Everyone should have a go-to banana bread recipe. Much like the ubiquitous chocolate chip cookie, the kid-friendly marinara sauce, or a family favorite grilled cheese, banana bread is a home cooking standby. (Unless of course you are one of those odd people who doesn’t like bananas. Then hang on a week or two as zucchini bread is bound to make an appearance soon!)

It took me a while to find “my” banana bread. I dallied with orange juice filled loaves. I played with chocolate chip studded slices. I even flirted with pineapple bits in the batter but at the end of the day each version ended up slightly off. Too tropical, too sweet, too much like a muffin. The bananas took a backseat as the other ingredients stepped up front and center on the palate. (more…)

As summer slowly slips away bringing a few new minutes of darkness each night my interest in being inside hits an annual low. I feel an almost primal urge to get outside and do everything all at once. Gardening, swimming, camping, biking- quick it all must be done right now! Long meals with involved steps are simply not welcome. They must be saved for later when the snow is blowing and the flip flop tan lines on my feet have faded into nothing but a distant memory. Late August is the time for embracing summer like it will never leave. Ignoring the subtle signs of falling leaves and cooler nights, saying “It’s not September yet!”

P.S. If your summer diet has gone better than mine, check out this recipe for a delicous Pina Colada ice cream over at The Kitchen Witch!

Pineapple Ginger Sorbet (Printable Recipe)
Adapted from Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz (Buy this book already!)
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1/2 ripe pineapple, skinned, cored, and cut into chunks (Approx. 2 cups of pineapple puree)
1/2 cup water
1/8 – 1/4 cup sugar (I used cane sugar and it was wonderful)
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup candied ginger chunks

Directions:

Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the ginger chunks into very tiny pieces. (Preferably the size of a pea or smaller.) Separate the pieces so they are not stuck together and spread them out to dry slightly.

Next, place the pineapple, water, 1/8 cup sugar, and lime juice into a blender. Blend until the mixture is smooth. Taste the mixture and determine if it needs more sugar. If so, add in the remaining sugar until it is sweet enough for your taste.

Place the mixture into the fridge and chill for two hours or overnight. (If you are in a hurry you can place it in the freezer, and stir every ten minutes until the mixture feels very cold when you stick your finger in it. Scientific- I know.)

Pour the chilled pineapple puree into your ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions.

About 5 minutes before the sorbet is finished freezing, slowly add in the ginger bits. Be patient, and add in the bits in a manner that keeps them from clumping together- working with just a few at a time.

Once the sorbet is finished freezing, transfer it to a freezer safe container with lid and freeze for three hours or overnight.

The sorbet is excellent served with very thin lemon cookies such as Trader Joe’s Meyer Lemon Thins or Anna’s Lemon Thins.

You may have noticed that we have a bit of a thing for gingersnap cookies. By “we” I actually mean Mr. B, and by “gingersnap cookies” I specifically refer to Trader Joe’s Triple Ginger cookies. While I appreciate a good ginger cookie, for Mr. B these brown spheres are practically in their own food group.

My mother learned about his weakness a few years back and has since proceeded to create a bond stronger than blood by shipping new cookie supplies whenever we start to run low. Ginger cookies disappear year-round in peach ice cream, as a pie crust, or just straight out of the container while standing in the pantry (yes, I’m on to you Mr. B!). So when we headed out camping this summer it only made sense that a container of ginger cookies would somehow sneak into the car.

As we sat by the campfire one evening, roasting marshmallows and munching on ginger cookies, the obvious combination hit us over the head. Ginger cookie s’mores. How could we have missed that one! Using a trick passed down by my mother, I set a ginger cookie topped with dark chocolate on a flat grate near the fire (a flat rock works well too). This allows the chocolate to soften and slightly melt while you roast the marshmallow.

In a medium bowl, mix together gingersnap crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Stir with a fork until ingredients are well combined. Press mixture evenly into the bottom and sides of a 9″ pie plate.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the condensed milk and egg yolks until well combined. Add in the key lime juice and whisk until the ingredients are mixed and slightly thickend.

Pour the mix into the crust and return the pie to the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove pie from oven and allow it to cool completely (the filling will firm up when cool). Cover the cooled pie and chill in the fridge for at least 8 hours or overnight.

This past weekend, Mr. B had an after-dinner craving for ice cream. Strange? Yes, since it was 28 degrees outside and we were bundled up in thick socks and sweaters, but I’ve learned that Mr. B’s ice cream urges know no season. The challenge of this craving was that to drive to the nearest store and back home would take almost an hour, and neither one of us felt like venturing out into the dark cold night. I didn’t have any traditional ingredients on hand and besides making a custard base would mean we wouldn’t have ice cream for 4-6 hours. Way too long.

I opened the fridge anyways, hoping that some idea for dessert would jump out at me, and delightfully it did! We had an unopened bottle of Peach Kefir which I picked up on a road trip that took my by a Wholefoods, and we had a thawing ziploc of sliced peaches, from our summer bounty. All of a sudden, ice cream was very possible!

This summer I made an incredibly refreshing recipe for Lemon Kefir Ice Cream from Chocolate and Zucchini several times. It is the perfect easy summer dessert. My favorite thing about it, is that the kefir is already cold since it has been stored in the fridge, and you can quickly mix all the ingredients together and place them straight in the ice cream maker. Then it’s just a test of wills while you weigh waiting for the ice cream to harden up more in the freezer vs. digging in when it’s still a bit soft. If your craving is urgent, you can enjoy a semi-soft homemade ice cream in about an hour.

Mr. B’s other frequent craving (addiction?) is for Trader Joe’s Triple Ginger Cookies. So of course, he immediately suggested crumbling some into the ice cream to satisfy two cravings at once. These ginger cookies have a permanent place in our pantry even though TJ’s is hundreds of miles away. My kind mother is an enabler, and ships us a care package from TJ’s on a regular basis. Without her, we would go through cookie and coffee withdrawals…it wouldn’t be pretty!

The resulting peach kefir ice cream with ginger cookie crumbles was rustic, delicious, low fat, and very satisfying. Here’s the recipe for when the craving strikes!

1 1/3 cups Peach Kefir
1/3 cup Light Agave Syrup
2 T Honey
1 cup Sliced Peaches (peeled, fresh or previously frozen)
2 t Lemon Juice
1/4 t Vanilla Extract
Dash Cinnamon
Splash Limoncello (optional)
Pinch Salt
1/2 cup Crushed Ginger Cookies

In a medium bowl, mix everything except the peaches and the crushed cookies. Whisk together briskly until combined. Next add in sliced peaches and mix to combine. (At this point if you wanted a smoother ice cream you could blend the mixture until smooth. I left it alone, as we were in a hurry!) Pour mixture into your ice cream maker and follow instructions to operate the machine. (Mine is a small Cuisinart machine and took only about 10 minutes since the peaches were still slightly frozen. Typically it takes 20-22 minutes.) Once the mixture starts to firm up in the machine, add in the crushed ginger cookies. When mixture has firmed up completely, transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze until hardened. 30 minutes – 2 hours, depending on your patience!

Serve with ginger cookies on top.

Makes enough for 2-6 people, depending on their level of restraint.