce. I would have if I had some berries on hand. But this recipe is a great fridge/pantry cleaner upper ;) Hope you all try this or make it your own!

Steak Sliders with Roasted Red Pepper Mayonnaise

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend so far. Labor Day for us Amis usually symbolizes the end of summer. When I was younger, school started the day after Labor Day, the air suddenly feels a bit crisper, and the leaves seemed to turn a bright red over night. I love autumn with all the pumpkin patches, apple picking, Thanksgiving, Halloween, 2 of my children's birthday and MY birthday ;) So Autumn is not only a lovely season, it's a busy food season for me, and I am excited!

So to mark "the end of summer" I am having a beefy weekend. Well, except Saturday night I made my first German dish in the whole 6 years; Pork Schnitzel with Mushroom Mustard Spaetzle. T'was delicious, too! That's another post, though! Last night I made Steak Sliders with my own Roasted Red Bell Pepper Mayo. Jarred mayo and ketchup is so fun to jazz up, and this is a perfect mayo to go with any beef sandwich! 

I've been wanting to make sliders after salivating over them on Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives"; however, for a while, I did know what kind of bread to use for sliders. That's until I read this fab blog My Fiance! Likes It, So It Must Be Good! and she made some delicious looking sliders using Hawaiian Sweet Rolls- and who doesn't love those?! I am sure any rolls will do, but I utterly adore these. You can grill the steaks on an outdoor grill, but I used my grill pan as it was getting late.

This recipe is pretty darn easy and yummy. Hope you try this!

Steak Sliders with Roasted Red Pepper-Basil Mayo

Ingredients

For the Mayo

1 cup Mayonnaise

2/3 cup jarred Red Roasted Peppers, dried and chopped

1/2 cup Basil Leaves, packed loosely

2 garlic cloves roughly chopped

2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard

1 teaspoon sugar

a squeeze of lemon

Course salt and freshly ground pepper

For the Steak

1 lb Top Loin Steak or any cut of steak you prefer!

2 teaspoons ground cumin

Salt and Pepper

12 pack of rolls- I used Honey Whole Wheat Hawaiian Rolls

Directions

Season steak and allow to sit at room temperature until you're ready to grill

Now combine all ingredients except for the mayo, to a blender or mini food processor

Now add mayo and pulse. Do not blend too much  or else mayo will be like water! 

Now put in the fridge to allow flavors to meld into awesomeness

Now spray your grill pan or prepare your grill and heat to medium heat.  Cook steaks to desired doneness. I prefer mines at medium, so I cooked about 10 minutes on each side.

Cove, then allow to rest for 10 minutes. Once rested, slice thinly against the grain. 

In a preheated 300F oven, bake rolls for 5 minutes (or desired toastiness)

Assemble sliders by splitting rolls horizontally,then spread rolls with mayo on both sides, place meat and desired garnish. I used fresh basil.

Serve with fried onion rings! The mayo is perfect with onion rings as well! I put smaller onion rings on the sliders and that delicious as well! Hope you all enjoy this!!

Banana Crumb Snack Cake Will Make Ya Go.....BANANAS!

I have a confession- I am a Peeping Tom(ika). Not in a pervy kind of way, really! What I mean is whenever I am out for a walk with my little ones, I always try to get a sly peek at kitchens of the houses we past. Just a quick glance, nothing weird, I promise! I am always interested in what people are cooking up in their kitchen, especially if there are delicious smells coming from their home!

 That's why I love reading food blogs and reading a magazine called Taste of Home. What's similar about both is that there's home chefs writing the history of a meal that either goes back generations or something whipped up on whim. I love looking at the photos, what markets they went to and why they chose the dish. It makes me feel excited about cooking and preparing meals of my own! As I live in Germany, my family and close friends are in the US, so it feels nice to be "apart" of what someone's creating for their family with so much love and passion.

So while planning meal planning, I cracked open one of my older Taste of Home magazines. I came across a recipe for Banana Crumb Snack Cake. It's the perfect fall dish. With the crunchy topping and the moist cake with bits of banana, white chips throughout; added warm cinnamon and fragrant vanilla for a little spice and a touch of me. 

It's easy to prepare and can be made any time of the year. This dish has a Autumn essence to it, so I thought this time of the year would be perfect for this cake. And if you have any banana's turning brown, this is the perfect recipe for them. Also, this dish can be made into cupcakes!  Make a nice cream cheese frosting and top the frosting with toasted slivered almonds! 

Ingredients

Adapted from Taste of Home

2/3 slivered almonds

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

3/4 teaspoons almond extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon  baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 or 4 medium bananas)

1 cup (8oz) sour cream

1 cup vanilla or white chips

Directions

In a small bowl, combine almonds and brown sugar; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

You can use a mixer, but sometimes it's nice work those muscles!

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition; add extracts.

Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda

Add to the creamed mixture alternately in thirds with bananas and sour cream. Then fold in chips. PLEASE do not over mix or your result with big brick!

