Double Chocolate Happiness

  Well, the inevitable happened. I purchased too many bananas. You know how that always happens, right? You buy a big bunch thinking you will get through them all. But you never do. And that means either you freeze them for smoothie making at a later date or you are forced to make banana bread.

  My decision was made easy since I adapted the perfect banana bread recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Smitten Kitchen is a fantastic blog. If you have never visited it before you should!

  Oh, I forgot to mention that this recipe is called DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD. This means that it is for those who are serious about their pursuit of chocolate. If you love chocolate, you will be down with this bread, just saying!

Take out some frustration and mash 3 bananas

Add your melted butter, brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla.

Add salt, baking soda, cinnamon, flour and cocoa.

Add the chocolate chips and chocolate pieces.

Spoon the whole delicious mess into a prepared loaf pan!

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

3 large very ripe bananas
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks or chips. (I like a combination of both!)

  Heat your oven to 350°F. Butter a 9×5-inch loaf pan.

  Mash bananas in the bottom of a large bowl. Stir in melted butter, then brown sugar, egg, and vanilla. Next add your dry ingredients. If your flour or cocoa powder is a bit lumpy, you might want to sift it into the mixture. For the final touch, add you chocolate chips. Stir until just combined.

  Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 60 minutes. It's a good idea to do the toothpick test. If your toothpick comes out clean, you are golden! 

  Cool in pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and invert it out onto a cooling rack. Then eat and enjoy!!

Let this magical bread cool in the pan for a bit.

Then enjoy a slice or two of gooey chocolate happiness!

Summertime and Poetry

  Today was the first day (in Columbus) that really felt like Summer. I know it's been hot and it's been humid on days past. But today I actually thought....ah Summer is finally making an appearance!
  When I was outside watching four and five year children from my class play, the poem "The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver came to mind.
  The first poets that influenced me were Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. But I realized after this maudlin period that although I still greatly admire these ladies I needed to explore other voices.  And along came Mary Oliver.
  I have a sweet memory of my mother giving me a copy of Mary Oliver's House of Light. At the time (1990ish), I had no idea how much her work would affect my world view and my writing. Her poems were game changers.  And even though I have read many, many poems by many, many poets, I still find myself visiting her poems again and again.
  I would encourage everyone (even if you are not a fan of poetry) to give her poems a read. They might just change you.



The Summer Day


Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-- the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

 

My living room swims and other stories

  This week was spent acclimating to Ohio again after an extended vacation in Montana.  It didn't help that when I pulled back into the city the air was so thick that you could easily take a shower while unloading the car. Come on Columbus, enough already with the two thousand percent humidity! Don't get me wrong. I love this city. It's got a lot going for it....including one hell of a good food scene. I could just do without the humidity.
  Anywho, I arrived back in Columbus hoping that my living room/dining room had a fresh coat of a new color on its walls. It was a sad moment when I unlocked the front door and realized I still had pecan pie colored walls.  My friend and super duper handyman Jeff was backlogged and had to push back my paint job a bit. This ended up working to my advantage because it gave me time to change my paint color  yet again.

pecan pie walls

  Before I left for Montana, I chose a color. I felt pretty confidant about my choice but several friends indicated that it might be a good idea to actually try a few samples on the walls. Finally I caved and had four samples mixed. I tried them on my walls and felt very indecisive indeed. Here's what I was looking at...

choices, choices

  Needless to say, I spent, what felt like hours, staring at these paint colors trying to make a decision. I called everyone I knew into my living room and asked them to give their opinion. Finally, I made a choice... a choice that was different from the color I first picked. I was content. I left for Montana.

  Then I came home to pecan pie walls. I felt as if my walls were taunting me, challenging me to make another choice. So I spent some more time staring at my walls. In the end, I went with my first choice - Swim - top left.

  Jeff made time in his busy schedule and my front room was painted this past Wednesday.  And I have to say, I love it! 

  And just because I love it so much. Here's another view....

  And still another....

  I guess the lessons learned or relearned from this grand painting experiment: Trust your instincts. Have patience. And, if you are not skilled and able, pay a professional. Remarkably, these individuals can do the job quickly without making a mess. Most importantly, there are no tears! 

Try it again. You may like it

  I just returned from my annual road trip to Montana to visit my mother. And something very exciting happened during my stay at her home! Are you ready for it.... I baked a cake!! Yes, you read the words correctly. I said a cake.
  Now I realize that I have been away from this blog for a long time, over two years in fact. And what happened during that time? Well, a whole lot and very little has happened. But one thing has not changed...I am still a pie gal at heart. When faced with the inevitable choice - pie or cake - I will almost always choose pie. Notice I said ALMOST.
  Well, here's what happened... When I travel to Montana, I take a collection of recipes (most of them from Cook's Illustrated) that I have not had the chance to try yet.  I enjoy having some free time away from the list of to dos in my own home to experiment. And this year was no different. I happily toted five issues of Cook's and the current issue of Sweet Paul across the country. Add to this, the fact that my mother had a new stove delivered (a convection oven with an induction range) after just a few days of my stay. Let's just say, I could have stayed inside in that kitchen all day, every day, joyously cooking and baking.
  So we planned several items for meals. And somewhere in there my mother mentions her difficulty with making cakes in the higher altitude. This lead to much discussion and research on the subject. She also mentioned that she would like to make a German Chocolate Cake. This cake was a favorite of hers as a child. My grandmother made it regularly for birthdays. What I remember is not liking it. But as I have gotten older my tastes have changed. And I quickly came to see this cake as a challenge. Not only would we take the convection oven for a spin and overcome the altitude issue but I will like this cake dammit!!
  Next, I did some mad searching for the perfect recipe. The recipe I chose to follow was from Brown Eyed Baker The Recipe. She adapted her recipe from David Lebovitz. I felt like it was going to be the right choice...and it was. I mean Brown Eyed Baker and David Lebovitz, how could I go wrong.
  There was a lot of rigmarole altering ingredient amounts slightly and changing bake time and temperature for higher altitude convection baking. What I did seemed to work beautifully. If you need a resource for such things, I would suggest taking a look at King Arthur Flour's website.
  Anyway, the end result was AMAZING! That being said, this is not a cake for the faint of heart. Slice the pieces a little smaller than you would normally and have a tall glass of milk on standby.  You are going to need it!!

German Chocolate Goodness in every bite!