Disappointed that the first 5 pages of recipes aren't what Bartolo Colon is eating this Thanksgiving.

Well, here's what I'm fixing. For those who want a vegan entree :)

Butternut Squash Posole
¥ 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, drained
¥ 1 tablespoon canola oil
¥ 2 cups chopped red onion
¥ 6 cloves garlic, minced
¥ 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
¥ 1 tablespoon thyme
¥ 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
¥ 1/4 teaspoon each ginger, cardamom, cloves
¥ 3 cups diced (1/2-inch) butternut or other winter squash
¥ 2 cups vegetable stock
¥ 2 15-ounce cans white hominy, drained
¥ 1 ripe but firm avocado, diced
¥ 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Working over a bowl, break apart tomatoes with your fingers one at a time, letting them drop into the bowl.
2. Heat oil in a large, heavy pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion & garlic and cook, stirring often, until beginning to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add paprika, thyme, cinnamon & allspice, and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add squash, broth, hominy, & crushed tomatoes. Bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
3. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the squash is tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve with avocado and cilantro.

Lassus, did you ever share that banana bread recipe I inquired about on (IIRC) OTP about a month ago? If so, I missed it during one of my occasional brief hiatuses (hiatii?) from the board.

Nah, I suck, but here it is!

You actually need a microwave, and for good reason! (I had to go to my mother-in-laws, we don't have one.) This is the best banana bread I've ever had or made. Made my grandmother's recipe seem like a joke.

My Kindergarten teacher made the best pumpkin bread recipe you'll ever have. Been making it ever since and everybody who eats it loves. You can make it into muffins/cupcakes if you want as well. Made 8 batches of it so far in the last two weeks for all the people that wanted it for Thanksgiving.

I like Cook's Illustrated but man do they love to create really complicated recipes.

Butternut Squash Posole

I make a VERY similar pozole. One recommendation: try it with chipotles in adobo sauce. Game changer. Also: delicata squash is great for this.

You actually need a microwave, and for good reason! (I had to go to my mother-in-laws, we don't have one.) This is the best banana bread I've ever had or made. Made my grandmother's recipe seem like a joke.

I still occasionally use the small $60ish microwave I bought at Sears some 27 1/2 years ago.

I like Cook's Illustrated but man do they love to create really complicated recipes.

I've found that the recipes themselves are actually not that bad if you just want to ignore the 1500 words that precede them. OK, granted, in this case the microwave portion was a bit troublesome but they usually end up easier than the Food & Wine stuff that has (awesome) ingredients I can't get because I live in the middle of nowhere.


I still occasionally use the small $60ish microwave I bought at Sears some 27 1/2 years ago.

I'd love to know how you (or anyone else) does with this recipe if you care to share following.

I actually also made this recipe for a first-course soup for Thanksgiving: Fennel, Garlic and Potato Soup

Changes: 10% extra fennel, juice of 1 lemon , shot and a half of Pernod, 6.5 cups chicken stock, 1.5 cups water.

So, there are two important and easily controlled factors with banana bread and other similar things, such as corn bread and muffins.

1. Don't overmix. This is critical. You overmix, it turns rubbery. You want the batter to actually look undermixed, as in, there will still be little clumps of flour in it.
2. Lots of fat.

You can take virtually any banana bread recipe and make a fabulous product just by mixing it properly and adding more fat than it asks for. Butter tastes great but you can also just pour vegetable oil in there. I don't have a favored recipe, I just google, choose one at random, and increase both the fat and the salt by about 50%, and it turns out great.

The cooks illustrated technique of reducing the banana juice makes sense to me. I do the same thing sometimes because we toss overripe bananas into the freezer. When you defrost them, they exude their juices, which will naturally be tastier if you concentrate them.

NB I'm not a pastry chef, so this isn't really a professional opinion.

I think I finally figured out how to best use the Uuni oven. Just in time to discover that they came out with an Uuni 3 and have a "Pro" version coming out next March. Still it does make a pretty good wood fired pizza in about 1 minute. Made a pizza sauce from scratch last night and got some Boar's Head pepperoni and made some delicious pizzas last night.