Banana-Bran Muffins or Snack Cake

I had some oat bran, whole wheat flour and bananas that I needed to use. So I looked in a notebook in which I keep lots of muffin and quick bread recipe clippings. I have had this recipe since 1987 so I guess it was time to use it. It is from Woman's Day 2/10/87. I made it as a snack cake in a 9x9 pan. It was very tasty.

Banana-Bran Muffins
1 large egg
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3 large or 4 medium size)
1/2 cup raisins or chopped walnuts (I used raisins)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup oat bran or wheat bran
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 12 regular size or 10 if you want large muffins or line with baking cups. With a wooden spoon beat egg and sugar in a medium size bowl until smooth. Add bananas, raisins, oil and vanilla. Beat until blended then let stand 1 minute or so. Thoroughly mix flours, bran, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Add banana mixture and fold in with a spatula just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon into muffin cups and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until brown and springy to the touch. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

Broccoli Grape Salad with Chutney Dressing

While perusing one of my many cookbooks I found a recipe that sounds like a very tasty variation of the broccoli, raisin and bacon salad that you see at buffets, potlucks etc. There are recipes for the basic salad all over the Internet. I did a search but didn't find another recipe like this one. It doesn't have any bacon like most broccoli salad recipes but you could easily add it if desired. The original recipe made a huge amount so I cut it in half.

Chutney Broccoli Grape Salad

1 head broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces ( florets and some stems)
3/4 pound seedless red grapes
1/4 of a red onion, chopped
1/2 cup lightly toasted slivered almonds
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 of a 9 oz. jar chutney
1 tablespoons curry powder
In a large mixing bowl, combine broccoli, grapes, onion and almonds.
In a small mixing bowl, combine mayonnaise, chutney and curry powder; mix well. Stir mayonnaise mixture into broccoli mixture; mix well. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve. Serve chilled.
From: Grilling- Food Writers' Favorites

Who knew?

My husband gave me three or four cookbooks for Christmas that he got at thrift stores or library sales. I am embarrassed to say I hadn't looked at one of them until last week. It was an over-sized book titled Mirabelle. It was by some chef and about the Mirabelle restaurant in London. After looking at it I decided it wasn't the type of book I was interested in and told my husband he could sell it on eBay. Usually he would list a book like that for $5.95. For some reason I decided to do a search for it on a used and rare book site that searches over 80,000 sources. Lo and behold it was a valuable book that was being offered for around $100 dollars. I guess it must have been a very small printing run. To make a long story short he sold it on auction yesterday for $86.00!! Thank goodness I decided to check its value.

Chinese Roll-Ups from Women's Circle Home Cooking

This recipe is from a Women's Circle Home Cooking book- Cooking With Style. These are the paperback books that you see quite often in thrift stores. They are compiled from reader submitted recipes in Home Cooking magazine. The water chestnuts seem to be the only thing remotely Asian, there isn't even any soy sauce. They might be tasty though.

Chinese Roll-Ups with Hot Mustard Sauce

1 pound ground beef
1 can water chestnuts, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 package onion and mushroom soup mix
1 tablespoon beef bouillon
3 packages crescent rolls
1/4 cup prepared mustard
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
2 teaspoons horseradish
Brown ground beef. Add next 5 ingredients. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Place 1 tablespoon meat mixture in center of each crescent triangle. Pull corners over meat mixture; pinch together to seal. Place on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until browned. Combine remaining ingredients; mix well. Refrigerate until serving time. Serve hot mustard sauce over roll-ups while still warm. May be frozen for use later.

Soup Cookery- The Savory HEINZ Way

I hope to get back to posting regularly soon. The last month has been a hard one for my family. My Mom fell a month ago and broke two ribs. Since then it has been really up and down for her. I lost count of how many times she had to go to the emergency room. For some reason she started having seizures. Hopefully they have now got them under control. She is in a care center now, and I really have no idea when or if she will get to come home. She was only home for one day in the last month. My baby granddaughter who we are very close to because we care for her while my daughter works had surgery to her skull. That was very nerve racking. She is doing well now, but wow she has two really long sets of sutures on the top of her head. Well enough of my families problems, I know everyone has some troubles.

