Baking with Zander

Yesterday Zander told me he wanted to cook with me. That's about the last thing I want to turn down, so I spied some browning bananas on the counter and told him we were going to make banana bread. He ran to get his chair to stand on, asking over his shoulder if we could put chocolate chips in the banana bread. "You bet." I told him. And so together we measured and mixed. Zander put the eggs in one at a time, and was so proud of himself for mashing the bananas with "Mommy's Smasher." It wasn't long before we had two loaves of bread tucked in the oven, and we would move on to the next activity of building a train track.

I have already posted about this banana bread, but for anyone who needs a good recipes, check out my Banana Bread in the Recipe Trove. We left out the nuts this time because I don't have any, but we did add quite a few chocolate chips and a handful of shredded coconut. It's my tried and true recipe, and although it's very good fresh out of the oven, this is one of those breads that is even better the next day, and quite honestly, phenomenal after it's been wrapped, frozen, and thawed out. The freezing process creates magic, so while we've been nibbling on one loaf of bread, the other is going to be wrapped and tucked in the freezer for another day.

Dinner last night was a repeat, that is quick, easy,and extremely economical. Braised Chicken Legs In Mustard Sauce was just as good last night as I remember it being the last time we made it. It was full of flavor, and a great way to use the economical chicken leg. You could make this with other chicken parts, and I believe we have done so before. What I wouldn't do is use boneless skinless chicken breasts, as I suspect they would completely dry out before getting to them. It also was a free dinner for me. As I had the chicken legs in the freezer from an over-abundance last August. To accompany, we also had egg noodles to soak up the sauce, and some of the carrots that I had processed last fall.

Tonight, we go out to dinner. We are dining out with my parents tonight. We both have gift cards to the same restaurant, so we're going to put them together for a night out on the town. I'm looking forward to both the company and the food. But later this morning I am going to make a recipe from a cookbook from 1970- so check back tomorrow to find out what that is.

Oh, and a quick note about the picture of Zander at the top. That was my son, trying to be just like his Uncle Buggy. How did he do Ben?