blue artichoke

I know, this one has been going on for a long time. Instead of prolonging the inevitable, I'm going to announce the winner by fiat: Grandma's Banana Bread. There were many good ones, some even as good as Grandma's, but none could surpass her recipe. That's the only recipe I'll keep for classic banana bread. Here it is:

Grandma’s Banana Bread

This bread is really moist, sweet and delicious. It's also really simple and quick to assemble, without dirtying too many dishes (always a plus). I sometimes make it just as is, but usually I lighten it by replacing half of the oil with applesauce and substituting an equal amount of Splenda for the sugar. I also usually use three medium-sized bananas. For best banana flavor, put ripe bananas in the freezer until the skins turn black. The bananas will be mushy when thawed, but the flavor will be concentrated and much more pronounced (plus, you won't have to mash the banana).

½ c. oil
1 c. sugar
1-¼ c. flour
2 eggs, beaten
½ t. salt
¾ t. soda
1 t. vanilla
2 large bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix oil, sugar and eggs. Add flour, salt and soda. Blend. Add vanilla and bananas, blend.

Pour into greased pan. Bake as follows:
2 small loaf pans – 40-45m
1 small Bundt pan – 35-45m
18 muffins – 30-35m
1 large loaf pan – 45m-1h *recommended
4x soup cans – 30-35m
or until browned on top and slightly pulling away from sides of pan...

As I said, that is the only recipe for classic banana bread I'll make from now on, but you might want to try a few other recipes to find the one that suits you best. After the jump you'll find recipes for the top contenders in the Ultimate Snackdown Banana Bread Battle.

Continue reading "Ultimate Snackdown: the Ultimate Banana Bread" »

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Once upon a time last year, I set out on a magical journey into a loaf of banana bread. Remember that? This Snackdown Challenge has taken a long time, but my interns and tasting team had to take a few breaks from banana bread. We learned our lesson with the pumpkin cheesecakes. I don’t even know if I finished that challenge or picked a winner; all I know is that it will be a looooooong time before I eat another slice of pumpkin cheesecake. Besides, pumpkin cheesecakes have been supplanted by the far superior pumpkin gooey butter cake from Paula Deen. Have you tried this dessert? It makes pumpkin pie and cheesecake cower in the corner, crying. GC’s mom made one for Thanksgiving, and that’s the pumpkin dessert I want from now on. ‘Cause I’m sick of pumpkin cheesecake, just sick of it. I didn’t want to get burned out on banana bread too, so we took this challenge slowly. And now, finally, I can announce the close of the qualifying round.

We tested 40 banana bread recipes. 40! I stopped giving blow-by-blow updates around banana bread #19. Admit it, you skimmed through the Snackdown stuff, didn’t you? I don’t mind; I found it kind of boring to try to write interesting things about each loaf too. Most were plain banana breads, but some had some special ingredients, such as blueberries, coconut, chocolate chips and peanut butter. Of the 40, 17 were deemed excellent: nine classic banana breads and eight specialty banana breads. The specialty breads will be sidelined for now. There are a few special ingredient duplicates (i.e., two chocolate-chip banana breads and two marbled-chocolate banana breads) that will get their own battle. The remaining specialty banana breads (with additions of cranberries, coconut, butterscotch chips and blueberries) are automatic winners, and keepers. For now, though, we’ll concentrate on the nine classic banana bread finalists.

Grandma’s recipe is the standard by which all others are measured. It’ll be difficult, but the winning recipe must surpass her recipe. Eight recipes have the potential. Stay tuned.

Current battle: banana bread
Backburner battle: brownies
Savory battle: meatloaf

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's still cold, but no new ice or snow fell today, so I decided to get up off the couch, change into street clothes and leave the house. It took a while, because I had to break through the 3" layer of ice covering my car. My strategy was to pry open the driver side door, turn on the front and rear window defrosters and crank up the heat inside the car. I also moved the car into a patch of sunshine. At 8 degrees, I wasn't sure the sun would be warm enough to melt the ice, but it warmed up to 12 degrees in the sun! I hacked away at the ice until my hands were numb, then retreated back to the couch to rest up for the second bout. About an hour later, the sun had moved across the car and melted the very top of the ice, but the parts in the shade had already frozen again, so there was a thin sheet of ice to break through to get to the looser ice underneath. Once I worked a big chunk off the back windshield, I was able to grunt, curse, pound and scrape the rest off. If I slowed my furious pace, though, my glove, vest, pants or any piece of clothing that touched the car would freeze to it. I was tempted to try sticking my tongue to it, to see if it really would stick, but thought better of it. I mean, the lotion I put on my face right before going out to battle the ice froze under my eyes where I didn't rub it in very well. My tongue would definitely have stuck to the car.