Spread into a greased 13-in, x 9-in x 2-in. baking pan

With help of my daughter aka Curly Sous Chef, I sprinkled on the topping. If you don't have a Curly Haired Sous Chef, any Sous Chef will do. It's easy enough to do yourself ;)

Sous Chefs love rewards!

Now bake at 350F for 35 to 40 or until when toothpick inserted near center comes out clean!

This cake tasted absolutely AMAZING and I hope you try it!

My assistant Sous Chef nearly ate all of the white chips!

You've Ricotta Be Kiddin' Me! Homemade Ricotta!

Today I am being featured at Mama's Little Nestwork as a Recipe Blogger! I am super psyched as I love to share something I am so passionate about with so many people! I remember the first cookbook my husband bought for me 3 years ago, "Betty Crocker Basics and Entertaining." Before then,  I've never looked at recipes; and  cook? Never!  In fact, I HATED being in the kitchen! Growing up I had to clean the kitchen and my mom had to force to help her with prep work. But, as I was a newlywed, just separated from the United States Air Force and pregnant with my second child, I thought I'd take on cooking!

And boy did I. One of the things I love about cooking is doing everything from scratch! As a non-cook, I honestly thought the folks at McCormick or Kraft invented all the tasty dishes I loved. I swear I was not a bimbo, just uninterested in food! But now, I rarely ever buy items pasta sauces, BBQ Sauce, salad dressings and the list goes on. Some may call me snobby, but I DO cheat when I need to, but I for me doing everything from scratch is so exhilarating, fun, and quicker than you think!

So Tuesday evening while scanning my cookbooks for my menu plan, in my Food and Wine, 2009 Cookbook, I found a recipe for Baked Penne with Sausage and Creamy Ricotta.  Sounds nice and easy, I like sausage...and then I read by 3 cups of Ricotta (Recipe on pg 11). So I thought, 'yay a new challenge!' And you know what? It's not a challenge at all. Quite easy in fact! The kiddos can join in, and of course mine did!

Creamy Ricotta

Food and Wine Cookbook, 2009

4qts Whole Milk

1 cup Heavy Cream

3 Tablespoons White Vinegar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

What you will need: Cheesecloth. Can be found at walmart, target, amazon.com, or any kitchen specialty store.

Directions

In a large saucepan, heat milk and cream over medium high heat. Heat until mixture starts to bubble at the top- right before it begins to show signs of boiling, but do not allow mixture to boil. If you have a kitchen thermometer, heat until milk and cream reach 185 F.

When temperature reaches 185, immediately removed milk mixture from heat, then add vinegar. Mixture will begin to curdle instantly. Stir 30 seconds, add salt, then stir 30 seconds more.

My 2 year-old  my sous chef

It's ok, the milk is supposed to be curdled!

Now cover the pot with a clean kitchen towel, then leave at room temperature for 2 hours.

Now, put several layers of cheesecloth in a colander, then set the colander into a large bowl.

With a slotted spoon, add the ricotta mixture to the cheesecloth.

Look Ma, I made ricotta all by myself!

Now carefully tie up or use a rubber band the cheesecloth and leave at room temperature for 30 minutes. Gently squeeze cheesecloth to release whey in that time.

Use immediately or refrigerate and use within 4 days! You may never go back to store bought again! It tastes amazing to me and my family. Yes, I snacked a little ;)

I refrigerated my ricotta mixture so I can use it later in my dinner later. 

Baked Penne with Sausages and Creamy Ricotta

This dish was delicious and VERY easy. 

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

2 garlic cloves, smashed

1 pound of italian sausage, casings removed

1 teaspoon of fennel seeds

1 28 oz can tomato puree

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon italian seasoning

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon ground fennel

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 pound penne

3 cups of Creamy Ricotta (above!)

1/2 pound mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. In a large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the garlic and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until lightly browned about 1 minute. Add the sausage and fennel seeds and cook, breaking up the meat, until browned, about 8 minutes. Add the tomato puree, water, sugar, Italian seasoning, bay leaf, and fennel. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat until thickened (uncovered), about 30 minutes. Carefully remove the garlic, mash it to a paste in a small bowl with a spoon (or mortar and pestal) and stir it back into the sauce; discard bay leaf.

2. Meanwhile, cook the penne in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Using a slotted spoon, add the cooked sausage to the pasta, then add 1 cup of the tomato sauce and toss to coat the penne.

3. Spoon the pasta into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the pasta and dollop large spoonfuls of the Creamy Ricotta on top. Gently fold some of the ricotta into the pasta; don't overmix- you should have pockets of ricotta. Scatter the mozzarella on top and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese. Bake the pasta for 45 minutes, or until bubbling and golden on top. Let rest for 20 minutes before serving.

Folding in ricotta!

Make ahead!!

The baked penne can be refrigerated, covered, overnight. Rewarm before serving.

1.