Citrus Spice Banana Doughnuts

To quote Pink Floyd, "Hello ... is there anybody out there?" As if becoming a mom didn't distract me enough from blogging recipes the last 3 years, my blog has languished further due to a year of personal loss, when my beloved mamma died unexpectedly last May.  As hard as it has been, we have still had to cook meals, and feed our families, albeit at times with far less inspiration and interest. However, my sister and I have found great connection with each other and our mom, in the kinship and catharsis of going through her 40 years worth of recipes. This became especially necessary in preparing traditional holiday treats,  and many of our mom's personal culinary inventions as we have mourned her absence during those special seasons of the last year.

 

Today it's been an extra dreary rainy, gray spring day, and I felt an urge to bake a banana bread  with my almost 3 year old boy,  but as he insisted on "Helping" far more than I asked,  he also added fresh ground pepper to the recipe.  So in order to salvage it I added a few additional spices to enhance the citrus and banana flavors.  And then I thought to bake the dough in doughnut pans instead of as a loaf.  It did not disappoint! However,  I only have one photo,  so you'll have to imagine the rest!

The original recipe,  which I departed from, was found in  Good Kitchen Magic.

Ingredients:

4 mashed bananas
1 egg
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup sugar (could probably be reduced by half if your bananas are bigger)
1 orange, zested
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 - 1/2 tsp fresh ground ginger
1/2 tsp fresh ground cardamom
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder

Directions: 

Blend sugar,  egg, oil and bananas together well,  and add zest of 1 orange,  1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper  [My son's  idea!], 1/2 tsp fresh ground ginger and 1/2 tsp fresh ground cardamom [my idea!]. 

Add 2 cups flour and 1 tsp baking powder while stirring. Continue to mix until smooth.  Distribute into doughnut pans, level to the top edge,  as they'll rise while baking.  Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until lightly browned.

They're delicious warm from the oven, but I would wrap them in air-tight foil or plastic or a zippered bag or container to keep them from drying out too fast if you can't eat them right away.

Cranberry Citrus Oatmeal

 

Every year for Thanksgiving, I make a variation of the standard Cranberry-Citrus sauce recipe (that is often on the back of the bag of cranberries.) I inevitably end up with huge amounts left. Last year, I started adding it to my oatmeal as a way of using it up, and it was really good! You could also use this sauce as a condiment to roasted chicken or pork, or even grilled salmon. The standard recipe doesn't call for any seasonings but I find it satisfying to add fresh ginger and cinnamon to this sauce.

  

 

Kombucha

Raspberry Ginger Kombucha on the rocks

EDITED 01-25-2016 with an important medical note. Due to my own naive overconsumption of Kombucha, I was actually causing damage and stress to my liver, which was discovered with a standard blood test. Please be aware that this is a beverage with live organisms in it, and it should only be consumed in small quantities, as a "health tonic." At most 4 or 5 oz per day. I was actually drinking 12-16 oz per day, the way I might have regular ice tea in a big glass. My dear friend and "sister-in-law-once-removed", who is a nutritional therapist, did some extensive research and learned that people who have had toxic mold exposure should not drink kombucha at all, nor have raw vinegar with "the mother" in it.  That all rings a bell for me, because I was chronically exposed to toxic mold for 3 years in a rental house in the 1990s.  Furthermore, after discovering my off-kilter lab work, I told all my friends who drink kombucha to be cautious. One of my friends also decided to get bloodwork done and her liver enzymes were also elevated after regular kombucha drinking. So please use caution! As fun as it is to make this natural beverage, if you are in doubt at all, ask your doctor to run some bloodwork on you, especially if you feel more fatigued or lethargic, or start having any illness symptoms after consuming it. I am not a doctor. I am just sharing my own experience in the last 3 months, after six months of daily kombucha drinking.  As for myself, I'm afraid my kombucha drinking days are over. I'll miss it's tart, fizzy effervescence, but I only get one liver.

Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie

First of all, these photos are a little dark and uninspired, but as is usually the case, I do most of my cooking late at night, and it's currently 11 p.m. Pacific Time.  So I'm a little sleepy, and it's very dark and very rainy out.  In fact, I believe we got nearly 2 inches of rain today.  Now then, I made the promise to try to do my chili-themed blogs this month, but I will admit that I overlooked how fast this month would fly by, and how side-tracked I would be by holiday-related crafting and other projects.  So ... it's still on deck for me to finish up the chili-recipes, and I think I'll get a chance to do so in December, but for now, let me do a last minute Thanksgiving appropriate dessert, which is really yummy.

The recipe came via my mother-in-law, as it was apparently one of my husband's favorite Thanksgiving desserts.  I've modified the spices a little bit, but other than that it's the same as the one she gave me.  It's a very fast, easy and tasty pie; and totally All-American. I mean, it has Jell-O brand vanilla pudding, and you can't get much more All-American than by putting Jell-O brand pudding into a recipe! (Which reminds me of how much I miss Jell-O Pudding Pops, and those ads by Bill Cosby.)  Oh... and HAPPY THANKSGIVING.  May we all find something in our lives we are profoundly thankful for.  If you are reading this, I can already remind you have a computer or smart-phone, electricity and a roof over your head. And that's more than what much of the world has.  We are blessed.


INGREDIENTS:

1 cup canned pumpkin
2 cups vanilla ice cream (softened a bit)
1 3.4 ounce package of Jell-O vanilla instant pudding
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1 dash nutmeg
1 dash all-spice

1 pie crust (I like the graham cracker no-bake crusts, as a great contrast to the pumpkin ice cream, but you could also do a regular pie crust, and bake it first according to directions or make your own from scratch.)

Optional:
Cover top of pie with whipped cream, after it is set up.

Blend all ingredients in a large bowl with electric mixer until fluffy, and fill into the pie-crust.  Chill, at least overnight (you can also freeze it and let it thaw a half hour prior to serving, if you want it more ice-cream like.  Otherwise, it serves up nicely, like a 'cream pie.' And you will clearly not be able to refrain from licking the beaters or possibly licking out the bowl with your tongue.  It can't be done.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp (Strubarb Crisp)

For some people, rhubarb is a word that makes the hair on the neck stand up.  And then there are folks like me who can't get enough of the stuff.  My amazing mother sometimes makes rhubarb 'creme' (sort of a soupy mess of rhubarb, made with fresh rhubarb, sugar, and potato starch that is absolutely delicious...)  I will probably make some of that in a few days as I have a lot of rhubarb in my garden which I need to use up.  But that's not what I'm making today.  I'm going to share a recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.  I don't know where the recipe came from, but as it is so frequently the case, I will just assume that my mom gave it to me.  Crisps are fairly universally similar (oats, sugar, butter, spices) so I don't know if this one has any particularly unique qualities, but I shared a pan of it with my neighbors last month, and got an email back that said "Oh my, that crisp is so good! Wow. Thanks again!"  It's especially good with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Orange Ginger Ahi steaks with Bok Choy

A few weeks ago I tried a recipe for a similar chicken dish with orange, ginger & bok choy, but I wanted to try Ahi steaks, because I just had some delicious seared ahi last night at a restaurant, which usually means I crave it for another 24 hours afterwards.  So I merged the two together here. (This recipe is a little bit of a hybrid between a couple of other recipes on my blog: Mandarin Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi and Grilled Teriyaki Ahi Tuna –  I just love citrus-savory recipes!)

Mandarin Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi

I almost always keep a bag of mahi mahi filets in the freezer, because, well, you can't get fresh Mahi Mahi unless you live in Hawaii, I'm pretty sure.  And I do really like it.  Since I didn't feel like going out to grill this, I made a pan-fried dish, with an Asian-inspired truly off-the-cuff marinade.