It didn't actually take very long to dig out my car, maybe 45 minutes. And let me tell you, I can wield an ice scraper; I think I'd be good at carving ice sculptures. I have a powerful, yet delicate touch. Anyway, I dug out my car and headed off to the grocery stores where I bought food. I had only cleared the windshields and windows; there was still 3" of ice on the hood, roof and trunk of the car. After leaving the first grocery store, I loaded the groceries into the back seat and when I slammed the door, the ice slid off the front of the car in one big sheet. Cool. I pushed on the ice on the roof and it sailed off the side, maybe clipping the car parked next to me, but not causing any damage. I tried to push the ice off the trunk, but no dice. Maybe tomorrow.

By the by, remember the Banana Bread Snackdown? Yeah, it's still going on, I just stopped writing about it. It gets kind of boring reporting on each and every loaf; I'm sure it's boring to read too. I'll write up a general summary if it ever comes to a close, and you can choose to skim it then. But I baked loaf #35 today. I think there are 4-5 more to go, then the finals round, which has maybe 10 contenders. Finishing this Snackdown is a resolution of mine. Next should be something less fattening, like a Salad Snackdown or Raw Vegetables Snackdown!

Getting to Know All About You: What food would you like to see in a future Snackdown?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Three more banana bread recipes have been tested, but I forgot to tell you about them. Better late than never.
Here goes:

Banana Bread #20, Blueberry Banana Oat Bread
I'm not sure where this recipe is from. It uses Bisquick (which I make myself), quick-cooking oats and blueberries. I used fresh blueberries. The batter was really thick, but baked up to a nice looking loaf with a rough texture. I'm realizing that I don't like oatmeal in banana bread; it gives a rough, scratchy texture that feels so gross in my mouth. This bread wasn't very sweet, but the blueberries added a nice boost to the flavor. Not a keeper.

Banana Bread #21, Best Banana Bread Recipe
Recipe from www.banana.com. I omitted the nuts, as usual. This was a good loaf of banana bread if you plan to devour it immediately upon removal from the oven. It looked nice. It was tender and moist when warm, but dried out considerably after it cooled down. And it wasn't sweet enough. Not a keeper.

Banana Bread #22, Banana Nut Bread
I have a lot of recipes called "Banana Nut Bread." This one came from one of my mom's friends, Rotten Tomatoes. It is a bit different from the rest in that it calls for whole milk soured with vinegar and baking soda. I didn't have whole milk, but added a bit of melted and cooled butter to skim milk, then soured that as directed. All ingredients are mixed by hand, which was really fun. The dough started out as a super thick paste of sugar, flour, salt, oil and eggs. Then I added the milk and it suddenly became more liquid and easy to stir. I stirred in the roughly mashed bananas, which kept some chunks as I mixed them in. This is the best recipe so far. It had to cook longer than directed for the center to set, and the bottom burned a bit. Next time, I'll cook it in the top half of my oven. It looked moist when it came out of the oven, with a dark-dark brown shiny crust. The inside was dark golden brown, with some banana chunks throughout the loaf. The taste was very banana-y and very sweet. In fact, I could probably reduce the amount of sugar, but I don't know why I'd want to; it is entirely too good. There ought to be a law. I can't repeat Gentleman Caller's reaction to the bread, but he seems to be as enamored of this bread as I am. Grandma better watch out; this recipe very well could surpass hers!

So, now you're updated on the Snackdown. Sleep easy.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 01:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Despite the sweltering heat, the Snackdown continues, though at a much slower pace. I made two loaves of banana bread last week. I think we're starting to get tired of banana bread because after we try it fresh from the oven and again cooled, the rest of the loaf languishes in the fridge for many days. I'm going to attempt to make banana bread French toast this weekend. Anyway, here are the reviews:

Banana Bread #18, Orange-Spice Banana Bread
Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, which is usually really good. This one, however, stinks. The article it came from states the problem as "too many banana bread recipes turn out bland, flat, heavy, dry and/or gritty loaves." That's true. But this loaf didn't correct those problems. It was bland, with not enough banana or orange flavor to stand out and be recognized. The texture was okay, not too flat, heavy, dry or gritty, but had a pocket of teeth-shattering hardness from I don't even know what. This was a most unpleasant loaf of banana bread. To the trash bin!

