prep 15 min.

ready 1 hr 15 min.

serves 10

I used to work in a very popular restaurant in a northern Michigan tourist town during my summers in college. One of the customer favorites at the restaurant was the banana bread. People would line up in the mornings to purchase it. It was also a big hit all day long for a dessert or to take home. One of the secrets to the bread was peanuts. This is the secret recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbs. peanut oil

• 1 cup white sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt

• 1/2 cup unsalted chopped peanuts

• 2 medium bananas, sliced

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9×5 inch loaf pan with 1 tablespoon peanut oil.

2. In a large bowl or kitchen-aide mixer, stir together the peanut oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, and salt._, Mix until smooth. Then add the yogurt, peanuts, and bananas. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

3. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. The loaf should be golden brown. Resist opening the door until it is done.

4. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

This is a favorite and super easy to make with bananas that are on the way out. The whole family enjoys this one!

prep 5 min.

ready 10 min.

serves 2

Being so cold, I thought I would make something that brings back the flavor of summer for a quick Sunday lunch. I love raspberries and walnuts and had some spinach to use up so I made this super-simple salad which is also very healthy. ( Twenty-two bennefits of eating walnuts). I always use a salad spinner after throughly cleaning any greens. It’s a must-have kitchen utensil. This salad took less  than 10 minutes to put together. Give it a try you will enjoy it!

Ingredients

12 oz. fresh green spinach

1/2 cup raspberries (approx. 15 berries)

1/4 cup walnuts, broken into pieces

1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced

Directions

Mix together all ingredients in a medium bowl. Add raspberry vinaigrette dressing. To make raspberry vinaigrette simply whisk together 1 tablespoon raspberry jam, 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1/3 cup olive oil. Add crushed black pepper and sea salt to taste (optional).

Prep 10 min

Ready 25 min.

Servings 2

I love an occasional hot dog. If I’m going to eat them, I only buy Vienna dogs with a natural casing. I do not buy inexpensive hot dogs. Good ones are usually linked together. In Chicago, a good Chicago-style dog is made by the Vienna company. We cannot purchase them locally here so the second best is Koegel’s Vienna Beef or Kowalski’s if you can find them. Growing up in the Detroit area, I have always had a love of Detroit-style Coney dogs. (I will do a post on them in the near future.) However, my favorite are Chicago-style. There is something about the combination of flavors that is just awesome. They are easy to make. To do it right, you need to purchase sport peppers and the fluorescent green pickle relish. I was lucky to find Vienna brand Chicago relish and peppers.

Ingredients

• 1 all-beef hot dog

• 1 poppyseed hot dog bun

• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard

• 1 tablespoon sweet green pickle relish

• 1 tablespoon chopped onion

• 4 Roma tomato wedges

• 2 dill pickle spears, finely sliced

• 2 sport peppers

• 1 dash celery salt

Directions

Pan fry dogs with a little butter over medium heat. (I do not like to boil them.)

In a steamed poppy seed bun (I could not find poppy seed buns locally so I added poppy seeds), add hot dog, 1 pickle spear to each side of the dog, 3-4 tomato wedges, 2 sport peppers, sweet pickle relish, chopped onion and mustard. (I omitted the mustard and onion on mine this time.) Last and most importantly in my opinion, add a dash of celery salt. Enjoy!

With mustard and onions!