I’ve never been to a real family reunion, with the matching t-shirts and everything, but I kind of feel like I’m part of an ongoing one through Facebook these days. Cousins, aunts and uncles I haven’t seen in 10, 20 years or more are popping up on my “friends” list almost every day. I actually think this is pretty cool! I have a pretty large extended family on the East Coast – growing up in California, I didn’t have the chance to see them too often. It’s been nice to reconnect online.

My cousin Celeste, who I haven’t seen since I was probably in junior high, recently mentioned to me on Facebook that her mother (my aunt) likes to add chocolate to her banana bread. It’s a small detail, but I appreciated knowing it. Celeste also happens to run her own catering business (if you’re in the Boston area, check out her menus!) – maybe this penchant for cooking is a family trait!

Inspired by my Aunt Pearl, I’m sharing a terrific recipe for Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread. This one is definitely on the dessert-cakey end of the banana bread spectrum (my preferred end), but I had no problem slicing off pieces at breakfast time as well. It comes out incredibly moist and – from the sprinkling of sugar on top – with a sweet, crinkly crust I wanted to scrape off and eat on its own.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/chocolate-chunk-banana-bread/

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As many of us are preparing our Easter brunch menus for this weekend, I thought I’d bring out the recipes for some of my favorite brunch dishes I’ve made on Cooking On the Side.

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Sour Cream Pecan Coffee Cake
If I didn’t already know that this Sour Cream Pecan Coffee Cake recipe came from a box of dark brown sugar I probably could have guessed it. It has very pronounced brown sugar flavor and, with the help of the sour cream in the mix, the texture is melt-in-your mouth.

Crab, Scallion & Tomato Quiche
This Crab, Scallion & Tomato Quiche ranks among the top three recipes I’ve tried on this blog. It features a generous amount of lump crab meat and the flavor is further enhanced by the Old Bay-seasoned custard.

Sausage Breakfast Casserole
The hot sausage and pepper jack cheese give the casserole a little kick of heat without being overly spicy. With the custard soaked into cubes of country bread the dish is very much like a savory bread pudding, or strata.

Banana Berry Muffins
As someone who tends to prefer muffins that are nearly like cupcakes I was not expecting to enjoy these “healthier” muffins as much as I did. Between the bananas, berries and orange juice they’re loaded with flavor.

Chilled Dill Carrot Salad
The salad is incredibly simple – the carrots are sliced, blanched, tossed in a dill-red wine vinaigrette and chilled to blend the flavors. Even if you can’t find the multicolor carrots in your area this still would make a great healthy side dish with the conventional variety.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/easter-brunch-ideas/

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When I was 10 years old, my favorite food to have for dinner was quiche. Yup, quiche. Yup, for dinner.

My mom didn’t make it too often – maybe a couple times a year – so it had a certain “special occasion” appeal. I didn’t actually know until a few years ago that it’s typically a brunch or lunch item because we always had it for dinner. Years before all the “hide veggies in other foods” craze my mom enjoyed great success in getting my sisters and I to gleefully eat our spinach within the context of a fluffy, custardy quiche. Then, of course, there was the fancy French name. And the spelling! I was sure it had to be pronounced “qwitchy”.

This Crab, Scallion & Tomato Quiche ranks among the top three recipes I’ve tried on this blog. My husband described it as “restaurant quality”, which I’ll take as a compliment. It features a generous amount of lump crab meat (the recipe, of course, comes from a crab meat container I bought at Whole Foods) and the flavor is further enhanced by the Old Bay-seasoned custard.

I’m tagging this as a Brunch recipe, but if you feel like enjoying it for dinner instead, go for it!

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/crab-scallion-tomato-quiche/

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Some people get excited over finding lost change in the couch. I’m thrilled when I uncover food in the freezer that I’ve long forgotten about (that’s freezer, not refrigerator – long forgotten fridge food is no treat!). A few months ago when I was in my “nesting” stage ahead of the birth of our new little guy I became a bit of a cooking-and-freezing fiend. I stacked up all kinds of soups, casseroles, cookies, muffins – anything I thought would keep well. Over time, as the stacks got deeper, I kind of lost track of what was in there. I suppose I could take the time to do a little inventory but it’s actually kind of fun to be surprised when I open the freezer door.

I mentioned before that I’d frozen muffins. Well, I didn’t remember this until after I baked for this post! I was getting ready to stash a few of these Banana Berry Muffins in the freezer when I saw not one, but two previously packed-away bags of muffins. Oh well…is there really such a thing as too many muffins?

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/banana-berry-muffins/

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I always thought that if I wanted to make my own homemade jam I’d have to learn the process of canning. It seemed like more time and effort than I wanted to put in – I just wanted the jam. So when it came to my attention that there was a “quick and easy” method to jam-making that didn’t involve canning I wasted no time purchasing my fruit.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/quick-easy-strawberry-jam/

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Is there anything better than sleeping in on a Saturday morning and waking up to a stack of fluffy, buttermilk pancakes, fresh off of the griddle, dripping with maple syrup and butter? We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to whomever invented cake we can have for breakfast.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/blueberry-buttermilk-pancakes/

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It’s Part II of my “virtual” Mother’s Day brunch! To complement the brown sugary, melt-in-your-mouth Sour Cream Pecan Coffee Cake, I’ll be celebrating my mom and mom-in-law with a savory Sausage Breakfast Casserole. I know they’ll love it – both moms have prepared similar dishes for my husband and me when we’ve visited. It’s the kind of breakfast we look forward to when we’re together.

The hot sausage and pepper jack cheese give the casserole a little kick of heat without being overly spicy. With the custard soaked into cubes of country bread the dish is very much like a savory bread pudding, or strata. The mustard in the custard (I’ve been reading too much Dr. Seuss!) adds such incredible flavor yet it’s subtle enough that the non-mustard fan in our house still doesn’t know it was in there. I was intimidated at first by the idea of using ten eggs – it’s a few more than I’m used to in a single recipe – but I came around when I realized it worked out to fewer than two eggs per person.

A slice of this casserole is a meal in itself. But if you’re like me, you’ve always got a little room for cake too.

Happy Mother’s Day!

P.S. I’m submitting this to the Celebrating Mother’s Day blog event on Kopiaste.. to Greek Hospitality – the roundup of dishes will be posted on May 10.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/sausage-breakfast-casserole/

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We love living in California but if my husband and I could change just one thing it would be to have our families closer. Both sets of parents and most of our siblings live on the East Coast. On Mother’s Day we catch up with our moms on the phone and send cards but we usually aren’t near enough to sit down together for a good old-fashioned Mother’s Day brunch. So this year, in honor of our moms, I’m preparing a little “virtual” brunch on Cooking On the Side – along with an IOU to make the real thing the next time we see each other. Two dishes, this post and the next, both special occasion-worthy and incredibly delicious.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/sour-cream-pecan-coffee-cake/

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