Banana Bread #19, Bisquick Banana Nut Bread
I don't know where the recipe came from. I make my own Bisquick mix using flour, dry milk powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cream of tartar, and vegetable shortening (no trans-fat Crisco). I almost always have these ingredients on hand and I've never had a problem with the homemade mix. I was a bit worried this time, though, because the batter was super liquidy and really lumpy (even though I omitted the nuts). But it baked up just fine. This was a good-lookin' bread: pale yellow in the center with a thick brown crust and a satisfying crack down the top of the loaf. The texture was moist, light and springy and the flavor was banana-y with a light bright sweetness. This was a darn good loaf and might just squeak into the second round.

Almost 2/3 done with the qualifying round!

Dinner last night: edamame dumplings (homemade), leftover chicken rice pilaf, asparagus

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Because summers in mid-Missouri are sultry, hot and humid, and because we don't have central A/C, and because our poor window unit struggles to cool just the living room, I've switched to a no-oven menu for the summer. Meals are now cooked on the grill or stovetop. This works out well, because it's just too hot to eat anyway. But every so often, a girl just wants to bake, so I try to save up all my baking needs for one day a week (preferably a relatively cool day, say, only 90 degrees). Yesterday was that day. I made a cheddar and onion pie for dinner, a loaf of molasses-oat banana bread for the Snackdown (see below) and a blackened blueberry cobbler. The cobbler wasn't browning like I hoped, so I flipped on the broiler, let Fat Larry out to play in the back yard and came back to an oven belching smoke. Oops. The top is slightly blackened, but luckily the topping prevented the blueberries from burning, turning acrid and bitter. It was more like an upside-down blueberry cake than a cobbler, but it was yummy.

Snackdown #16, Molasses-Oat Banana Bread
Recipe from Cooking Light. This bread has all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, oats and dark molasses, making it one of the healthiest of the bunch. I cut down a bit on the molasses and added an extra banana, in violation of the Snackdown rules, but it turned out great. Even with the extra banana, the fruit flavor is rather subtle. I think the molasses flavor would have completely overpowered the banana if I hadn't reduced the amount of molasses and added another banana. This definitely wouldn't satisfy a banana bread craving, but is still really good. I think it'll go to the top five nontraditional banana breads.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Banana Bread Snackdown has no end. I took a break for a while. I ran out of bananas. Then I remembered to buy some more, but the store had only green bananas, so I had to wait for them to ripen to the proper blackness of peel, then freeze them. And thaw them and cook them into bread. The last batch I made, #14, was what you'd expect to find during the depression. Nutritious (with oatmeal!), solid and filling, but not particularly delicious. It's the farmhand's banana bread. I ate a slice for breakfast and was full up until late afternoon, on a day when I worked up an appetite. Had I eaten it on a day where I lounged in the hammock all afternoon, why, I probably could have gone to bed without dinner.

Dinner last night: leftovers; zucchini
Dinner tonight: sloppy Joes, fries

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I dreamed about banana bread with parsley last night. I also dreamed that I really want to watch Scary Movie. I sorta understand about the banana bread. I'm still in the Snackdown and made a new recipe yesterday. It didn't have parsley in it. Nor do any of my recipes, probably because that would be gross. I don't know about the movie, unless I saw an ad for Scary Movie 19, or whichever sequel they're on now. If that's it, that's scary how insidious an advertisement can be, invading dreams, whispering softly, "Watch me. You'll love this movie. All the popular kids have already seen it. You don't want to be left out, do you?"

I finished reading Home Land. The idea behind it was great: loser writes updates for his high school alumni newsletter. The style was a bit unbecoming, a bit too ADD in parts, too ingratiating in other parts. All in all, enjoyable, but it doesn't quite fulfill it's potential. Kind of like the main character. I also read Holes. That was a super-quick read. I read it all yesterday, in three sittings. That one I really liked. I forget that young adult novels include more than The Babysitter's Club or Sweet Valley High. There have been several young adult novels that I've really liked, such as The Giver and Sophie's World. And now, Holes. And now that I've read the book, I can watch the movie!

Banana Bread #12, Best Banana Bread
From www.banana.com. This recipe is OK. Definitely not the best. It is rather moist, which is good, but not very sweet, which is bad. I could add more sugar, I suppose, but I don't think it's worth it. There have already been several other recipes that are far superior to this one.

Dinner last night: Apple-Cranberry Chicken Salad, purple artichokes

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Banana Bread #11, Cranberry Banana Bread
Recipe source unknown. This banana bread uses baking powder, instead of the usual baking soda. It also uses applesauce, fat-free milk and egg substitute to make it low-fat. It is mixed in one bowl, making for an easy cleanup. The inside is lighter than most traditional banana breads, but the outside has a nice brown crust. The banana flavor is mild; I might add another banana next time I make it. The dried cranberries add a sweet-tart flavor that is rather nice. Gentleman Caller ranks this one in the top three. I agree that it's a keeper.

