Chocolate Banana Bread

Tim sometimes brings home the extra bananas from his office that are going to be thrown away at the end of the week. And I have a *lot* of cocoa in pantry from and experiment (that probably is another post topic in and of itself) so I went looking for a recipe that used bananas and cocoa. This recipe was a winner and freezes well.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread
http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/2009/05/double-chocolate-banana-bread.html

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

Good!

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/04/whole-wheat-apple-muffins/

Mushroom Stuffing

 A new stuffing that we tried this Thanksgiving, partially because my kids love mushrooms so much I thought they might eat it! It ended up not looking like stuffing, so some people missed it. Those who ate it loved it, and the kids even liked it.
 Part of the reason for the look, though, might be because we had three cooks (Erin, Lorin, and Tim) working on the stuffing and the eggs got added in the wrong order, resulting in a slightly odd brown color all over. To add to the confusion, after we had already started the recipe from Rachel Ray, we realized it called for three sticks of butter! So we were also modifying as we went along changing practically all the amounts. Ingredients listed are what we ended up doing - to the best of our knowledge!
 When eating leftovers, you definitely want to reheat this in the toaster oven.

(image from rachelraymag.com) 

Ingredients:

One 1-pound loaves white bread, cut into cubes
3/4 bunch celery with leaves, coarsely chopped
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped
16-ounce package sliced white mushrooms
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
2 large eggs, beaten with 2 tablespoons water  

Directions: 
1.  Preheat the oven to 250°. Scatter the bread cubes on a baking sheet and bake, tossing occasionally, until dried but not browned, about 40 minutes. Let cool. Increase the oven temperature to 350°.  
2.  Working in batches, pulse the celery in a food processor until chopped but not minced.  
3.  In a large, deep skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 10 minutes. Mix in the celery and mushrooms and cook over high heat, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Stir in the salt and poultry seasoning until thoroughly combined.  
4.  In a large bowl, toss the bread cubes with the beaten egg mixture. Add the vegetable mixture and toss until well combined.  
5.  Spoon the stuffing into 2 buttered 3-quart casserole dishes and bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes