Chocolate Chip Cookies & Banana Bread from Mary

Hi guys, I'm Mary from Trusty Chucks.  I'm honored that Kendra is letting me be here while she's gone and I hope she's enjoying her time away.

As a guest of Adventures of Brad and Kendra, I felt I couldn't come empty handed, it's rude and my mother would be so embarrassed of the daughter she raised.  I thought about bringing wine, but I wasn't sure everyone was over twenty one so I went with the next best thing: baked goods!  Specifically, chocolate chip cookies and banana bread.  The two most popular things I make in our house.  Well, except pizza.  I make a pretty mean pizza.  And by "make" I mean order from Pizza Hut.

But these things I really do make.  And you should too because people will think you're an amazing baker when really you just have good recipes.  It's the secret to making friends and succeeding in business.  Or something like that.

 

cream until light and fluffy :

2 eggs

one (cold) stick of butter

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

in a separate bowl combine & sift:

(to me "sift" means mix with a spoon...)

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. soda

add dry ingredients in thirds. add about 2 cups (more or less depending on personal preference). bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes (or more if you like darker cookies).

eat. love. repeat.

cream:

3/4 cup margarine (or butter Crisco)

1 1/2 cups sugar

add:

2 eggs

3 bananas (slightly mashed)

1 tsp. vanilla

combine in a separate bowl & sift:

2 cups flour

1 tsp. soda

3/4 tsp. salt

add dry ingredients to creamed mixture in batches, alternating dry ingredients with 1/2 cup buttermilk. pour into two loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

(If you're a fan of nuts, add them in before you pour into the pans.  I've also made it with dried cranberries or frozen blueberries before.  Go crazy with additions.  Chocolate chips sound delish also.)

Same as above: eat. love. repeat.

(*I don't ever have buttermilk just sitting around so according to this handy and well-used cookbook, you can substitute milk with a splash of white vinegar.  It works and they're still yummy.  I've actually never made the recipe with buttermilk, I always do the substitution.)

In our family, we'd have the cookies for dessert then in the morning have a nice cookie appetizer before banana bread.  I'm not suggesting you do this, it might have resulted in me being fat. But that's a story for another time and not polite conversation when you're a guest.

So if you want less polite and more mess, come say hi over at Trusty Chucks.  And you don't have to bring anything unless you really want to.  But if you must, I like books, everything Target sells, and a good dry shampoo so I can skip a hair-wash every once in a while.  Hope to see you soon!