365 Delicious Days

When the clock struck midnight on January 1, I like many others clinked my glass of champagne and exchanged x’s and o’s with a handful of my nearest and dearest friends in celebration of the New Year. Like many of our gatherings the occasion was a delicious one, there were fruit, veggies, salami, gluten free crackers and cheese (one amazing cheese in particular was a blueberry stilton that I found at Barons Marketplace that tasted like a cheesy blueberry muffin!)

Kate chopped the veggies, Mark grilled veggie burgers and sausages, and I whipped up a pot of mulled wine and a pitcher of sangria.

Mitch was kind enough to bring all the provisions needed to mix up his now famous cosmopolitans

I am typically not too keen on cosmos but these tasted like candy!

Friends, food and fun, I could not have imagined a better way to end one fabulous year and kick start another.

There was also another joyous occasion to toast at midnight this year because January 1, 2009 was not only the birthday of a new year but also the 1^st birthday of my blog! One year ago today Mari Made was born, her first few posts were not specifically focused on food but of course food managed to make its way into each post and eventually took over as the sole focus of the content. Writing the blog has brought so many wonderful changes to my life. My passion for cooking, traveling, writing, and gluten free baking has turned from a part time hobby to a full time passion and blossoming career. It has also given me an opportunity to befriend and get to know so many creative, intelligent, and fabulous new foodie friends. I cannot put into words how much I have enjoyed where this year has taken me. From cooking up new recipes for the blog and sharing delicious gluten free discoveries to baking for my dear Mari Made customers and sharing baked treats at events, I have loved each and every sweet moment and am looking forward to all the delicious adventures yet to come in 2009.

In celebration of the day I decided to bake a sweet birthday breakfast treat using a fruit that has been the star of many Mari made recipes this year.

Bloggy Birthday Banana Bread

Makes one loaf

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice flour

¼ cup potato starch

¼ cup tapioca flour

1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon xanath gum

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 whole egg and 1 egg white

1 cup mashed banana

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup oil

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium sized bowl sift together the flours. Add to this the baking powder, baking soda, xanath gum, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt then stir until combined.

In a large bowl slightly beat the eggs and then add to this the oil, sugar, and mashed banana.

Mashed banana is an ingredient I often make use of so naturally I have become quite experienced with several different banana mashing methods. Forks and mashers work fabulously as do food processers but there is one method in particular that I have become quite fond of and so I thought I might, on this festive birthday occasion share my favorite banana mashing method.

Using a riper banana makes the mashing process much easier and limits the likelihood that the banana will spring a leak before its adequately mashed. If you manage to mash the banana fully without rupturing it use a knife to cut off the top and then squeeze the banana goo into your measuring cup.

Stir the wet ingredients until fully combined and then add to them the flour mixture and walnuts then stir just until moistened. Pour this into a greased loaf pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean.

Serve warm with a little bit of earth balance or butter.

Delicious!!

Bananaramma

It's no secret that I am a fan of bananas, sliced and served warm atop ice cream, mashed up in a bowl of oatmeal, dehydrated and sprinkled on cold cereal, stuffed with marshmallows and chocolate and roasted over an open fire, or straight from the peel. Any way you slice and serve it I am more than happy to give it a try. Most recently I have been trying to branch out and try some new bannany dishes, a recent visit to Bombay in Hillcrest introduced me to a most scrumptious and savory banana dish, Dizzy Noo Shak or Banana Curry.

Sooooo good!  It tasted like a cross between a spicy Indian curry and sweet banana bread, it was one of the most unique and delicious Indian dishes I have ever tasted. After trying this dish I felt inspired to cook up a scrumptious new banana breakfast treat the very next morning.

 

Sautéed Banana Waffle

 

Ingredients

1 Vans homestyle waffle

1 banana, cut into 1 inch thick slices

A pat of earth balance or butter

Drizzle of agave nectar or honey

3 or 4 crushed macadamia nuts

a sprinkle of shredded coconut

Preparation

Pop the waffle in the toaster to toast and then in a small sauté pan heat the earth balance or butter till it starts to sizzle a smidge. Add to this the banana slices and cook until the banana pieces start to brown on each side.

 

Once the waffle is toasted to desired toastyness top with the caramelized bananas, a drizzle of honey or agave nectar, and a sprinkle of crushed macadamia nuts and shredded coconut.

 

Delish!

 

If you don’t have time to muss with the stove and sauté the banana slices, banana waffle’s are equally scrumptious when served with nutella and nut butter.

 

Spread the toasted waffle with a smear of nutella and nut butter of your choice (I used Peanut Butter) and then top with sliced banana.

Yum!

Sandwich week, PB Wednesday

Wednesday morning I could already tell it was going to be another warm one so I decided to make a cold breakfast by crumbling an oat bar into some vanilla yogurt and topping it with blueberries and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Served with a cup of Trader Joe’s blueberry green tea it was the perfect summer morning breakfast and one that let me have my oats without having to eat a hot bowl of oatmeal.

By the way TJ’s blueberry green tea is super yummy! The sweetness of the real blueberry juice cuts all the bitterness of the green tea. Even if you typically do not care for green tea if you like blueberries I promise you will l-o-v-e this tea.

For lunch I had another scrumptious sandwich creation of course. After having had turkey for my previous two days of sandwiches I was ready for a break from the meat so I came up with this delicious treat.

Toasted gluten free bread + a generous smear of peanut butter + slices of banana + a drizzle of honey = yummers!!

I used some of the huckleberry honey my mom and Hamilton brought back from Yellowstone for me. If you don’t have any honey on hand chocolate chips are equally scrumptious in a peanut butter banana sandwich as well.

I enjoyed my sandwich with a glass of chocolate soy milk, some mango, and a table top visit from my kitty cat Sammy Davis Junior.

Sammy really likes to play with liquids and he wanted so badly to put his paw in my milk but I deterred him from that endeavor by putting some toys in his water dish for him to play with instead.

Wednesday’s sandwich was a delicious success and fun thanks to the antics of Sammy.

missin my kitchen

I know I tend to say this about most meals but I really must say today’s lunch was sooo delicious! It was the first lunch I have prepared since I got back from my fun filled mini break in Santa Barbara. I think I missed playing in the kitchen more than I realized because even after spending all of last night cooking dinner, baking scones and prepping sauces and marinades for the week ahead’s meals I still had enough creative cooking energy in me this afternoon to whip up this incredibly scrumptious lunchtime treat.

Super stuffed quesadillas

Ingredients

• 1 brown rice tortilla or 2 corn tortillas (Trader Joes sells brown rice tortilla now! yay!!)
• 1 precooked chicken mango sausage (from Trader Joes), cut into bite sized slices
• cheese (I used 1 slice pepper jack veggie slices and a small sprinkle of cotija)
• ½ avocado
• ½ vine ripened tomato, gutted and diced
• ¼ teaspoon jalapeño, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 squeeze lime juice
• sea salt and black pepper to taste

Combine the chopped tomato, jalapeño, garlic and lime juice in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper to desired taste.

Mush up the avocado in another bowl and season with salt and lime juice.

Cook your sausage slices in a pan on medium high heat until browned on both sides, set aside.

Heat your tortilla(s) in a big pan, top with cheese and sausage pieces, fold tortilla over and let brown on both sides. Remove the tortilla(s) from the pan and stuff with your spicy tomato mixture and avocado.



Soooo delicious!!

Inspired by a restaurant we ate at in Santa Barbara I yummiefied my water too by adding strawberries and orange slices to it.

As if that was not enough yummyness for one meal there was more! The mangos I bought last night to have with my lunches this week were not ready just yet so I had to search the kitchen for another fruit option to have with my lunch. I found apples, plums, and raspberries in the fridge but none of those seemed fitting for the spicy meal I was preparing. What was it I wanted? I sat down at the kitchen table to think about it and finish writing down some notes on a recipe I had been working on earlier and there it was right in front of me, sitting atop a pile of cookbooks and magazines a beautiful, perfectly ripe, yellow banana. I immediately knew what I wanted to make with it and without delay I grabbed the banana and got to work.

Pan fried banana with vanilla caramel frozen yogurt

Ingredients

1 banana, sliced
¼ teaspoon earth balance
1 tablespoon water
1 or 2 sprinkles of cinnamon
1 scoop of Stonyfield organic low fat creme caramel frozen yogurt



Heat the earth balance in a small pan over medium high heat. Add your banana slices to the pan and cook for 1 minute, then add a tablespoon of water to loosen the bananas from the pan and plump them up a bit. Cook a little longer until the bananas start to brown on one side then flip and cook until the bananas are browned on the other side.

Serve hot bananas atop a scoop of ice cream and sprinkle with cinnamon.