And, to change the subject away from the snackdown, I came up with another way to make people feel uncomfortable. Mispronounce words. One in every sentence. Or maybe just proper nouns. Try it.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks to you guys, I have an interesting array of summer reading. I walked to the library yesterday and checked on the availability of the books you've suggested. The library has all of them, but most were checked out. I came home with The Bridge on the Drina and The Secret Life of Bees. Yesterday I settled down into the hammock and started reading The Bridge on the Drina. The warm sun and the distant drone of lawnmowers lulled me into a nap, but I also managed to read the first several chapters. I had expected something akin to The Bridge of San Luis Rey, but it isn't like that at all. In fact, it's quite gruesome at points. I love it.

Dinner last night: gnocchi with peas in a brown butter-sage sauce; Polish kielbasa

Banana Bread #10, Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze
Recipe from Cooking Light. As you can guess from the title, this banana bread has coconut in it, and a lime-coconut glaze. What you might not guess is that there is also dark rum in the recipe. The bread has a good appearance and texture; flavor is coconut-sweet and lime-tangy. An interesting bread that is good but not great. I keep knocking recipes out of the competition one after the other. Only 19 more recipes left. That's right. Nineteen.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Things I learned at the dentist:
1) I am a drooler. The dentist had to take an impression of my teeth to fit me for a crown (that tooth will be King and Supreme Ruler of my mouth) and while the trays were in my mouth, I drooled buckets. My bib was soaking wet and drool slipped underneath the bib and ran down my chest. And that was just on the first tray. I challenge anyone to a drool-off.

2) I have a lazy ligament in my jaw. Ol' Lazyface. I told my dentist that my jaw had been crackling and popping for about a month. Nothing painful, but I wanted to see what he thought of it. He ran me through some rather awkward jaw exercises and determined that I have a lazy ligament that doesn't return my jaw back to its proper position. Neat! Nothing can be done until it gets worse.

3) Cookies make friends. During the Chocolate Chip Cookie Snackdown, I took a batch or two to my dentist and his staff. That's what they remember about me, and whisper loving things about the cookies into my ear as they clean my teeth and drill around in my mouth. I'll take a batch of the winning cookie when I return on Monday for part one of crowning the Supreme Ruler of Teeth. I want to make sure my dentist and his staff are on my side, just in case it should ever come to war between humans and their teeth.

Dinner last night: polish kielbasa; broccoli & cauliflower gratin
Dinner tonight: some fancy get-together at Gentleman Caller's boss's house

Oh yeah, and I made another batch of banana bread:
Banana Bread #9, Banana Orange Bread
Recipe source unknown. This bread has no fat; it uses orange juice concentrate in place of oil or butter. This makes it really dry. It also uses both baking powder and baking soda (just soda is usual). And calls for raisins and pumpkin pie spice. There are just too many things going on, too many flavors, and though there are two bananas in the loaf, you can't taste them at all. It tastes spicy, bitter-orangy and sweet-raisiny. And it looks weird too. The top crust is smooth, hard and shiny, like some sort of baked exoskeleton. Not appealing. This is the worst recipe so far.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today was colder and overcast, so I stayed inside all day. It's a difficult transition from spending most of my time outdoors to sequestering myself inside, which is my usual m.o. But I got so much accomplished today! I highlighted my hair (subtle this time; no disasters), made a tuna salad for Gentleman Caller's lunch, watched an episode of The Sopranos, cleaned the kitchen, washed some towels, did my taxes and made another loaf of banana bread.

Banana Bread #8, Classic Banana Bread
Recipe from Cooking Light. Now this is what I call banana bread. No special ingredients to confuse the palate or detract from the simple goodness of classic banana bread. This loaf has a dark brown chewy crust and a golden interior that is moist and springy. So soft and delicious. This one moves to the top of the list, joining Blueberry Banana Bread (#3) and Cream-Cheese Banana-Nut Bread (#1) as the leading contenders.

Dinner tonight: Chicken Divan

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm back from Spring Break Cancun! As you can see, I've posted entries from my vacation. It's always so difficult to return after a vacation, but mid-MO is warm and balmy right now, so the transition wasn't too traumatic. Last time I went to Mexico was in January (with Black Cake and Red Meat). We returned to cold and snow. I was sick for about a week. And we looked so strange, with nice suntans in the middle of January. I told people I spent my Christmas vacation in a tanning bed. Anyway, with no pool outside, I don't know what to do with my days. I don't want to hang out inside all day. Yesterday, Gentleman Caller and I played disc golf. Today we walked downtown for lunch. My big plans for today are to go to the grocery store and to get out my warmer weather clothes and pack up my winter sweaters. Big fun.

