Wintery White Kinda Day

It's snowing! My son's got a snowday from school and my husband will be driving home in the nasty wintery mix, so what's for dinner?

This week I picked up some beautiful white asparagus from the grocery. As soon as I saw it tasty thoughts of spargelcremesuppe from my years in Germany came to mind. So I bought it and vowed to make some before the veggies turned to their own soupy mush in the bottom drawer of my fridge.

I've never made a cream soup before so I wasn't sure what i was getting myself into, but the recipe was easy and as it simmers now, waiting for dinnertime, I can tell you it is wonderful! Since it's a white wonderland outside, I think I'll stick with a white theme for dinner tonight and make biscuits for with the soup and perhaps I'll set a bowl outside and whip up some of Paul Deen's snow cream for dessert!

Spargelcremesuppe

1 lb white asparagus

3 lemon slices

1/2 tsp sugar

a few pinches of salt

6 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup flour

2 cups milk

4 tablespoons heavy cream

1 egg yolk

salt, pepper to taste

Wash and peel the asparagus. Cut it into 1 to 1/2 inch pieces. Cover with water, add lemon slices, sugar and salt. Cook for 15 minutes until tender. Drain, reserving 2 cups water for later.

In large pot, melt butter and slowly whisk in flour. Add milk and cook over medium heat, stirring until thickened.

Add the two cups of reserved water and the asparagus pieces to the milk mixture and bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Beat egg yolk and heavy cream. Add to the soup.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

What to do with brown bananas?

Some bunches of bananas just seem to turn brown overnight! I hate it when that happens, but this time before my husband threw them out I managed to get a batch of banana bread out of them. As usual, I sat down and scoured my recipes for inspiration then turned to the internet for some extra ideas.

That’s when I stumbled across Food From a Girl Who Loves Food. In her blog, Naka suggests making a marbled banana loaf using Nutella! What a fantastic sounding idea, I even have some in the cupboard! She mixed her’s with a recipe from Cooking LIght, which I should have done, but since I eat dangerously, I went with not only a fully loaded recipe, but a maple one!!

Teri’s Maple Hazelnut Banana Bread

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup maple syrup

1 egg

2 ripe mashed bananas

½ teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons creme fraiche

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup Nutella

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, mix the butter and maple syrup. Beat in the egg and mashed bananas. Stir in the maple extract and creme fraiche.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and baking powder, and stir into the banana mixture.

Melt Nutella in a medium microwave safe bowl. Add 1 cup of banana bread mixture and mix well.

Alternate adding spoonfuls of each mixture into greased loaf pan. Once all batter has been added carefully swirl to create a marbled loaf.

Bake 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Mine is in the oven now and it smells so great, I can’t wait to taste it! My mouth is already watering imagining a thick slick slice slathered in butter!

It was just as delicious as it smelled! Enjoy! What a tasty treat!