Pantry Collective

I like my banana bread dense, moist, and rich. That means using a LOT of bananas. Most banana bread recipes seem to call for a couple of overripe bananas - perhaps the one or two you just didn’t get to before they became too mushy to eat on their own. My banana bread needs it’s own bunch - so you probably need to plan ahead and buy a bunch (of 5 or so) that you intend to use for the recipe. You can also just mash and freeze those one or two leftover bananas for a couple of weeks.

Of course I only post recipes here that I’ve actually made and enjoyed myself, but often they’re things I’ve only made once or twice. This banana bread is different - I’ve made quite a few loaves and it always comes out great. It is by far the moistest banana bread I’ve ever had (and I love it for that!). Even if you have your own favorite recipe, try this one at least once. You’ll see why I’ve made it so many times.

You can easily add chopped walnuts or chocolate chips to this recipe, but honestly I feel like they just compete with the banana (especially chocolate chips). I like to roughly mash my bananas so there are still some larger chunks left. It adds these nice little pockets of pure banana flavor. Yum!

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Elise over at Simply Recipes recently posted her mother’s recipe for Ground Turkey with Peppers, and it sounded delicious. Since I had almost all the ingredients on hand already I decided to try it out. Simple as it is, it is really, really good, and it lends itself to different types of seasoning. This time I went the spicy route, using the sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce, but I can see this working really well with a healthy application of thyme and oregano, for a more italian flair.

The day we ate the leftovers, I stirred in some cooked black beans to bulk it up (since apparently it was so good our portions the first day were a little too big) and it was excellent. Both times I served it over hot cooked white rice. Easy, inexpensive, and yummy - I’ll definitely put it on the rotation.

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If you’re looking for a super simple, delicious fish recipe, you can pretty much always count on lemon and dill. I baked these fillets (three small ones, two for dinner and one for lunch the next day) while sauteing some zucchini and finishing up the Orzo with Peas and Mint. Orange Roughy is a nice, delicate white fish with a mild flavor. You can also grill the fillets if you prefer. The recipe below is just the basic ingredients - you don’t need exact measurements here, just go with what feels right.

Oh - as it turns out, orange roughy is unsustainably fished. I didn’t realize this when I started purchasing it from Aldi. In the future, I’ll make it with farmed tilapia or some other sustainably fished light white fish.

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Peas and mint. I kept hearing it was a great combination, but I was (albeit apathetically) skeptical. I finally decided to try it, and guess what? It is a surprisingly good combination! Obviously, Martha would never lead me astray, so I used her recipe for Orzo with Peas and Mint. I was reminded again how much I love orzo, too!

This recipe was followed exactly (for once), so the ingredients and instructions below are taken right from the original, which you can find here.

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One of the things I was excited to try when I bought my dutch oven was the no-knead bread recipe featured in the New York Times. I’ve never made bread at home except for the kind from a mix (like soda bread) or sweet breads like banana bread. I’ve never even had yeast in the house before. Still, this recipe seemed easy enough, with the long fermentation process doing basically all the work. I bought instant yeast and cornmeal and got started.

Overall it came out pretty well, especially for a baking beginner like myself. The bottom burned a little, and the inside is a teensy bit gummier than I think it should be, but the flavor is nice and yeasty and the crust has an awesome crunch to it. I did not heed the warning on my dutch oven, and so the knob exploded off the lid about 15 minutes into preheating the oven (apparently once it hit about 400 degrees or so). I found this more amusing than anything, especially since having a plastic-y knob that is only heat safe to 375 degrees is kind of silly on a cast iron pot that can withstand much higher temperatures. It’s all good, though - the knob is easily replaced with a stainless steel one (either a Le Creuset one, or a plain old drawer pull).

I’m definitely going to make this again, and perhaps I’ll let it rest a bit longer to begin with (the first rest was 15 hours; I meant to do 18, but I was too excited!), and even lengthen the second rest for a bit - it hadn’t really doubled in size after two hours. I think my house might not have been warm enough, either. Anyway, it was a great first attempt. It’s so satisfying to start with flour and water, yeast and salt, and come out with a beautiful, rustic loaf of bread.

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