buttermilk week...and banana bread

Get ready...it is going to be a buttermilk week! I can't stand to drink the stuff, but I love to bake with it. My motto...everything is better with buttermilk. I made banana bread a couple of days ago and now I have the rest of the jug of buttermilk sitting in the fridge, and for once I intend on using it all...yeah! So I hope to post some of my faves and maybe a new finding of recipes that use buttermilk.
This really is the best banana bread recipe I know. Thanks to Tiffin Clark for sharing. My only wish is that it made more bread! ;) Or does anyone know how to convert a recipe so that you could use regular sized pans instead? Just curious...

Banana bread

1 1/2 C sugar
3/4 C butter
2 eggs
1/4 t salt
2 C flour
1/2 C buttermilk
1 t vanilla
1 C nuts (opt.-I have never used them)
1 t baking soda
3-4 medium sized super ripe bananas

Cream sugar and butter. Beat in eggs. Dissolve baking soda into buttermilk. Mix flour, salt, and buttermilk with butter and sugar mixture. Add bananas and vanilla. Pour into 4 small greased loaf pans. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour.

oven roasted potatoes

Oven Roasted Potatoes

2 lbs. small unpeeled red potatoes, cut into wedges
2-3 T olive or vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T chopped fresh rosemary or 1 t dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper

Place potatoes in an ungreased 9x13 inch baking pan. Drizzle with oil. Sprinkle with garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper; toss gently to coat. Bake, uncovered, at 450 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown and tender when pierced with a fork. Yield: 6-8 servings.
* I almost always use more oil than it calls for and for me, it takes a little longer to cook. So just keep checking it. :)

Frog Eye Fruit Salad

Sounds gross, I know, but it was always one of my favorites growing up! Fluffy, fruity, and a fun texture!

Frog Eye Fruit Salad

1 C sugar
2 T flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 C pineapple juice
3 egg yolks
1 box acini de pepe pasta
2 pkg (8 oz) Cool Whip
2 cans (20 oz) crushed pineapple (drained; use some of reserved juice as listed above)
4 small cans mandarin oranges (drained)
mini marshmallows
marachino cherries, cut in halves
sliced bananas

Combine first 5 ingredients into a pot and cook until thick. Let cool. In the meantime, cook your pasta according to box directions. When done, drain the pasta and add to your already cooked mixture. Add Cool Whip and crushed pineapple and mix well. Add mandarin oranges, marshmallows, cherries and bananas to your salad.

Mexican Lasagna

I forgot! I made this meal for the first time last week and I thought it was great! I didn't follow the recipe 100 %, mostly in that I didn't use as many green chiles. Thanks to the people at Little Birdie Secrets for sharing. The recipe is for Mexican Lasagna and you can find it on their site here: http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2008/11/mexican-lasagna.html

Buttermilk Pie

A Bradshaw family favorite!

Buttermilk Pie

1 9 inch pie crust unbaked
1/2 C butter
2 C sugar
3 T flour +1 T cornstarch (or more, but I have never needed to add more)
3 eggs
1 C buttermilk
1 t vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients one at a time. Pour into pie crust and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

It is a little like custard. Make sure to test it to see if it is done. A knife inserted in the middle should come out pretty clean. I always refrigerate the leftovers.

Mashed potatoes

As Thanksgiving approaches, I think I will start posting some traditional Thanksgiving foods, my favorite ways, of course. I have never tried these potatoes with gravy, they taste so great all on their own!

Dilly Mashed Potatoes

6 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 C milk
1 C (8 oz) sour cream
2 T minced fresh dill or 2 t dill wees
1 T dried minced onion
3/4 t season salt

In a saucepan, cover potatoes with water. Cover and bring to a boil; cook for 20-25 minites or until very tender. Drain well; mash with milk. Stir in remaining ingredients. Yield: 6-8 servings.

(The Complete Guide to Country Cooking, p. 282)

Never would have thought I would be posting a fish recipe...

(too bad I don't take the time to learn about my camera so I could take better pictures) :)


Anyone that knows me knows that I am not a huge fish fan. In recent years, however, I have grown to like it more. Well, Joe brought home some tilapia the other day and we stumbled across this recipe in a newspaper. The verdict... we loved it! It was tender and had just the right amount of flavor, and not too fishy! Here it is...

Lemon Rosemary Tilapia

4 (6 oz) tilapia fillets
1 lemon, thinly sliced
2 t dried rosemary (we used more), or 2 T chopped fresh rosemary
2 T olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Set oven to 450 degrees. Place each tillapia fillet in the middle of a 12" square of aluminum foil. Sprinkle on the garlic and rosemary. Top each fillet with about 1/2 t olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste and top with lemon slices. Fold over aluminum foil and seal. (We placed our four pouches on a cookie sheet.) Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

*Recipe not word for word but taken from the newspaper food & dining section

P.S. I just want you to know that, yes, after taking the picture I did notice that it looks like we missed peeling one of the stickers off of the lemon. Oops! Joe insisted that he thought he had them all...oh well!