Over the Christmas holiday, Chris and I attended a dinner party over at our friend EW’s house. We decided to bring a bottle of wine and this bread. I know EW is a HUGE bread lover so I thought I’d bake him a loaf. In the past, I have baked him savory breads but he seemed to love beer bread more than others. I’m guessing it’s the dense texture and the crusty top.
We are big eggnog people here. Drinking it straight with some brandy, not so much. But we use it for everything else, especially in our morning lattes. I personally love to bake with eggnog and Chris loves to eat it. We ♥ eggnog.
A few weeks ago, Chris and I splurged and bought ourselves a one-touch espresso machine. We’ve had our Starbucks Barista machine for over 10 years and thought it was time to retire it. It was a great machine but it was manual and cumbersome. Technology has come a long way. Now you can make a great espresso drink with a touch of a button! What used to be a 20-minute process to make a latte now only takes a couple minutes!
I can’t remember the last time I baked with apples. It must have been about a year ago. So today’s recipe is an apple recipe (duh!) with Biscoff. Who doesn’t love Biscoff? If you haven’t tried Biscoff, I urge you to hurry up and get yourself a jar. You can get it on Amazon, Target or Cost Plus World Market, to name a few. It’s fantastic in baking, on toast, or you can just eat it straight from the jar. I currently have 5 jars in my pantry, that’s how much I love it.
I generally prefer to bake from scratch. But on those days when you don’t have the time to be bothered with measuring, these baking mixes sure come in handy! I love Trader Joe’s baking mixes. They never have those hydrogenated soybean oil or any preservatives in their mixes. With this particular baking mix, they also have corn kernels, which is nice because it actually gave the cornbread more texture and flavor.
I hope everyone is having a lovely long weekend! We spent it barbecuing with family, some cooking/baking and fighting off the ants and spiders! Ugh… one of the things I hate about home ownership is battling pests! Flies, spiders, ants, racoons, skunks —you name it! I’m relieved that I’m having my home fumigated on Tuesday. Hopefully most of them will be gone by then. Chris and I used to live in a condo so we didn’t encounter pest problems but we did have some noisy neighbors. Either way, they’re both pests. At least with these pest, they’re not loud and obnoxious, just creepy.
Oh wow, is it Wednesday already?! My blog has been seriously neglected. E and M just left. And I’m pooped! It has been quite an exhausting weekend. We were out all day Sunday and Monday. Mostly outdoor stuff —poolside barbecue and picnic barbecue. And I’m not into any of those things. There’s one thing you need to know about me. I don’t like getting dirty and I don’t like outdoorsy activities. OK, that’s two things. Why? It’s mainly because of the insects. I attract them. They love to eat me alive. Plus, I do not like dining with any bugs around. Who does? Aside from that, it was great seeing my nieces, E and M!
Doesn’t the title of this post sound a bit strange? Ricotta and yogurt?! Well, I was going through the fridge and had stuff I needed to use up before they go bad. I had about a half cup of ricotta left but it wasn’t enough for a bread batter so I added yogurt, which also needed to be used up. Surprisingly, the bread turned out super moist and delicious. Who knew? Happy hump day!
I’m a bit late on this post but I made this last week to pair it with the Ranchero Beef Stew we had for dinner. I made this into mini loaves so I can give some away. This beer bread is fantastic by itself or with soups or stews. Anything with beer in it is a great start to the week! Toodles!
I promise, this will be the last banana recipe for a while. I finally used up the last three bananas in my possession —yay! What a relief! I thought my last couple of bananas were black but these were super black and ripe! But the outcome of these cute little mini loaves were delicious. Who doesn’t like banana and chocolate with crunchy almonds? I shared these loaves with my neighbor Angela and my dear friend Lisa, who I’m having lunch with today. Happy hump day!
uni homemaker 