Banana Sour Cream Pecan Cranberry Bread: A Tale of Two Cities

I wish all my readers and friends a Happy and Prosperous New Year. May 2014 brings all the love, happiness   and warmth you look forward to. We had fun holidays this time. After promising for7 years my hubby finally took us to San Antonio, River walks. The boat ride is worth it.  We also got a chance to stay in a typical   beautiful city in Texas, New Braunfels. Also for the first time we ate fresh pecans plucked from the tree. After coming back when I opened Sunday Edition of Houston Chronicle, it had an article about pecan production and this banana sour cream pecan cranberry bread recipe. Since I had bought some fresh pecan from farmers market in New Braunfels I decided to use it for this bread.

We had visited San Antonio, Texas in 2006 after moving to Texas in 2005 December, but at that time we had gone to see a doctor. So we were in no mood to see the river walk. Then I got my princess, and prince and the year passed and still we haven’t made a trip there. Finally this holidays we planned two day trip to San Antonio.

The San Antonio River Walk (also known as Paseo del Río) is a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath the streets of Downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA. Even though San Antonio  River Walk is only 3 hours of drive from  our house, we thought driving back on the same day will not be good idea with 4 and half year old and 23 month old kids.  We reached San Antonio around 1.30 P.M, and there was a light rain so the boat ride was suspended. We started walking around the sides of river and actually did a river walk.

By that time rain stopped and sun came out, and we found out that they were planning to start the boat ride. So we got back to River Center Mall and bought the ticket for boat ride. And after a short wait  we were able to get the fourth boat .It was really a fun ride for around 30 minutes you can see lot of tall buildings, an old Theater, old buildings , and a very old tree, and in the night as it is Christmas time were there lot of Christmas tree lights. There was also a band playing some good music, and we did enjoy a few good tunes. One thing we found is that parking is big problem there; and we parked in River Center Mall.

After the boat ride it got dark, we had our dinner, and started our trip to New Braunfels.

New Braunfels is a beautiful  city  about  30 minutes drive from San Antonio, and we decided to stay there we couldn’t find place to stay in San Antonio meeting our requirement of having a refrigerator and microwave at a reasonable price. New Braunfels is a city in Comal and Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas. Braunfels means "brown rock" in German; the city is named for Braunfels, in Germany. We stayed at Hilton Garden Inn for the night, and it really is very nice hotel with all amenities. Next morning, after having our breakfast we started to explore the city of New Braunfels, it is beautiful place if you like antiques, you must visit there. While walking around the downtown, we found a farmers market, free railway museum etc.

Then on chatting with people in railway museum, we came to know that there is park called Landa park ,a  must place to visit if you have kids. There is also a toy train ride; we had got two free tickets for that from a nice lady at the rail museum.

So bought another two and had a fun train ride which goes through the beautiful park with beautiful old trees and also a river flowing through it. After that we decide to visit another historic town Gruene . Texas. However when we reached there it was almost 2.30 P.M, and there was not a single parking spot at a reasonable walking distance; and with two sleepy kids it was hard to walk  a  lot. So we get back into the car and drove back to our home. We will definitely visit Gruene  some other time.

From Farmers Market in New Braunfels, we bought fresh pecans, a husband and wife team selling it. It was so fresh, she cracked open one and gave to us for taste testing. It is so delicious, even my 23 month old was happily munching it.  They told me in order to keep them fresh we have freeze pecans.

If you don’t know pecans they are buttery tasting nuts. I believe it is tastier than walnuts. Texas is second largest state in producing pecans after Georgia. After coming back when hubby opened Sunday’s newspaper he saw an article on pecans about this year crop. Along with few recipes, hubby showed me this banana sour cream pecan cranberry bread recipe. It is a reader’s recipe who gives this bread away as a homemade gift. Only change I made to recipe is I used small bananas, also reduced two tablespoon of sugar. Delicious bread, we are banana bread lovers, so when we say delicious, it is true. Give it try if you can get hold of fresh pecans, it gives nice crunchy touch. You can also try with walnuts. Here comes the recipe.

Hope you will continue to support and encourage me in 2014 and coming years too. If you wish to see any recipes please e-mail me I will try to include.

Swathi

This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread.  All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.