Tasty Tuesday!

I can't believe it's Tuesday again already. This last week has really flown. Probably because I spent much of it reading the 237 different blogs of people who commented on my featured SITS day. And then oh yeah, the Super Bowl.

Today is dedicated to the Super Bowl recap. I do have a recipe at the end if you want to cheat and scroll down, but I recommend that you drool over it all first. And yes, I realized this morning that I probably should have done this post last week so you all could have ideas for Sunday, but I didn't think that far ahead.

In the meantime, enjoy the recipes -- and go check out Tempt My Tummy Tuesday with Blessed With Grace for more fun recipes and kitchen tips!

We made guacamole. Mmmm, guacamole. I used seven avocados and had just a tiny bit left. I took it for lunch yesterday. I already have a craving for some more.



I made my "Italian" dip, too (it needs the quotes because I don't have a name for it yet -- suggestions?). It's really good with crackers and the baby carrots I set out with it. And luckily, I have a tiny bit of that left, too. I'm so eating that for a snack later today! This is the fastest appetizer I have, too. It only takes about ten minutes to put together.



Oh, and some really great caramel apple dip, too. It's not the typical one that's made with marshmallow fluff. It uses yogurt and cream cheese and is much lighter (read: you can eat more without feeling icky) than the one I'm used to. I promise to post it here soon. It's another one that comes together really quickly. It's meant for apples, but I always serve it with strawberries and fresh cut pineapple, too. This will be part of what Mister Man eats with lunch (dairy -- so Little Miss is out).

And of course, I finished off my bananas. Yes, I really finished them all off! There are NO more bananas in my house! I made my uncle's frosted banana bars, and man are they good. Even with all the food we ate -- and eat of my friends brought more from ham sandwiches to bagel dogs to twice baked potatoes to cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches and more -- we still attacked and ate about half the giant pan of banana bars. See?


So without further ado, here you go!

Frosted Banana Bars

Bars:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups ripe bananas (about 4 medium)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch salt

Frosting:
1 cup butter, softened
2 8 oz package cream cheese (16 oz total), softened
8 cups confectioners' sugar
4 tsp vanilla extract

In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, bananas, and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased 15x10x1 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until bars test done. Cool.


For frosting, cream butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl. Gradually add confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beat well. Spread over bars.

Ok, technically, I doubled the frosting recipe (this is the doubled version here). When I made it the first time, I didn't have enough frosting to adequately spread on the 15 inch pan. I maybe could have done it with one and one half times the amount of frosting, but unless you cut down on the powdered sugar, your frosting is too thick and yummy to spread on top of the bars. And I promise, no one complained about this much frosting!

One suggestion. Before you bake, ensure you have enough of all your ingredients. After making pizza from scratch twice this week, dairy free banana cupcakes for Little Miss, banana bread and one other thing, I somehow was short of flour for this recipe.



While the batter was looking like this:



I was running to Dominick's hoping my double acting baking powder wasn't acting quite yet. Luckily for me, it wasn't!

On the plus side, I somehow had never used my Kitchen-Aid mixer for anything other than kneading bread dough. And I've owned this sucker for a long time. It's a classic. I've had it probably since around graduating from college. And I never used it to make batter. OMG. I am so infatuated with it now. I don't know why I didn't do it earlier. Duh!

Enjoy!