Thanksgiving is here but my mom's not . . .

So most of you don't know me. It's obvious, I love to cook or I wouldn't be blogging about food. What's not so obvious is that I lost my mom this year. One of things my mom and I shared was a love of cooking. We shared recipes and tales of our latest creations in the kitchen. So I thought sharing my latest kitchen victories with the rest of the world (if anyone actually cares) would be a great way to honor her memory.


This year, I pretty much lost my desire to cook or do much else other than the mandatory chores and going to work but things are getting easier these days. I feel my joie de vivre coming back. I'm actually cooking for Thanksgiving. It's just two of us, plus our two little four-legged friends who'll eat anything, so I decided to keep it simple. Turkey breast, mashed potatoes, stuffing, spinach and molten chocolate cakes. I'll be posting along the way and sharing results.


Tonight I made a favorite around here - banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Mr. T says they are the best banana cupcakes around. I think he was a wee bit reluctant about me sharing them with the world. These are a great way to use up old bananas. Mr. T lets our bananas go brown just so I'll make these. There are usually 3 strategically browned bananas hanging from the banana tree at any given time. So easy and so scrumptious.


GOING...

GOING...

GONE!

Banana Cupcake Recipe
(Tweaked from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 very ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. 
3. Bake in preheated oven for about 14 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

 Cream Cheese Frosting

Beat one package of cold cream cheese  (8 oz.)  with 5 Tbsp. softened butter and 1 tsp. vanilla. Gradually add 2 -2 1/2 cups powdered sugar that has been sifted after measuring. Continue to add more sifted powdered sugar until it's as sweet as you like. You can also leave out the butter if you prefer.