I filled my belly full of Caramel Walnut Banana Bread

How  many of you love Banana Bread?

I enjoy it but I don't make it that often. I have a friend who is so crazy about banana bread and he cooks it every week. LOL! Well on this day I was craving something caramel and I knew I also had some very ripe bananas that I needed to get rid of. Well we all know that you can't do very much with ripe bananas except make banana bread. Darn! So I knew I would have to pass on making a caramel dessert and make use of the ripe bananas instead.  Then it hit me!!

I'll just make a caramel version of banana bread!!!

Now I didn't use a recipe. Very seldom do I use a recipe for anything. I'm one of those people who cooks by looks. That's the way my Mother did it and that's how she taught me to cook too.

Searching out the Kitchen:

I knew I had 4 ripe bananas to use... and I knew I had a cup of walnuts I could use... and I knew I had brown sugar I could use... and I knew I had fresh real butter I could use... and I knew I had 1/2 a cup of caramel that you put on top of ice cream. And I knew I needed to get rid of the 1/5th cup of oatmeal that I had. Well that sure looks like the making of caramel banana bread to me. ~wink~ A little bit of salt and.... oh no.... there's no milk! That's ok I have lots of sour cream which is a favorite of mine anyway. Ohhhh... do I have any coconut? Where is it!? Darn!! I'm out of coconut. That would of tasted delicious with the caramel.

I just dump in what I've got / comes out perfect every time

❤ 3 large ripe bananas

❤ 1/3 cups sour cream... maybe

❤ 2 fresh eggs from my brothers chicken coup

❤ close to 3/4 to a cup brown sugar? (you know molasses is in it right)

❤ 2 cups white flour... maybe

❤ 1/5 cup of oatmeal... maybe (can be flavored instant too)

❤ 1/2 cup of ice cream caramel

❤ big pinch of pink salt

❤ pinch cayenne pepper

❤ pinch of cinnamon / not a lot

❤ I dunno... maybe a teaspoon of baking soda

❤ big splash of homemade vanilla flavoring

❤ drizzle in some oil

❤ I then look at the batter and let the batter will tell me how much melted butter to add. Maybe 1/2 a stick to 1 stick of melted butter.

I cooked it low... I dunno.... this one looked like it needed a temp. set to 335. For 45 to 50 minutes. Ta-Dah! The pictures above is the results and it was a success! ~wink~ Love to you all, Pam

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❤ ❤ P.S. I made this banana bread in a video back in January in honor of National Banana Bread Day. So if you want to watch it, here it is.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBiVsq3Jqrw&t=23s
 

Caramel Pecan Brownies Recipe

Caramel Pecan Brownies Recipe
Originally uploaded by Pillsbury.com

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
12 caramels
1 tablespoon milk

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 350°. Grease bottom and sides of square pan, 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 inches, with shortening. Mix sugar, shortening, vanilla and eggs in large bowl. Stir in flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Spread in pan. Sprinkle with pecans.

2. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

3. Heat caramels and milk in 1-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until caramels are melted. Drizzle over warm brownies. Cool completely, about 1 hour. For brownies, cut into 4 rows by 4 rows.

Caramel Corn Recipe

Caramel Corn
Originally uploaded by alida saxon

This post is in honor of October being National Caramel Month & National Popcorn Poppin Month.

1 1/2 c salted butter
3 cups light brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
5 quarts popped popcorn (22 cups from about 1 1/2 cups unpopped kernels)

Pop popcorn in small batches, making sure to sift out the unpopped kernels. Pour popcorn into a large oven safe bowl or big pan that has been oiled lightly.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. In a large pot melt butter. Add sugar, syrup & salt. Bring to a boil stirring to keep anything from burning on the bottom. Once boiling let boil five minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. The mixture then will froth up, so this is why you use a bigger pot than you might think you need. Stir until soda and vanilla is mixed in and then pour evenly over the big pan of popcorn and gently toss the popcorn like you would a salad until most of the popcorn is covered. Don't get too rough or you just end up with crumbles.

Put pan into the heated oven and every 20 minutes pull out and stir the popcorn again. The slow heat keeps the caramel from hardening, gets the excess moisture out, and makes for a perfect glaze when finished. After two hours of this, take out caramel corn and let cool. And be sure to try a little bit still warm. It's so very good.

Once very cool you can store it in any airtight container or ziplock bags.

Options: Want nuts? Stir two or three cups of peanuts or whatever mix of nuts you like into to the caramel just before you're pouring it over the popcorn. There's plenty of caramel in the recipe to allow for the addition.

Makes a nice big amount that you can give out as hostess gifts this season, or take a big bowl to a potluck style party or sports party. It goes over very well and it is quite affordable to make (unless you add very expensive nuts). alida saxton