sitting on the counter, smelling up the house and ruining any sense of peace and well-being!!!
Whew. Glad I got that off my chest.
I love a good "slightly green" banana. This means the banana is still firm, not too sweet and has a bit of tang to it. Note that all of these descriptive words are the complete opposite of a ripe banana.
A ripe banana is solid yellow, sweet, soft and emits a cloying scent that clogs my sinuses.
{shiver}
A REALLY ripe banana is deeply speckled and turning black, the meat is bruised and mushy and the odor is so thick it could be cut in squares and sold.
(shiver to the nth degree. I feel like I just described a rotting body in a crime novel by Jeffrey Deaver.}
I bought a perfect not-quite-ripe organic banana a week ago and planned to have it with yogurt. But then I stopped at the orthopedic walk-in clinic and got a steroid shot in my knee and suddenly I could move like the living rather than an extra in World War Z. After 3 months of debilitating pain (No, Doctor...it WASN'T just a bit of inflammation), I spent the week working in the yard.
Yesterday, I finally noticed the banana under some napkins. It was deeply speckled and turning black, the meat was bruised and mushy and the odor was so thick it could be cut in squares and sold.
Oh ya. That's what was wrong.
"Reincarnated One Banana Salvation Bread"
1 banana, deeply speckled and turning black with the meat bruised and mushy
1/4 C sugar
1 egg white
1.5 TBL vegetable oil
1/2 C flour
1/4 tsp banana extract (thank you Steve in LA!)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 C toasted chopped walnuts
1/2 C Hershey's dark chocolate chips
Blend all by hand, saving some of the nuts for the top.
Pour into greased/floured 5.5"x3" mini loaf pan (volume = 2 cups)
Bake 350 for I have no clue how long because I had the oven on to toast the nuts, then must have shut it off because when I went to check the bread at 40 minutes, it was still raw-ish. That's when I noticed the oven was actually off.
Idiot.
I turned the oven back on and kept baking and testing with a digital probe until it read 205 degrees.
Bread is really good. With all the nuts and chocolate, it's like dessert with a banana flair. Makes 6-8 slices, perfect with coffee in the morning and a lovely cup of tea at night.
I think this physical metamorphosis is like reincarnation...if you're bad and die, but get reincarnated and start doing good things, you eventually end up good.
Like a banana.
Whew. Glad I got that off my chest.
I love a good "slightly green" banana. This means the banana is still firm, not too sweet and has a bit of tang to it. Note that all of these descriptive words are the complete opposite of a ripe banana.
A ripe banana is solid yellow, sweet, soft and emits a cloying scent that clogs my sinuses.
{shiver}
A REALLY ripe banana is deeply speckled and turning black, the meat is bruised and mushy and the odor is so thick it could be cut in squares and sold.
(shiver to the nth degree. I feel like I just described a rotting body in a crime novel by Jeffrey Deaver.}
I bought a perfect not-quite-ripe organic banana a week ago and planned to have it with yogurt. But then I stopped at the orthopedic walk-in clinic and got a steroid shot in my knee and suddenly I could move like the living rather than an extra in World War Z. After 3 months of debilitating pain (No, Doctor...it WASN'T just a bit of inflammation), I spent the week working in the yard.
Yesterday, I finally noticed the banana under some napkins. It was deeply speckled and turning black, the meat was bruised and mushy and the odor was so thick it could be cut in squares and sold.
Oh ya. That's what was wrong.
"Reincarnated One Banana Salvation Bread"
1 banana, deeply speckled and turning black with the meat bruised and mushy
1/4 C sugar
1 egg white
1.5 TBL vegetable oil
1/2 C flour
1/4 tsp banana extract (thank you Steve in LA!)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 C toasted chopped walnuts
1/2 C Hershey's dark chocolate chips
Blend all by hand, saving some of the nuts for the top.
Pour into greased/floured 5.5"x3" mini loaf pan (volume = 2 cups)
Bake 350 for I have no clue how long because I had the oven on to toast the nuts, then must have shut it off because when I went to check the bread at 40 minutes, it was still raw-ish. That's when I noticed the oven was actually off.
Idiot.
I turned the oven back on and kept baking and testing with a digital probe until it read 205 degrees.
Bread is really good. With all the nuts and chocolate, it's like dessert with a banana flair. Makes 6-8 slices, perfect with coffee in the morning and a lovely cup of tea at night.
I think this physical metamorphosis is like reincarnation...if you're bad and die, but get reincarnated and start doing good things, you eventually end up good.
Like a banana.