A sweet and savory food blog.
I’ve been loving the cooler weather lately. It’s been a long time coming for us in the Bay Area and it FINALLY feels like winter. This is my favorite time a year for cooking…. soups, stews, and cozy baked goods.
Banana bread is one those super comforting foods that everyone loves. This recipe is lightened up and oh so tasty. It’s light, moist, and very banana-y. Although I’ve never met a banana bread recipe that I didn’t like this is my favorite.
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Let me start by saying that a sandwich like this a BIG splurge for me. I love grilled cheese sandwiches but I never, ever get/make them because I can almost always find a better choice. However, once is blue moon there’s nothing like an ooey, gooey grilled cheese. And this one, in particular, just hits the spot.
The combination of raisin bread, brie, Granny Smith apples, caramelized onions, and a little whole grain mustard makes the best sweet and savory combo EVER. I never would have considered raisin bread for something like this but it’s really the key component. This sandwich is so tasty and, seriously, worth every single calorie!
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At the beginning of November I was given the opportunity to attend a training at the Oglebay Resort & Conference Center in Wheeling, West Virginia. First, let me say that West Virginia was never really on my radar – I certainly never thought it was someplace I would visit. And, to be really honest, I wasn’t even 100% sure where it was. In my mind it was just one of those “fly over” states. Oh, how I was wrong! I can’t speak for the whole state but I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Wheeling and I can’t say enough good things about Oglebay. The resort was beautiful! Super rustic and full of charm. They even had plaid carpeting! For a girl from California it was everything that I wanted. Oh, and the most important thing – FALL FOLIAGE! Definitely something we’re sorely missing here on the West Coast.
Beyond the beauty the people were some of the nicest I’ve ever met. My co-workers and I joked that all people should come to WV for a lesson in customer service.
Oglebay does a lot of things right and one of those things is the food. We were treated to full buffets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. While there I fell in love two things – their scalloped apples and their pumpkin waffles with apple cider syrup (recipe to come). The scalloped apples were unlike anything I’ve had before. They were slightly sweet, slightly crunchy, and slightly gooey. Every morning I piled a huge spoonful on top of my oatmeal – suddenly plain old oatmeal became pretty damn good!
Aside from being delicious on oatmeal they would be a great side for just about any pork recipe.
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So here it is… my VERY FIRST POST! When I first decided that I needed a project I thought a blog would be a piece of cake. I mean how hard could it be? Turns out, it’s harder than it looks. I’m not what you would call computer savvy so every photo edit, every style change, and every attempt to use code is a small victory. I’m slowly but surely getting the hang of it and, so far, couldn’t be more excited about this little project of mine.
On to the important stuff… THE FOOD! These muffins are pretty much perfect. Let’s be honest, regular old pumpkin muffins are good but pumpkin muffins with BEER are great! These muffins are slightly sweet, super moist, and I love the crunch of the flax seeds. The oat streusel crumble is one of my favorite things to have in the freezer. It’s really versatile and can jazz up just about any quick bread or muffin. So good!…