I have a hard time finding the words to describe how unbelievably scrumptious this was but I will try… it was close your eyes and savor each bite while you comment to yourself out loud about how so very yummy it is since you are dining alone delicious! The hot bananas were slightly crunchy on the outside and hot and fluffy on the inside and the combination of the bananas with the sweet, cold, caramely ice cream was just heavenly!

I think this whole meal would be absolutely perfect for a summer dinner, maybe add grilled bell peppers or corn to serve on the side, a couple glasses of sangria and a few friends to share it all with.

Friends and Food in the Forrest

One of the few things I enjoy more than cooking is spending time with my loved ones, put those two activities together and I am as happy as can be. This past weekend I was fortunate enough to get to spend three days doing just that, cooking delicious food and catching and up with a handful of my nearest and dearest friends. This weekend of food and friends was made even more exciting due to the fact that there would be no kitchen or dining room table for us to gather around and not even a roof over our heads as we were to be spending our weekend outdoors and under the stars camping in the Cleveland National Forrest.

A handful of us drove up early on Friday afternoon thinking it might be handy to get an early start setting up camp while it was still light out. When we left San Diego the sky was overcast and gray so we were quite pleased to find that as we approached our destination the sky cleared and the sun came out to shine brightly in the sky. We pulled into the campground and drove around till we found our spot which sat on the edge of a big grassy meadow. We gathered our things and got ready to hop out of the car, happily anticipating the feel of warm sunshine but as we opened the car door we were surprisingly greeted with a strong gust of chilly wind. Not quite what we were expecting but that’s okay, we threw on a couple extra layers and started to unpack thinking soon enough the wind would die down enough for us to set up the tents. One hour later and the wind is still gusting just as strong and chilly as when we had first arrived if not even more so. We decided before attempting to set up the tents in the wind we should have a bite to eat so we broke out some crackers, chips and a bag of Trader Joes Gluten Free potato crisps for me and had ourselves a little pre tent setting up snack. The boys were drinking beer and I was perfectly content with my water until my darling Kate broke out the bottle of tequila she had bought for the occasion. We all decided it would be appropriate to mark the start of our camping adventure by having a shot straight from the bottle. The delicious chips filled our bellies and the tequila helped cut the chill of the wind and motivated us to get to work pitching our temporary fabric bedrooms.

An hour later our tents were up and the Ford Family had arrived with puppy dog Deezl in tow. Kelly being the fabulous gal that she is brought all sorts of tools and supplies for a weekend of successful outdoor cooking. By the time we had finished setting up camp the sun had begun to set and more friendly faces from San Diego had arrived. After exchanging lots of hugs and how are yous we decided it was time to start the camp fire, chop up some veggies and crissen our camp kitchen. Friday night’s dinner was to be a delicious smorgasbord of sausages, potatoes and peppers.

Chicken apple gouda sausages (sooo yummy!!) and spicy Italian sausages grilled on an open fire. Chopped potatoes, onion and bell peppers drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, wrapped in foil packets and cooked on the fire for 20-30 minutes. Chopped yams drizzled with a Trader Joes Hard Apple cider I was drinking and sprinkled with cinnamon and brown sugar, wrapped in foil and cooked on the fire for 20-30 minutes. You want to make sure and flip the foil packets ever 5 minutes or so to keep the potatoes from charring too much on one side.

Dinner was incredibly delicious and particularly enjoyable considering all the hard work we had put into setting up camp earlier. The chilly wind continued to gust long after the sun had set so the hot food and cooking over the fire really helped warm us up. Even when we decided to call it a night and headed off to bed the wind shook the tents throughout the night. We also had some rowdy drunken neighbors that crashed the site next to us and were up till the wee ours of the morning causing quite the ruckus stumbling around the campground, being noisy and obnoxious and even chopping down trees in the forest behind our tents (grrr!!!). Lucky for me I had ear plugs and was able to sleep through most of the noise and our offending neighbors were kicked out first thing Saturday morning by the cute old couple that oversaw the campground (yay!!).

Unlike Friday, Saturday’s weather was quite pleasant. Warm, sunshiny and not windy at all. Once everyone was up and about we got to work preparing breakfast.

Ford made potatoes and yummy maple chicken breakfast sausages on the gas grill.

Kelly made eggs and I made my favorite breakfast item, oatmeal!

I cooked up two batches, banana nut and apple pie (the latter being for my bestest banana loathing friend Kate). I cooked these on the camp stove and then kept them warm on the fire.

