No banana gets wasted in this house, ever.  Just as I like to create variations of macaroni and cheese, cheesecake and brownie recipes – I love to change things up with banana bread too. Pineapple and banana are so great together. This bread is flavorful and moist – and the glaze ends up setting up nicely on the bread after it cools. It would be great with coconut as well for even more tropical flavor.

I made two loaves – so I doubled this recipe and with the second loaf – I poked a few holes on top of the bread before applying the glaze. The crumb soaked up the glaze and kept the bread moist a few days which is a remarkable thing here in Colorado. Andrew loves this variation and this morning had a piece toasted with some butter for breakfast with his oatmeal.

Poked glaze version.

After glaze.

Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated, I’ve just been missing in action. With the holidays, Andrew’s move to a new school and life’s usual duties — I took a few weeks off. I hope to be returning to my What’s For Dinner posts in a week or two and in the next day or two I’ll share a great recipe for Pineapple and Banana Bread with Pineapple Glaze. For today, I’m sharing with you one of my favorite new books – Spice Temple by Neil Perry.

Perry’s restaurant of the same name, Spice Temple, is located in Australia serves “stylish Chinese fare and zodiac-themed cocktails in chic, black-and-red surrounds”. Fortunately, we are now able to experience Perry’s recipes in our own homes.

I’ve already made the Bang Bang Chicken from this book and it was wonderful — I adapted the recipe a bit -making it a crispy version and we all loved it. Spice Temple is a beautiful book with stunning photos and drool worthy recipes. Shaanxi White-Cut Chicken with Black Bean and Sesame Dressing, Crispy Pork Belly and Smoked Tofu with Spicy Ginger and Garlic Dressing and Lucky Duck Noodles with Pickled Vegetables are examples of the standouts in this book.

The publisher’s website shares several of the recipes at these links Northern Style Lamb and Fennel Dumplings, Stir Fried Twice Cooked Pork Belly With Leek and Sichuan Black Beans and Three Milk Cake with Pistachio and Raspberry.

GIVEAWAY:  I love this book so much – I have an extra copy of this title to give away to one lucky reader. The giveaway is open to U.S. addresses only. To enter please leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite Chinese dish is. For an extra chance, please share this recipe on social media and leave a second comment telling me you did so. A random winner will be chosen on January 31st.

Random Number Generator chose – #36 – Christine Dutton — congratulations!

Spice Temple was purchased by myself as well as the giveaway copy. Good luck!

Sweet Thangs, Southern Sweets from Two Sassy Sisters, is a cookbook written by two sisters named appropriately Sugarpie Monroe and Pattiecake McAliser (otherwise known as Ann Everett & Carol Mayfield). Each sweet recipe, of the 150 in this book, has been made by one of the sisters and we are assured they work and are tasty.

There are a wide range of recipes for all types of desserts — muffins, cookies, cakes from scratch and recipes that involve using a cake mix (which if you know me isn’t my thing) but many people love recipe short cuts.

Sweet Potato Cake with Coconut Filling and Cream Cheese Frosting, Rum Cake with Glaze and Wham-Bam-Yam Pound Cake and Glaze are a few of the scratch recipes that sound delicious. Almond Glazed Sugar Cookies, Buttermilk Clouds and Buttery Lemon Cookies are tagged to try soon – hopefully during my holiday baking that is approaching very quickly.

This book would be a great stocking stuffer this holiday for the baker in your life or a great hostess gift with a plate of cookies (from one of the recipes in Sweet Thangs, of course).

Ann was generous enough to share one of her popular recipes with us – Chocolate Whoppers. Clicking the link will download the recipe to your computer. These may be made this weekend – I know one little boy that would love to attack a plate of Chocolate Whoppers.

GIVEAWAY! Ann’s generosity knows no bounds – she is offering two readers a copy of her book. The giveaway is open to U.S. addresses only. To enter leave a comment on this post letting me know one thing you are baking for the holidays. Two random winners will be chosen on December 20th. Good luck!

Random Number Generator picked #41 Robin and #81 Cheryl Jones

Thank you Ann and Carol for this opportunity.