I have seen quite a few Campbells Soup publications but not very many from Heinz. This little booklet is undated but looks like it is from the 60's. It has a lot of common cream soup casseroles and such. There are a few desserts, their variation for the tomato soup cake is titled- Coral Spice Cake. The recipe that caught my eye though is their corn bread:

Corn Bread
1 cup corn meal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon salad oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 10 3/4 -ounce Heinz Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup, undiluted

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Sift together first 5 ingredients. Combine remaining ingredients, mix well. Add to dry ingredients mixing just long enough to moisten. Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full or pour into greased 9"x 9"x 2" square pan. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes or until done. Makes 9 muffin or 9 servings.

My husband really likes Cream of Chicken soup and will actually heat it up and eat it as is. I think most people just use it for cooking. I am going to try this recipe as I think he will get a kick out of it.

Cookbook Perusing: Florida's Natural, Favorite Recipes From Our Groves

Florida's Natural, Favorite Recipes From Our Groves (1998) is a hardcover collection of recipes from the co-op of growers who make Florida's Natural Juices. There are lots of large color photos of the prepared recipes, vintage black and whites of the citrus industry and photos of vintage citrus crate labels. There is short but interesting history of the Florida citrus industry and recollections by growers.
There are recipes from many recipe categories, appetizers to desserts.
This orange recipe sounds very easy and something a little different than the widely seen onion soup and cream soup recipes. It is an older recipe so it calls for whole cut up chicken. Now people would probably use breasts or thighs.

Poulet A L'Orange

2 broiler-fryer chickens, cut up

2 medium navel oranges, unpeeled and cut into thick slices

1 envelope onion soup mix

1-1/2 cups orange juice, home-squeezed style

Place chicken and orange slices in large roasting pan. Add onion soup mix. Pour orange juice over chicken and orange slices. Bake 1-1/2 hours in 400 degree oven until tender and glazed, basting and turning occasionally. Serve with pan juice. Serves 6.

I don't see many grapefruit recipes in cookbooks but this one has quite a few. A pie, cake, several main dishes and others.

Pork Chops With Grapefruit Glaze

6 pork chops

1 grapefruit, squeezed for juice

1/2 stick butter or margarine, melted

2 tablespoons honey

To prepare glaze, mix melted butter, juice from the grapefruit, and honey. Set aside. Cook chops on medium hot grill; 15 minutes before done brush with glaze. Turn chops and continue to brush with glaze until done.

Fresh-Cherry Tart

I was looking through one of my old recipe clipping files today and found this Good Housekeeping Mag. recipe from 1979 that features fresh cherries. They are available around here for a reasonable price now. Usually when I buy them they all get eaten up as a snack before I can use them in a recipe.
The recipe was one of their 30 Minute features, but I think this recipe would take longer that that because you need to pit the cherries.

Fresh-Cherry Tart

2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 of 10-1/2-ounce bag miniature marshmallows (2 cups) or about 20 regular marshmallows
2-1/2 cups oven-toasted rice cereal
1 (3-1/2- to 3-3/4 ounce)package vanilla instant pudding and pie filling
1-1/4 cups milk
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
1 teaspoon almond extract
1-1/2 pounds sweet cherries

In 2-quart saucepan over low heat, melt butter. Add marshmallows; heat until marshmallows are melted, stirring frequently. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in cereal until well mixed. With buttered hand, pat mixture into greased 10-inch tart pan or 9-inch pie plate.
In large bowl with mixer at high speed, beat pudding mix and remaining ingredients except cherries 5 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Spoon mixture into cereal crust. Refrigerate.
With cherry pitter, remove pits from cherries or cut each cherry in half but not all the way through to remove pit. Gently press cherries into cream filling. Makes 8 servings.