Banana Vanilla Muffins with Vanilla Cinnamon Topping

Today I had a doctors appointment and no one to watch my kiddos. I borrowed my girlfriends 16 yr. old daughter to sit with them in the waiting room. To show my appreciation I baked them muffins. Considering that the appointment was at 8:30 a.m. which caused them to wake up early. They deserved these yummy delicious muffins. Yes, I was making muffins at 6:30 a.m. this morning from scratch! What?! I am crazy?! Probably. Don't worry, I made two batches too. I made a batch for my girls and husband as well as the dozen for my friends.. ANYWAY, these turned out incredible.....

BANANA VANILLA MUFFIN WITH VANILLA CINNAMON TOPPING
3 cps. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
5 bananas
1 1/2 cp sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla paste or extracts

CRUMB TOPPING
6 TB Flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. BVBC Ground Bourbon Vanilla Beans
2/3 cp. packed brown sugar
2 Tb. cold butter

1. Sift the dry ingredients and set aside. Mash the bananas and add the sugar stir. Add the eggs and vanilla paste and beat again. Add the dry ingredients until just combined.

2. Throw everything in the crumb topping in a food processor and process. Process until it feels like a coarse meal.

3. Add about 3 TB of batter into each greased cup in the muffin tin. Top with the crumb topping. Bake on 350 for about 20 minutes.

This recipe makes 24 incredible muffins...SHARE.

Triple Vanilla Sugar Cookies and A Broken Mixer

Let me start by telling a funny and sad story. I had my four yr. old Alex in the kitchen with me to help me make the cookies. I had her scraping the bowl with the spatula and combine the butter and sugar. All of a sudden I see her put the spatula in the bowl and push the bowl. The bowl goes spinning and the spatula is wedged in between the two beaters. Then you hear the loudest ugliest sound. Bailey (My one yr. old) goes running for her life right into the wall leaving a goose egg and a crying baby. My oldest is hiding because she is scared and she know she just destroyed my mixer. After I finally calmed my babies down I take a gander at the damage....This is what I see:

A cookie dough plastic mess. Not to mention, my beaters are bent and deformed causing it to be impossible to get out.......I told my four yr. old that we could not make the cookies now...She cries harder. So I remake the entire thing by hand...AND YES, I let her help again. You can see her tiny hand putting the dry ingredients through a sifter.

Triple Vanilla Sugar Cookies


3 cps. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 baking powder
pinch salt
1. Sift all the dry ingredients together

The wet ingredients:
1 cp. or 2 sticks of softened butter
1 3/4 cp.vanilla sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 tsp. BVBC vanilla paste or vanilla extracts
1 tsp. ground BVBC vanilla bean
1. Mix the butter until smooth

2. Add the sugar and vanilla paste. Mix until fluffy and well combined

3. Add one tsp. of the ground bourbon vanilla bean
4. Add on egg. Mix until combined.

5. Slowly add the flour mixture and mix. Do not over work. Mix until just combined.

6. Roll in small balls and put a little Sugar on top. Bake on 350 for to minutes...

MMMMMHHHH....Let the kids watch them cook.....SO EXCITED.

The cookies are cooling....

EAT!!!! These turned out sooooo yummy. Enjoy!!!

One of my Favorite Ingredients: Vanilla, Vanilla, Vanilla

Let me begin by saying, I love Vanilla. It is one of my favorite ingredient. I am always searching for the finest vanilla. I found a company called Boston Vanilla Bean Company which I must share. It serves the finest Grade-A vanilla beans such as Uganda, Mexican, India, Papua New Guinea, and Madagascar Beans. This company has USDA NOP Organic Certification vanilla beans and follow all fair trade agreements. Most of their beans can be bought organically.

They mainly sell their Imported Vanilla Beans, but also developed Vanilla Bean Paste, Vanilla Extracts and Ground Vanilla. I could not accurately put into words how amazing it is to use their vanilla paste. I made triple vanilla cheesecake, triple vanilla sugar cookies and I used the paste in my french toast this morning. It is by far one of the best products that have ever graced my kitchen. I would like to thank Steve and Boston Vanilla Bean Company for that.

