I make banana bread quite often, and this double batch was for my boyfriend and I and the
workshop and
MJ. I went to the workshop this morning to drop in on a watercolor class. I got to play for a bit, but am wanting to do more soon. I brought some banana bread as my contribution, since they let me join in. And tonight I get to go to MJ's for a sleepover!!!!
Ok, so I'm a bit old for it, but that's exactly the point. It will be nice to just veg and watch movies and eat s'mores and wake up and have banana bread for breakfast, besides which MJ loves banana bread. The recipe I use started out from something I found on the web, but I've modified to my taste. The best part is that no mixer os required. All the ingredients can be mixed in a bowl. Here's the recipe...
4 ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted regular butter (with salt, which is a big no no in baking, but it works in this!)
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg (beat before combining)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cup flour
nuts optional
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix melted butter with bananas. Mash the bananas with a wooden spoon while mixing in butter.
Add sugar, egg, and vanilla and mix.
Sprinkle baking soda over indgredients and mix in.
Add flour last, and mix together until combined.
Pour mixture into buttered loaf pan and cook 1 hour.
Best to cool before slicing or serving.
This is especially delicious with butter hot out of the oven!
Inspired by a vintage ravioli maker purchased at the Flea, Sarah and I undertook the task of making our own ravioli. Okay, we cheated a little by buying fresh pasta sheets...
They actually looked pretty professional!
...and they tasted wonderful!
Happy Summer eating!!!
Aaron and I made les macarons this afternoon at Baking Arts in San Francisco.
The class lasted about an hour and a half and we each made a batch of 10 macarons from start to finish. The owner and instructor, Richard, was very knowledgeable and friendly. With classes of about 6 people the atmosphere was pleasant and perfect for beginners! I definitely recommend the class to jump start your macaron making!
I love Macarons!!!
Rose hips, brightly colored, crimson red in a cobalt blue mexican cup for spicy hot chocolate... two perfect wintertime treats.
I bought these beautiful beets to watercolor, but wound up cooking them instead. There was a recipe for goat cheese and beet tart from Martha (good luck finding it on her website, because I couldn't). The pate brisee recipe she has is wonderful and works for both savory and sweet pies and tarts. This dish turned our beautifully, and tastes pretty good too. The only odd thing is the purple beets are so shockingly magenta that when they hit the melting goat cheese, the dish turns hot pink. Slicing this up looks like left over birthday cake...not so appetizing.
Gotta love those Martha pics... I was seduced by these honey drizzled golden fritters in the current issue, little fried rosettes, honey and walnuts nestled in delicate folds. Mine don't look as dainty, but they are pretty delicious. They remind me of the loukoumades I would get from the Greek Festival at the Greek Orthodox Church in the Oakland hills.
I am definitely on a jamming streak. I love the process of canning fruit and making jam! Today was Santa Rosa plums purchased from Monterey Market instead of picked like the apricots. The plums themselves were delicious, and their flavor didn't change terribly once made into jam. I used the recipe from the apricot preserves and just swapped the fruit.
The plums shed their skin in the boiling water much quicker than the apricots did. Once skinned and pitted, the plums were tossed in a pot to boil with the sugar and lemon juice. A mass of plum pulp, not so appetizing at this stage.
So peach preserves this time. Strawberry jam had a 50% success rate, but we decided to try it again, this time with peaches! The key is letting the fruit mixture cook to the "jell point," which was not mentioned in our Strawberry jam recipe, hence 3 jars good jam and 3 jars strawberry syrup!
