bishop&holland

Dallas Fashion Blog

homemade banana nut muffins

banana nut muffins, muffins with a twist, baking and entertaining, breakfast on the go, healthy recipesBanana nut bread and coffee is one of our all-time favorite, splurge worthy breakfast combinations.  Right behind coffee and chocolate chip cookies!  The smell of homemade banana nut bread immediately takes us back to visiting grandparents growing up.  This recipe has been used for years, being passed down to each generation.  With very little modifications (add chocolate chips if you have a sweet tooth) this homemade banana nut bread recipe has been made for many holidays and family gatherings.

Last Saturday, before leaving for London, we decided to make a tiny change to the recipe and make banana nut muffins, instead of banana bread.  The whole idea was an easy, grab and go breakfast for our husbands while we were out of town.  In the hurry of baking and getting packed, we forgot to add the nuts!  The batter was already in the pans, so we chopped some pecans and put them on the top.  After trying one of the muffins Saturday morning, we decided this will now be our go-to way of making banana nut bread!

Banana Nut Muffins:

  • 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 4 overripe bananas, mashed (we like to leave some chunks of banana)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream butter and sugar together.  Add eggs, mashed bananas and vanilla.  Sift together flour, soda and salt.  Add to creamed mixture.  Pour into greased and floured muffin tins, or use paper muffin cups.  Sprinkle chopped nuts over the top of each muffin.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.  Insert a toothpick into muffin to make sure the muffins are cooked enough.  The muffins can be kept in the refrigerator for a week, or frozen with great results.  They get even better!

Cheers,

watermelon margaritas

watermelon-margaritas-1

Every day there seems to be a new national holiday to celebrate!  Some of our favorites to celebrate are National Ice Cream Day, National Margarita Day, and of course, National Lipstick Day!  Today is National Watermelon Day.  Seriously though, who comes up with these holidays??

We spent Sunday by the pool, which of course required a refreshing drink!  Knowing that today was National Watermelon Day, we decided that would be the main ingredient for our cocktail.  This recipe (based on this one from the Food Network) is so easy and doesn’t take any time at all to make.  Our favorite part is that it is easy to make a pitcher of watermelon margaritas to have ready to go.  No one wants to be stuck behind the bar all day making drinks and not getting to enjoy the pool or the sun!  And, without the alcoholic ingredients, they are  mocktail approved.  Just add some club soda or ginger beer!

Watermelon Margaritas:

  • 4 cups of watermelon chunks
  • 2 teaspoons organic agave nectar (or to taste)
  • 2 limes, juiced
  • 1 cup tequila
  • 1/2 cup triple sec

Cut up a watermelon into chunks – that’s the hardest part – and puree in a blender with the organic agave.  Strain over a fine mesh strainer and pour into a tall pitcher.  Add the rest of the ingredients, stir and pour over ice.  How easy is that?  We like to garnish with a sliver of watermelon, but a lime slice would be nice too.  Before pouring the margarita into your glass, salt the rim if that is your preference.  Enjoy!

watermelon margaritas, summer entertaining

Cheers,

 

grilled avocado

grilled avocado, summer entertaining, outdoor entertaining, easy summer recipes, healthy eatingDallas has an amazing selection of restaurants.  In fact, our list of must try restaurants is growing by the minute.  One of our favorite restaurants is Neighborhood Services.  It has been a long time favorite of ours and they recently opened a new location with an outdoor patio.  For the past few months, we have been attending Saturday night church, then heading straight to Neighborhood Services to get a table on the patio before the crowds get there.  A few weeks ago, we opted for grilled avocado for an appetizer.  Being huge avocado fanatics, we couldn’t believe we had never tried grilling them!

Over Father’s Day weekend, we decided to try grilled avocados on our own.  Neighborhood Services serves their grilled avocado with marinated tomatoes, which is great, but we decided to change up by serving a mango jalapeno salsa instead.  We found the recipe on the back of the bag of tortilla chips that we picked up at Whole Foods.  It was incredible! Not only is this one of the easiest recipes to make, it is delicious and perfect for summer nights by the pool – and great with a margarita!

Grilled Avocado:

  • Plan on 1/2 to 1 avocado per person.
  • Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit.  Place on a hot grill for a minute or so, until you have nice grill marks.  Don’t go too long or your avocado will become too soft.
  • Place the avocados on a serving tray and spoon some salsa over each one.  Serve additional salsa alongside.

We served this with baguette slices brushed with butter and toasted on the grill.  Chips would be a great alternative!

Mango Jalapeño Salsa:

Ingredients:

  • 1 ripe mango
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
  • 2 diced  jalapeños (remove the seeds first for a milder salsa)
  • 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
  • 1//4 cup chopped cilantro
  • 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
  • 1/2 tsp. salt

1. Toss mango with red bell pepper, red onion, cilantro, jalapeño, lime juice and salt.

2. Chill for 30 minutes before serving.  Adjust salt to taste.

3. Enjoy!

Cheers,

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