Another aspect that I appreciate about this company is the pride they show in their product. Steve from Boston Vanilla Bean Company has called me and emailed me to give me advice, pointers, explanations and showed such passion. This company has been featured on Food Network by chef Alton Brown and by other well known chefs such as Albino Tuosto. Yet, they are humble enough to talk to me on the phone for an hour about their product. It gives me such honor to work with such great people and products. I truly wish everyone had this passion about their products.

You can find Steve and The Boston Vanilla Bean Company @ http://www.bostonvanillabeans.com/
Their site has history of the vanilla bean, recipes and a shop. Which I might add, their price for their vanilla beans is fair. Please take a look.

Enjoy!!
I am going to share a few recipes that I have used BVBC products with.
Vanilla Sugar:

2 Vanilla Beans
4-6 cps. of sugar

1. Scrape two vanilla beans clean and add to a food processor. Add the 4-6 cps. of sugar to the food processor. Process until combined. Add the empty pods to the bottom of the canister. Add the sugar.

Let me just say, this makes coffee in the morning a 100x better.


TRIPLE VANILLA CHEESECAKE

CRUST:

1 1/2 of the bags in a box of cinnamon graham crackers

1/3 cp. My Vanilla Sugar

1 tsp. of BVBC Vanilla Paste (You can sub for reg. vanilla extracts)

1/3 cp pecans

1 stick of melted butter


Add the sugar to the food processor.
Add the pecans and BVBC Vanilla Paste (You can use regular extracts)
Add the graham crackers.
Slowly add the butter as you process in the food processor. The butter must be melted.

Press into a 9.5 in. spring pan. Put into a 350 oven for 8-10 minutes. While this is baking make the cheesecake

THE FILLING:

4 8 oz. 1/3 less fat Cream Cheese, soft

1 1/2 cp. vanilla sugar

1 1/2 vanilla paste

2 vanilla beans

3 TB flour

5 eggs
Add the softened cream cheese and sugar to a mixer. Mix until smooth.
This is what the cream cheese and sugar should look like.....

Add the vanilla paste
Add two beans. You have to cut a vanilla bean in half.

Inside the vanilla bean you will see a bunch of black seeds. Scrap it clean. Add the pulp into the cream cheese mixture. (You can add the empty vanilla beans into a canister of sugar to give it a vanilla taste.)
I used two Mexican Vanilla beans.

Mix...You can see the beautiful black flecks in the cream cheese mixture. Add the three tablespoons of flour and mix.
Add the eggs. One at a time. Mix after each one.

Add on top of the baked crust. Cook on 350 for 75 minutes.
Let cool and then refridge. I leave it in the fridge overnight.
Last, but not least let those kiddos lick those glorious beaters

The final product! This was so great! I served this to my husbands coworkers and it was a huge success. Enjoy!!

Dulcet Cuisine and Cuban Sandwiches

Let me start by saying that I found an amazing company called Dulcet Cuisine and would like to share with my fellow foodies. I actually located them on foodbuzz.com under some of our favorite brands. If you would like to take a gander at her site. Pam Kraemer is the owner of Dulcet Cuisine. Pam and her company make earth friendly, 100% natural ketchup , mustard , seasonings, marinades, dressings and sauces. You can find Pam's products in whole food stores all over the country. She is very talented. I used her Creole mustard and Creole seasoning mix to make a Cuban with a twist. My husband loves spicy and he also loves Cubans....It turned out amazing. I paired it with my homemade spicy pickles that I canned a few weeks back. It turned out very very good.
If you are interested in Dulcet Cuisine visit Pam @ http://dulcetcuisine.com/ . Pam's dedication for food differently shows in her quality of work. I am not a huge fan of mustard and I could of dove head first into her Creole Mustard. It has so much flavor.

You know me...When I find great products I love to share them with everyone. I hope you enjoy.


MY SPICY CREOLE CUBAN


I used a pork shoulder and covered it in Dulcet Creole Mustard. About 4-6 Tablespoons

I then covered the pork shoulder in the Creole seasoning.




(This pic did not turn out to good...There was steam everywhere) I browned both sides of the pork shoulder.




I then put the pork shoulder covered in a 350 oven the first hour and then 250 for most of the day until it fell apart. I would keep checking on it and adding water if necessary.This was the end of the shredded pork... Now for assembling this amazing sandwich.


