Margy's Best Banana Bread #BakingBloggers

Truly a recipe that has stood the test of time, Margy’s best banana bread is a tender, rich and flavorful loaf, made with butter as well as sour cream. Plain or toasted, it is the perfect snack at the office or at home.

Back before my mom retired, her boss used to bring this freshly baked banana bread into their office and everyone would clamor for a slice. They all insisted that she share the recipe as well. It was that good.

My mom raved to me about it as well, so of course, I needed the recipe too. I don’t often bake banana bread because of the problem I talked about when I shared my light and fluffy banana cake recipe. Didn't stop me from wanting a tried and tested recipe though. That's how I roll.

Bottom line, it took me years to get around to making this and now I regret all the wasted years in between.

Margy’s Best Banana Bread 
This one-bowl recipe makes clean up a breeze, easily done even as the loaf is baking in the oven. It goes great with both a hot cup of tea or coffee. And honestly, even a cold glass of milk. My mother loves it toasted and slathered with butter.

Ingredients
6 tablespoons or 85g butter, plus extra for greasing loaf pan
1 cup or 200g sugar
2 eggs
2 large ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup or 60ml sour cream

Method
Grease and flour loaf pan (or line it with baking parchment) and preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy and light yellow. Add the eggs, bananas, vanilla and salt.

Combine the dry ingredients in a sieve and sift them into the butter mixture, alternating with sour cream, ending with the last of the dry ingredients.

Stir well in between each addition to combine.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan.

Bake in your preheated oven for 50-55 minutes or until the banana bread is golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely before slicing to serve.

Enjoy!

This month my Baking Blogger friends have created a variety of delicious recipes for you. Check them out below. Many thanks to our group leader and host, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Banana After School Snack Cake from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Banana Oatmeal Muffins from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Brown Sugar Banana Cake from Cookaholic Wife
• Chocolate Sunflower Seed Breakfast Muffins from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Dulce De Leche Banana Cake from Sneha's Recipe
• Hummingbird Muffins from Veggies First Then Dessert
• Margy's Best Banana Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Peanut Butter Banana Baked Oatmeal from Making Miracles
• Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Bars from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Raw Banana Baked Chips from Cook with Renu
• Roasted Banana Ice Cream from Caroline's Cooking
• Sourdough Banana Bread from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Triple Chocolate Banana Bread from Palatable Pastime

Baking Bloggers is a friendly group of food bloggers who vote on a shared theme and then post recipes to fit that theme one the second Monday of each month. If you are a food blogger interested in joining in, inquire at our Baking Bloggers Facebook group. We'd be honored if you would join us in our baking adventures.

Pin Margy's Best Banana Bread!

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Soy Braised Pork with Eggs #FoodieExtravaganza

Also known as lor bak or dau yew bak, depending on the Chinese dialect, this braised soy sauce pork with eggs dish has the most delectable sauce, delightfully flavored with spices like star anise, cloves, black pepper, as well as ginger and garlic. You will be licking your plate to get the last drops.

Many years ago when we were living in the small oilfield town of Macaé, Brazil, one of my close neighbors was a Singaporean woman named Millie. Our girls were about the same ages and we hit it off immediately over a love of cooking. Millie only had to make this dish once and I was hooked!

Sadly, I don’t think I ever got her recipe, or perhaps I misplaced it because I distinctly remember making it way back then.

Once the internet became a thing, I would occasionally search for soy sauce pork with eggs. I always thought of it as a Singaporean dish, and I really didn’t remember what Millie called it, which made it tricky to find online. None of the recipes I found seem quite right. Whether that was my faulty memory is up for debate.

I finally decided I was just going have to do a mash up of several to make what I did remember. But at least with all the research, I now know what to call it.

Braised Soy Sauce Pork with Eggs

The easiest way to slice the pork into very thin pieces is to freeze the pork loin first. Take it out to thaw and use a sharp knife to slice it as thinly as you can while it’s still quite frozen.

