Babies and Banana Bread

This weekend I was in charge of the food for sister-in-law NS’s baby shower. There were going to be 13 ladies present and I was nervous as anything about doing it. I get all worked up about entertaining for large numbers and I am not very good at cooking in other peoples kitchens and the party was at my sister-in-laws place. As a result I went for a simple menu that allowed me to do most of the prep at home and didn’t involve a lot of cooking.


Bagels with lox, fresh tomatoes and red onions
Fruit Salad (provided by my mother-in-law)
Green salad with bok choy and tomatoes
Nana’s Banana Bread


My Nana’s banana bread is sacred in our household. When bananas get brown, I peel them and throw them in a zip lock bag in the freezer. Then when I get three, I’ll pull together a loaf for JR and it keeps him remembering why he married me – my Nana’s banana bread. It’s not something I can describe, just think of the best banana bread you have ever had and here is the recipe.


Nana’s Banana Bread

Ingredients:
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 crushed bananas
2 cups bread flour
1 t baking soda
¼ t salt
¼ cup walnuts (optional)

Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, flour, baking soda, nuts.
- Mash bananas in a separate bowl and add last, mixing until they are just mixed in.
- Bake 1 hour in a well greased bread pan (or half hour in muffin tins)

Ginger Carrot Slaw - Another Summer Salad

A couple years ago my company merged with another and went from 35 people to ~85 people in a day. It was difficult to know everyone and there was very much an “us” and “them” mentality. I decided in order to try and smooth things over and get people talking we should have a pot-luck lunch. It was a brilliant idea (I am so modest) which we pulled off a couple days before Christmas. A ton of people brought in dishes, so many that we had leftovers for the lunch the rest of the week.

It was also fun because people brought a lot of different types of food from all over the world. There were curries and cheeses and special Pakistani pastry puffs but the only recipe I took away from the event was the Carrot and Cabbage slaw that my friend MG made. It’s a recipe he got from a raw food website that combines shredded carrots and cabbage with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, fresh ginger and lemon juice.


It’s one of the few recipes I make big batches of year round. It’s great to bring it to work for lunch every day for a week and only gets better as the flavors soak in. This past week, the farm share we have been enjoying, delivered both carrots and cabbage and I couldn’t stop myself from whipping this together. I used cranberries instead of the normal golden raisins, and I actually liked it better. Make it next time you want something last a couple days, I promise you will enjoy it.

Ingredients:
5 carrots, grated
2 cups shredded red cabbage
1-cup raisins
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

2 tsp honey or maple syrup
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp grated ginger
4 Tbsp olive oil or sunflower seed oil
dash of salt

Directions:
• Toss together salad ingredients in a large bowl
• Dissolve the honey in the lemon juice, add the grated ginger, olive oil, and salt
• Pour the dressing over the salad and toss
• Allow to marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes to 24 hours

Great Friends Give Fresh Vegetables

You might have heard that I have not had any luck with growing fresh vegetables or that I crave them something fierce. What you may not know is that I was really worried that Boston would not have the variety of fresh vegetables I have become accustomed to and that they would be hard to come by, was I ever wrong! I also happen to have some great friends and colleagues who keep me in my habit and supply me with fresh veggies.

Last Wednesday, I was given a first batch of veggies from a colleague as part of a trade I have arranged. MG, who read about my lettuce woes and promptly rubbed it in that he has a beautiful garden, brought me summer squash and cucumbers. We have made an arrangement that he will keep me in tomatoes and other vegetables this summer, in exchange for a batch of my BBQ sauce.


That same day, I picked up H&CK’s farm share from Red Fire Farm. They are on vacation this week weren’t going to be able to eat all the veggies. So for 2 WHOLE WEEKS they are letting us pick their share. This past week we got, tomatoes, beets, blueberries, lettuce, kale, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, green beans, potatoes, peppers, fresh basil and broccoli! Today I picked up garlic, lettuce, tomatoes, basil, eggplant, watermelon, blueberries, squash, peppers, carrots and corn.


It’s beautiful and tasty and I didn’t even tell JR about half of it so I could horde it all for myself to eat in beautiful salads for lunch. I got home from picking it up last Wednesday and promptly made myself a tomato, basil and mozzarella salad that was delicious.

Then on Saturday, I picked JB up at 10AM and we went up to the farmers marketing in Somerville. We have been doing this pretty much every weekend we are both in the city and it’s been awesome.


The market keeps getting better and better. Since I had so many vegetables from the farm share, I didn’t let myself get too much and settled for photos. I did buy some bok choy for salads and a couple tomatoes, I couldn’t help myself!


It turns out finding fresh veggies isn't so difficult! I am thinking about joining the farm share next year and will keep enjoying the farmers market as long as I can.