MagicallyDelicious

First batch - Toll House Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to bake, which makes this MY time of year.  The oven runs almost nonstop before Christmas.  This year, while much of it will head off to friends and family as usual, more of that baking will make its way to people who need a real boost in spirit.

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Baltimore provides a home away from home for seriously ill children and their families, and helps to fund programs in the local area that directly improve the well being of children.  When I think about the fact that there are 36 families staying there over this holiday season with seriously ill children, it makes me want to do something to deliver some holiday spirit.  I can’t imagine how discouraging it can be to spend the holidays away from home with such an uncertain future.

So I’m participating in Cookies Across America, a grass-roots program powered by AllRecipes.com and Nestle Toll House,  designed to harness its online community for good.  Home bakers across the country will bake and donate an estimated 1 billion cookies to those in need this holiday season.  That’s enough cookies to circle the globe twice if lined up end to end!  Twelve dozen of those cookies will be mine, delivered to the families at Ronald McDonald House in Baltimore.

For me this is a complete no brainer.  I’m adding a few dozen cookies to my list of baking this holiday season.  And I get to host a little get together to help get them decorated and packaged up.  In the area?  Come by and help on December 10 from 1-4:  just RSVP here.

So, I get to do something I enjoy, have a nice day with friends to get everything ready, and I get the satisfaction of knowing I did something to help this holiday season.  What could be better?

I’m making a batch of cookies every day this week to get ready for my event next Saturday, so check back as I post pictures of the cookies as I bake them.  Two batches down…several to go!

If you want to participate in Cookies Across America there are many ways you can help.

1. Take the pledge!  Click the banner on the right and pledge the cookies you’ll donate this year.
2. Host your own gathering!  Set up a group at Meetup.com and get together with friends to bake and decorate some cookies to donate.
3. Bake some cookies and donate them on your own.  Find a local organization you believe in and deliver some cheer.
4. Don’t like to bake?  Donate to those who do.  Give ingredients to your local food pantry so that families who couldn’t otherwise afford to can bake their own recipes this year.

This weekend the MagicallyDelicious kitchen turned out some oatmeal chocolate chip squares, and this banana bread.  I’d been making the same recipe for years, completely content with it.  I’d added my personal twist to it, and it became a staple recipe.  Whenever I had over-ripe bananas to use up, I trotted out old faithful, and it never let me down.

But this time I got wandering eyes.  I wanted to see if the grass was greener on the other side.  And I wasn’t disappointed.  The texture was much different from my normal recipe, so I was leery as I poured the very liquid batter into the pan.  It took much longer to bake than my normal loaf too.

It’s just so good.  I don’t know if I’ll go back to my old recipe or not.  I may have to make it one more time to be sure this new one is “it.”  I’ll share the new one with you (unlike our man of mystery, keeping his secret recipes to himself), and maybe you’ll also step out on your normal banana bread.  Leave a comment after you make it and let us know what you think.

My personal twist on this recipe is I replaced 1/2 cup of white sugar with brown sugar (though next time I may reduce the overall amount – it’s a rather sweet loaf), and added 1 t of cinnamon, 1 t vanilla.

Check out Best Ever Banana Bread at AllRecipes.com

Thanksgiving is about being grateful for what we have, and the friends and family who share our lives and gather around the table.  AllRecipes.com is honoring this holiday and urging everyone to give it the proper place and respect it deserves.

Get rewarded for learning more about this campaign.  Visit RespectTheBird.com and enter the Share Your Thanks Sweepstakes.  You could win a FREE Kitchenaid mixer!  If you don’t have a Kitchenaid, you’ll be amazed at how much easier cooking those holiday meals will become!

Ignore the hype, enjoy the holiday and most of all…
Respect the Bird!

For more on the Respect the Bird campaign:
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Looking for a quick dinner or tasty appetizer?  Try these pizza pockets, filled with pepperoni and cheese.  For appetizer sized pockets, just cut the dough into smaller pieces to fill.  Yum!

Pillsbury sent me coupons through the AllRecipes All Star program so that we could make these tasty treats.  They made a great snack!

Get the Recipe: Pillsbury Crescent Pizza Pockets

If I had to make stuffed chicken breasts from scratch, they would probably look like abstract art.  But I served lovely stuffed chicken at my party this weekend and everyone raved.

Thanks to Barber Foods, I served delicious Chicken Cordon Bleu and Broccoli and Cheese.  They were great.  I don’t normally eat a lot of frozen food, but as an AllRecipe AllStar, I received coupons for free product, and was asked to throw a party for friends with it.  I had the Chicken Cordon Bleu.  The chicken was tender and juicy, the breading was crisp, and the cheese and ham were delicious.  Some of my friends had the Broccoli and Cheese and they loved them too.

Were they gourmet fare?  No.  But they were tasty, simple to prepare, and compared to other frozen foods they were relatively low in calories and sodium.  A half hour in the oven and I could focus on my guests, not dinner prep.  We had fun and had a good dinner; what more could you ask for?

I hope the Editor of this site lets this one through, cause it’s good. It’s a secret you see.  A deep dark secret. A secret that could bring down civilizations and change the course of time and any progress my people have made since the fifties. By my people I mean dudes. Just regular beer drinkin, cussin, spittin, woodworkin, car fixin, bread makin dudes’. WAIT A MINUTE! That last one didn’t fit in there.

Yep… bread makin. I told you it was a secret. Men can and do make banana bread. I am proof. I made my first banana bread tonight at 6:30pm Central standard time. Yes I did! I am sure you can tell by my brazen pride and foolish gloating that I don’t do a lot of cooking.  If you thought that you would be incorrect. I do my fair share of making the same meals over and over again (Which will be the topic of another segment). I grill like men do. (Another topic for later) But I do not bake. I am not sure what that is but I just don’t do it.  I am skerred of baking. I do not get the fact that baking soda and baking powder are two different things.  Yeast is a riddle wrapped around a mystery.  But I got brave and baked today.

Why would you do this you ask? I’ll tell you why. For the same reason Lewis and Clark mapped out this country. I got mad.  Now, to be honest, I don’t know that Lewis and Clark were mad. I just needed a reference that seemed intelligent. I think it is a good one so lets just move on. I saw those bananas sitting on the counter getting black. It just made me mad. After all every one thought they were going to eat em. My household saw grand plans for those bananas. Alas that fruit was left to die on the hook it resides on.  So I said “LET’S DO THIS!!!”  Simple as that.

All in all it was an exciting experience. I learned that having a “Y” chromosome does not preclude me from baking delicious treats for my family. I also learned what baking soda does. Ok I lied I still don’t know what it does but the recipe said I needed it so I bought it.  Oh and if you are wondering yes I had to look up the chromosome thing too.

I thought about adding the recipe for this but I am not going to. This way I can call it my secret banana bread recipe that I got off the Internet.