Ingredients
For the marinade:
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 tablespoon Shaoxing wine

For the braised pork:
2 lbs or 900g pork loin
10 cloves garlic
1 thumb-sized piece ginger
1 tablespoon canola or other light oil
3 star anise
2 to 3 whole cloves
2 sticks cinnamon, 3 inches in length
1 teaspoon black (or mixed) peppercorns
1 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice powder
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon oil
2 cups or 480ml water
6 hard-boiled eggs

Optional to thicken sauce:
2 tablespoons cornstarch

To serve:
Steamed rice
Green onion tops for garnish

Method
Use a sharp knife to cut your pork into thin slices. (See tip above the ingredients list.)

In a large bowl, mix the marinade ingredients: dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and Shaoxing wine. Pile the pork in and use your clean hands to turn the slices in the marinade until they are all well coated.

Cover the bowl with cling film and pop it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile crush and roughly chop the cloves of garlic and peel and mince the ginger. I also find it helpful to measure out the other liquid ingredients into a measuring cup or bowl so I can pour it in all at once when needed.

In a heavy based pot, heat up the cooking oil. Add the star anise, cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, and five-spice powder. Fry till fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Add in the garlic and ginger and fry for a few more minutes.

Turn the heat up to high and add the marinated pork and any marinating liquid that wasn’t absorbed by the meat. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

Add dark soy, light soy and sugar.

Add 2 cups or 480ml of water. Mix well and bring to a slow boil.

Lower the heat to simmer and cover the pot. Braise for about 20 minutes. Add the eggs in and turn them to coat with the sauce. Tuck them into the pork as much as possible.

Braise, covered, for another 20 minutes more or until pork is tender. If your eggs aren't deep enough, you will want to turn then halfway through to get proper color on all sides.

If desired, you can thicken the sauce with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch thinned with a couple of tablespoons of cold water. Remove the eggs from the pot with a slotted spoon, so you don’t break them up by stirring.

Add the cornstarch slurry to the pot and cook on medium high until thickened about 5 minutes.

 Pop the eggs back in. Sprinkle with chopped green onions.

Serve with steamed rice. Enjoy!

Today is National Egg Day so this month our Foodie Extravaganza celebration is all about eggs. Many thanks to our host, Karen from Karen's Kitchen Stories.

Check out everyone's recipes with eggs:

• Baked Scotch Eggs from Making Miracles
• Balaleet (Emirati Sweet Vermicelli and Egg Omelet) from Tara's Multicultural Table
• Country Biscuit Breakfast (Copycat) from Palatable Pastime
• Pathare Prabhu Style Egg Drop Curry from Sneha's Recipe
• Smoky Honey Chili & Paprika Deviled Eggs from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Sourdough Waffles and Eggs from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Soy Braised Pork with Eggs from Food Lust People Love
• Spanish Tortilla from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Umami Egg Salad on Homemade Sourdough from Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board.

Pin this Soy Braised Pork with Eggs - Lor Bak!

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Pineapple Zucchini Muffins #MuffinMonday

Pineapple and zucchini muffins are a good blend of fruit and vegetables in delicious muffins! Lovely sweet pineapple and summer zucchini are a perfect combination.

This recipe was inspired by a recipe I found online a few years ago for a zucchini pineapple loaf. I thought it might well work, with modifications, for muffins.

Pineapple Zucchini Muffins

Use pineapple in unsweetened juice for this recipe. If you can only find pineapple in syrup, drain the syrup and adjust the sugar in the recipe to compensate.

Ingredients
2 cups, shredded, or 300g zucchini
10 oz or 280g crushed pineapple in juice, drained
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups or 250g flour
1 1/2 cups or 300g sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it or lining it with paper muffin cups.

Whisk together the zucchini, pineapple, canola, eggs and vanilla into a large mixing bowl.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and baking powder

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry until just mixed.

Divide the batter into the prepared muffin pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other Muffin Monday recipes we are sharing today. Many thanks to Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm for stepping in and saving me from my lack of awareness of what day it even is! I was so sure that Muffin Monday was next week!

• Apple Raisin Rye Muffins by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Banana Currant Muffins by Passion Kneaded
• Birthday Cake Muffins by Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Chocolate Chip Nutella Muffins by Palatable Pastime
• Jasmine Matcha Muffins by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pineapple Zucchini Muffins by Food Lust People Love
• Roasted Garlic Cheddar Muffins by Making Miracles
• Strawberry Fromage Blanc Muffins by Culinary Adventures with Camilla

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

Pin these Pineapple Zucchini Muffins!

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