Cooking for Seven

I love reviewing products. It’s just fun to test out new things, discover if I really like it.

Today I’m reviewing Clearly Fresh® Bags, storage bags with a 3-inch square membrane that allows your produce to breathe.

The claim: Clearly Fresh® Bags can extend the shelf life of fresh fruits and vegetables by up to 50%

The Test: To test the Clearly Fresh® Bags claim, I allowed three bananas to sit on the counter for 12 days.

I chose three bananas from the same bunch. 1) was placed on the counter without a bag. 2) was placed in a Clearly Fresh® Bag and sealed. 3) was placed in a cheap (conventional) storage bag and sealed.

The Results:

Let’s start with the cheap bag. On the outside, it looks perfectly normal. But peel back the skin and you discover a nasty, squishy mess. Plus, the tip formed all sorts of nasty mold. Ew.

Now for the Clearly Fresh® Bag. On the outside it looks much the same as the banana stored in the cheap bag, but the inside was less icky and squishy. The tip was quite mushy, but the rest of the banana was fairly good. The tip also formed all sorts of icky mold, but a bit less than banana #3.

Finally, the banana stored without a bag. To my surprise, this banana performed the best on the squishy and moldy test. It was still quite edible after 12 days. However, it attracted fruit flies like crazy. Gross.

Conclusion: The Clearly Fresh® Bag definitely kept the banana fresher than the banana stored in the conventional bag. The banana stored without a bag stayed firm and mold-free the longest, but it attracted a multitude of fruit flies. Totally gross.

What I love about this product: The generous size: substantially larger than a gallon bag. It’s so much more convenient to store large amounts of produce in a bag that’s actually big enough! Right now I’ve got three heads of broccoli in one Clearly Fresh® Bag.

Is it worth it/Would I buy it? I think it’s worth $3.99 for 10 LARGE (12” X 14”) bags. Plus, I stored the bananas longer than Clearly Fresh® recommends (9 days is their limit). If I want to store bananas for a week without generating fruit flies, I would definitely chose the Clearly Fresh® Bag.

You can purchase the bags for yourself here: {Link}

Need some banana recipes?

Banana Nut Bread

Banana Poppy Seed Bread

Creamy Coconut Fruit Salad

Banana Cake

And the winner is…

Comment #253

Courtney Desormeaux: “I like the Proper spot of Tea”

Courtney chose “A Proper Spot of Tea” and “Hush, I’m Reading“

Congratulations, Courtney! Enjoy your prints.

On to some things I’m really lovin’ right now…

Baked Cake Doughnuts, or most anything from Souvlaki For The Soul. His photography is stunning.

Newbie Cheese Package from Gilt Taste

Gorgeous Peach Cake from here.

Kitchen conversion poster via Whimsy & Spice

Antique European grain sack.

Juxtapose dishtowels.

What are you lovin’ today?

Did ya’ll know that I have an Etsy shop? There I offer some of my favorite culinary, still life, and nature photography in print form.

Right now, I’m having a summer sale - by using coupon code “summer15″ you can take 15% off your entire order. Plus, everything ships free to United States residents!

Today, since I’m feeling a bit generous, I’m giving away two (2) prints of choice to one lucky reader!

Here’s how it works:

• [Mandatory] Leave a comment on this post, telling me which is your favorite print from my shop.
• For extra entries, tweet, blog, or post on Facebook about this giveaway. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each extra entry with a link to the post.
• For more entries, subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each extra entry.

Rules:

Giveaway ends Wednesday, August 10, at 12:00 p.m. Central Time. No comments will be considered after that time.

I will select one (1) winner using random.org.

Good luck!

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS NOW ENDED

Some days, you just need a recipe that doesn’t call for fancy ingredients. You don’t have any specialty items on hand, but you still want to bake something utterly scrumptious.

This cake definitely fits the bill. A soft, cinnamon-scented batter is filled with buttery, sugary swirls. Top it off with a drizzle of maple and cream cheese frosting, and you have one delicious treat.

Notes:

The original recipe called for a powdered sugar glaze. I much prefer a less-sweet cream cheese based frosting. So I made up a recipe for drizzly maple-cream cheese frosting.

As per my usual substitutions, I used whole wheat flour in place of most of the AP flour, and maple sugar instead of brown sugar. I also added a bit of cinnamon to the cake batter to enhance the flavor. You can add pecans to the topping, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I left them out. Besides, my husband doesn’t like nuts in baked goods.

Cinnamon Roll Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from Divine Baking | Printable Page | Makes approximately 8 servings

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup maple sugar, demerara, sucanat, rapadura, or brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cups whole milk
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup maple sugar or sweetener of choice
• 1 tablespoons AP flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons chopped pecans, optional

For the maple cream cheese frosting:

• 4 oz. (1/4 lb.) cream cheese, softened
• 3-4 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons whole milk

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a round cake pan.
2) In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the whole wheat flour, AP flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. In a small bowl, combine the milk, egg, and vanilla. Beat into the dry ingredients until well combined. Slowly stir in the melted butter. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3) In a large bowl, mix the softened butter, maple sugar, flour, cinnamon and pecans (if using) until well combined. Drop evenly over cake batter by the tablespoonsful and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.
4) Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out nearly clean from center. You want to make sure it’s done.
5) Beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer until smooth. Slowly add the maple syrup and vanilla. Add a few tablespoons of milk, if necessary, so the frosting can be drizzled. While the cake is still warm, drizzle the frosting on top. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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