One of the goals of this blog was for my girls to learn some basic cooking skills and also have some recipes they can leave home with and make easily for themselves or their families one day.  

I have realized that when they finally have a home of their own…there may not be a gourmet meal on the table each night, or a healthy side of steamed veggies, but one thing is for sure…there will be dessert!

Claire, my youngest, loves to bake cookies. When she is bored, she will bake them.  When we have guests, she will bake them. Whenever I ask, she always says yes. I don’t usually get that response when I tell her we need to make dinner.

I have to admit that her cookie skills have surpassed mine.  They always come out moist on the inside, a little crunchy on the outside and she never burns them, like I tend to do.  They don’t last long around here. One day she may wish she learned more ways to bake chicken or steam veggies…but for now, she is content to be a cookie enthusiast. 

We did at least try one new main dish this month. I found a recipe for Greek Chicken Kebabs with Tzatziki Sauce. The picture of the kebabs looked appetizing, and the weather was so nice outside, which made grilling the perfect choice.  The family loved the chicken and pasta, but did not love the sauce.  I thought it was a perfect pairing with the kebabs.  Try for yourself.  It is a delicious summer recipe!

In our home when the bananas have turned a little too brown to eat, instead of throwing them out, as I have done many times over the years,  we now cut them up and put in the freezer for our protein shakes.

I noticed the other day that all the bananas I purchased the week before were still sitting in a bowl, turning brown. It was time to cut up and put in the freezer.  We had two large freezer bags full already.  So I decided to use them to make some banana bread.

mashing bananas

not so pretty…but darn tasty

I ran across a recipe for a banana cake first and it looked so tasty and the frosting looked as though it would  just melt in your mouth. I knew I could make this taste as good as it looked in the pictures. Here is my attempt at the cake. While the cake was very moist and full of flavor, the frosting did not quite “melt in your mouth”. The frosting did taste great, it just didn’t quite look like the one I found online. It was gone in two days though, so it was not a total failure!

My daughter, Hannah, had asked if some of her friends from College Station could stay at our house as they were in town for the weekend.  We were delighted to have them stay and I wanted to have a little snack for them when they arrived. Since my family devoured the cake earlier, I looked for a simple banana nut bread recipe.  I found one in my recipe box, it looked easy enough, I had all the ingredients and this would be something easy for our guests to grab on the go.  The recipe is actually from Amy Pruitt, a friend I have not seen in many years.  She gave it to me almost 15 years ago. Thanks Amy!  My guests loved it!