Banana cream pie

6 medium bananas, yellow and firm
1 c. Orange juice
1 pie crust, cooked or gram cracker shell
2 c. Whipped cream

Pastry cream
1/4 c. Sugar
1 T. Flour
2 t. Cornstarch
1 egg
1 c. Milk, boiled
3 T. unsalted butter, softened
1/4 t. Vanilla extract

In a bowl, mix sugar, flour, cornstarch. Beat in egg. In a medium pot, boil milk. Add 1/2 of milk to the egg mixture. Pour the bowl contents into the saucepan. Cook and cover over high heat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk until the center bubbles and the mixture is thick. Stir vigorously to keep the egg fom scrambling and the mixture fom sticking to the bottom and burning. Whisk back and forth, scraping the bottom of the pan, circle the edge, repeat.

Remove from heat, stir in butter and vanilla. Pour into a bowl, cover and chill.

Filling
Peel the bananas and cut into 1/2 in slices. Toss in a bowl with orange juice. (prevents them from turning brown) drain and pat with paper towel. Fold the bananas into the pastry cream. Pour into a cooled pie shell.

Whipped cream topping
Whip the cream to soft peaks. Cover the top of the pie with 1/2 in cream. You can put the rest into a pastry bag to decorate the top.

Easy spaghetti and meatballs

 The meat made this dish very flavorful but some varieties may have more salt than others. Use salt sparingly. If you have leftover meatballs and sauce, you can make a meatball sandwich with mozarella or parm. Left over sauce, you can use it on tortillas or naan. Spread with olive oil, them sauce, I use sliced mozzarella (for sandwiches) and put your favorite toppings.

For the meatballs
1 lb. mild or hot Italian sausage, casing removed
1 Tablespoons flour
1/4 c. Panko or bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 c. Cheese like parmesan or Romano or asiago
Dash of pepper

For the sauce
1 lb. Roma tomatoes, blanched, peeled then diced  or 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 can tomato sauce
2 t. Oregano
2 t. Parsley
2 t. Basil
1/4 c. Red wine
Grated onion
1/4 teaspoon Anise seeds
3 cloves Garlic
Dash of sugar (about 1/2 t.)
pepper
If you like it spicy add pepper flakes.

• Roll into 1 inch balls. Add 2-3 T. Oil. Heat meatballs over medium heat for about 5 minutes per side. Should be nicely browned but not cooked all the way through. Add the ingredients for the sauce. Simmer the sauce and meatballs for about 1 hour. Add to your favorite pasta. 

Banana muffins

I have tried different recipes. I like this one. Butter is better than oil. Too much sugar tends to make the outside too chewy. This recipe is moist enough, it does not need eggs. Bananas are acidic so I am using baking soda.

3-4 bananas
1/2 c. Melted butter
1 t. Vanilla
1 t. Salt
1 t. Baking soda
2 c. Flour
1/2 c. Nuts, chopped

Pre-heat oven to 375.

In a bowl, mash the bananas. Add melted butter, sugar, vanilla. Mix in salt, baking powder. Add flour and nuts slowly.  Do not overmix. Place in a greased muffin pan.

Bake 15-17 minutes. Tops will turn golden and look less wet. Makes 12-16 muffins.