Banana bread

I hate raw bananas. They make the palate in my mouth rise up like it's running away from touching the food (I'm not allergic, I just hate it). But I absolutely love banana bread! It carries just enough sweetness and has a lovely moist, chewy texture to it. Absolutely adore it.

I've used the foodnetwork banana bread recipe for the longest time and it has never failed me:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/banana-bread-recipe.html

A few notes though:

• Do add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to give the bread a kick of sweetness that granulated sugar just can't accomplish on its own. 
• Do be mindful of your oven's temperature. If your oven has a tendency of burning food at the designated temperature of recipes, lower it.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Pie

I don't think I've ever completely tasted blueberry pie before but my impression of it has always left me to believe that blueberry pie in America is always too sweet. I also dislike the excess amount of filling put inside a pie that never equals the amount of crust per serving. But today, I was convinced that if I made a blueberry pie, it would be different since I could decide how much filling to add and how sweet the pie would be.  My boyfriend and I had also picked so many blueberries at Swistak Farm that I figured I had more than enough cups of blueberries to use in a pie. After a bit of help in searching for a blueberry pie recipe, I went with the recipe from allrecipes.com: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/blueberry-pie/. I added a splash of lemon juice to the blueberry filling and set the oven to 375 degrees instead of 425 degrees.

I bought a 9-inch aluminum foil pie tray and the Betty Crocker pie crust mix. With the help of my friend Akritee, we spent 30 minutes molding the pie crust onto the pie tray and making the blueberry filling. Then, after 50 minutes of waiting for the pie in oven, I stood in awe at the work of art.

Voila!

The blueberry pie tasted delicious with just the right amount of natural blueberry flavors! I would strongly recommend this to anyone who would like to make a blueberry pie for an occasion or simply as a dessert at home.