I cut a cuban bread loaf in half. I added more of the creole mustard and my homemade spicy pickles.
I added two slice of swiss cheese to both sides of the sandwich. And then I added pork to the bottom of the bread and on top of that I added good quality ham.
I then put the sandwich in the Panini Sandwich maker until everything is melted and oozing out. Last but not least...I cut it in half and served it. Then my husband devoured it. YUMMY.
I hope you enjoy my recipe and I hope you visit my friend Pam.

Hydroponic Lettuce?

Another cool find at the farmers market that I would like to share. It is Hydroponic Bibb Lettuce!!!! You can actually bring it home put the roots in some water and it will continue to grow and prosper! How cool is that? Anyway, I bought 4 heads for 3 dollars. An awesome price!!! Next Wednesday they will have Hydroponic Red Leaf Lettuce (which is my fav) I will be there with bells.

Tomato Sauce with Farmers Market Tomatoes

I grew up in a very VERY small farm town in Ohio. I lived near my uncles cattle farm and Meat market. My mother had an amazing garden and grew every vegetable you could think of. But what was more spectacular is I remember as a kid she would can all of the vegetables for the winter. She would can the green beans, stewed tomatoes and jams. Our basement was full of the amazing fresh vegetables my mother canned. I truly wish I could do this, but living in FL you only have limited ability at what you could grow. Yesterday I went to the farmers market and they had these AMAZINGLY beautiful tomatoes for $2.oo for a huge basket. Of course, I bought two baskets with fresh tomato sauce in mind. I called my mom when I got home and she told me to just dump boiling water on top of the tomatoes and the skin will peel right off. I was very skeptical. It could not be that easy....Needless to say, it was. I actually had my four yr. old Alexandra pulling the skin off as I seeded and cored the tomatoes. I do not think I will buy canned tomatoes again.....We shall see, but this sauce was so refreshing and good. I cannot put into words how this made my taste buds danced....What a difference. I hope this inspires other people to try this. It was very easy. Enjoy



I washed and scrubbed the tomatoes. I would say there was about a dozen tomatoes. I then boiled about 4 gallons of water. I then dumped it on top of the tomatoes.


As you can see, the skinned pulled right up. My four yr. old pulled the skin of all the tomatoes in less then 15 minutes. I adore my little helper.

This is the pot of seeded, cored and skinned tomatoes. After Alex took the skin off I rinsed the seeds out and cored the tomatoes.

I put the tomatoes on medium heat with a little salt and pepper.

I totally could of ate the entire pot of sauce with just the salt and pepper that is how amazing it tasted.

This is what the final product turned out...I did not add to much to the sauce. I made it simple because I did not want to alter the amazing taste of the fresh tomatoes....

The recipe: FRESH Tomato Sauce

12 whole tomatoes cooked down (I cooked for about 2-4 hours)

salt and pepper

2 TB olive oil

1 onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cp. fresh basil

1/4 cp. fresh oregano

Optional: 2-4 TB tomato paste

1. When the tomatoes have cooked down. Saute the onions and garlic in about 2 TB of olive oil in s separate pan. When translucent add the stewed tomatoes that are cooked down. Add the basil and Oregano. If the sauce (ONLY IF you need )add a little tomato paste.

ENJOY A VERY VERY FRESH POT OF TOMATO SAUCE

2.

VOTING TIME!!! NOW, WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!

Today everyone will have a chance to vote from the top eight recipes. It is quite simple. Just leave a comment below on which recipe you would most likely make. Remember: just choose one.


Here are the recipes:





Almond Crusted Mocha Cheesecake from SulaBlue


Coffee Roasted Cornish Hens- gopinath


Coffee Ice Cream - Megan


Chocolate Toffee Bars- Cookin' Canuck


Chocolate Cake- Nags


Ginger Coffee Gravy-applecrumbles


Cafe Cream Shortbread-Lori


Chocolate cupcake and The Essence of Coffee Hazelnut Dream Cake-Trish4Gsus





If you would like the entire recipe it is at the bottom of my page in the comment section. Tonight the winner will be chosen.
I want to thank everyone for entering. Everyone had great ideas!!!

Good Luck!!!!!



THE WINNER IS LORI AND HER AMAZING SHORTBREAD!!!!!

I want to thank everyone for entering. The recipes were unique, flavorful and truly inspiring. I also want to thank everyone who took the time out of their day to vote. I greatly appreciate it!!!

Congrats to Lori!!! The Bodum Press is a wonderful product!!!