Breakfast was scrumptious! Bellies full we decided it was time to get out and enjoy the beautiful day. Plus, we needed to do a bit of exercise if we wanted to be hungry for the dinner feast we had planed for that evening. We packed some water and a few snacks, slathered ourselves with sunscreen and headed out for a hike. We walked past the wooden fence that ran along the edge of our campsite and stepped out into the vast grassy meadow (which of course made me start quoting lines from Bambi).

The middle of the meadow had a spiffy cluster of boulders in the center of it that we stopped to climb on.

We also came across a heard of cattle. They were trying to intimidate us with their horns and angry cow stares.

After an hour we stopped in a shady spot and had some apples and pears, I planted my apple core in hopes that a tree might grow there someday. After another hour or so we were back at camp and plum tuckered out so we resigned to our tents for a little camp nap. When we awoke it was almost time to start preparing dinner, but not quite yet so to pass the time we made some smores!

Peanut butter cup + roasted marshmallow + cookie = yumers!!

I used a Nana’s Nana Banana cookie bar as my graham cracker replacement. I think this actually worked much better than a graham cracker because the Nana’s cookies are so soft that they don’t crumble to bits when you take your first bite. It was so delicious! I could have easily eaten another one (or 4!) but I limited myself to one because I wanted to save room for our Mexican feast we were going to be eating for dinner in a few hours.

I started making the tortillas first since they take the longest time to prepare. I mixed up the masa harina with water and then used my hands and a tortilla press my dad and brother brought me back from Ixtapa to make a bunch of corn tortillas. Kelly had brought a super spiffy gas grill that had a huge removable rectangular plate on it that was perfect for cooking 5 tortillas at once. Once the tortillas were done I set them aside to keep warm in my super fancy styrofoam tortilla warmer that I got at the 99 cent store just for the occasion.

Kelly got to work warming up some pork in a green sauce she had made at home in the crockpot while I warmed up some black beans I had slow cooked on Thursday night.

Kelly Orange had brought an abundance of delicious fresh fruits and veggies and chopped up some squash, bell peppers and onion to be sautéed with garlic and roasted on the fire.

Mikey brought some carne asada and more colorful peppers that to be grilled over the fire.

Steve, my official recipe taste tester gladly sampled everything and loved every bite.

As if dinner was not enough deliciousness for one evening we still had an amazingly delicious dessert to enjoy, a dessert which we will call…

Scrumptious Stuffed Bananas

Ingredients and tools

Bananas
Peanut butter cups
Milk chocolate chips
Marshmallows (mini or big ones torn into mini sized pieces)
Heavy duty aluminum foil

Assembling the package

Leaving the peels on use a knife to cut a slit running lengthwise into the inner curve of each banana. You want to cut through one side of the skin and flesh of the banana and leave the opposite side of the skin intact. Stuff the slit of the banana with as much crumbled up peanut butter cup, chocolate chips and bits of marshmallow as you can then wrap the bundle in foil and put on the fire to cook for about 5 minutes or so. If you don’t have a grill over your fire you can put the foil packet directly onto some hot coals or rocks (if you do this you might want to double wrap the banana with foil). Once your banana is cooked grab a spoon, carefully open your foil packet and enjoy. You can eat this straight out of the banana peel with a spoon or I have been told that it is also extremely delicious spooned atop of a graham cracker.

Yum!!!

After a long day of hiking, cooking and eating we all cozyed up around the warm fire to relax and enjoy our surroundings. Even though we had only been away just shy of a day being outdoors in the peaceful wilderness far away from the hustle and bustle of city life lightened our spirits and cleared our heads of thoughts of job obligations, alarm clocks and traffic jams. For most of us our days at home are jam packed with working, commuting, school, cleaning, taking care of kids and errand running and while our bodies and minds adjust to this fast paced way of life I think it is extremely important and healthy to take some time every now and again to slow down and enjoy a few peaceful, pleasant moments with friends.

After a much quieter night’s sleep we rose early in the morning, started a campfire and made a simple breakfast of tea, leftover oatmeal, foil packet roasted potatoes and peppers and hot strawberry chocolate scones (baked Friday morning before we left) warmed up on the fire.

It was a delicious end to a delicious trip and one that renewed my love of camping and inspired me to make plans to do more cooking and playing in the great outdoors.

Next camping adventure in the works, southern California beach camping, who’s in?