Something I'm discovering about myself is that I like structure. I often balk at rules and restrictions, unless they are self-imposed. So, I'm declaring April to be healthy eating month. Now that my cupboards have been stripped of almost all junky food and decadent treats, it will be pretty easy to change eating habits. On vacation, I read a slow food magazine and some magazines I picked up at Whole Foods, so I'm gung-ho for simply prepared fresh foods. No deep fryers or processed snacks for me! I'm not so good at outright denial, though, so I'm allowing myself to eat whatever I want on Sunday. Today, that meant a grilled ham and Swiss on rye with fries for lunch.

The Banana Bread Snackdown will continue. I took two loaves of banana bread to Cancun. Here are the results:
Banana Bread #6, Polka Dot Banana Bread
Recipe source unknown. The recipe called for half whole-wheat flour and half white all-purpose flour. The wheat flour didn't significantly alter the taste, but did make it a bit healthier. The recipe also called for yogurt to cut down on the amount of butter, another healthy change. I omitted the nuts. The "polka dot" in the title refers to the addition of mini chocolate chips. The bread was definitely good, but not superb.

Banana Bread #7, Cardamom Banana Bread with Pistachios
Recipe from Cooking Light. I'm a big fan of both cardamom and pistachios, but both were too subtle. A waste of both. I would either have to increase both significantly, or just eat the pistachios and save the cardamom for a different application. I'm leaning toward the latter.

Dinner last night: Garlic and Indian-spiced roasted chicken; corn on the cob; oven baked potato wedges

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I get terribly lonely when Gentleman Caller is out of town. This always surprises me, because I covet quiet time and enjoy being alone. Unlimited quiet time, however, gets lonely. I prefer to be the one to take trips, not to be the one left behind. I'm pretending to be on vacation, which means I'm going to sleep in the guest room and use tiny bottles of shampoo and a mini tube of toothpaste. I spent the day cleaning the house, watching tv and reading Russian literature (Virgin Soil by Ivan Turgenev). I also made a curtain out of old CDs; I hung it on the porch. Feeling a need to stand up and move around, I made another batch of banana bread, currently baking in the oven.

Here's an off-subject question for you: What's your favorite book? Like some people who stare into a closet full of clothes and despair of having nothing to wear, I look at my rather-lengthy booklist and find nothing that looks particularly interesting. I go through reading phases and add copious titles to my booklist according to my current phase. I have lots of suggestions for books about economics, the media, voluntary simplicity, utopian societies, Russian literature, politics (or, rather anti-politics) and food; however, I'm currently not in any of those phases. On Blue Grilled Cheese's suggestion, I bought The Awakening to take to the beach, but am accepting nominations for titles to be added to the book list.

P.S. 6:45ish, Banana Bread Results
Banana Bread #6, Polka Dot Banana Bread
Recipe source unknown. This banana bread uses an equal amount of whole-wheat flour and all-purpose flour, as well as an equal amount of melted butter and plain nonfat yogurt. Also mini chocolate chips star as the "polka dots." I omitted the nuts. This recipe made a rather small loaf with big banana flavor. It is really moist with evenly distributed chocolate chips adding little gooey pockets to the moist banana bread. The use of whole-wheat flour doesn't significantly alter the flavor, but does make it a bit healthier, as does the use of nonfat plain yogurt. There isn't much sugar, but the chocolate chips sweeten it nicely. This is a good banana bread. The best? Probably not.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 05:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Old Blue Artichoke
Went to the cupboard
To get her poor hubby a snack,
When she got there
The cupboard was bare
So the poor little hubby had none.

Doesn't have quite the same charm, but is almost true. I made a lasagna today that used up lots of little tidbits: chicken tenders, jar of basil pesto, tub of cream cheese, bag of frozen mozzarella cheese, box of lasagna noodles and some homemade marinara (I still have some marinara left). Woo-whee! I love using things up; I get a rush of satisfaction and self-righteousness. Gentleman Caller, on the other hand, looks into the bare cupboards with despair. No options! All that food and nothing to eat! I have, though, kept his part of the cupboard stocked with a variety of crackers, peanut butter, nuts and some rice cakes that have probably calcified into stone by now. I am, however, to the point where I will soon need to buy a few ingredients to use up what I have left. For example, I have a jar of shredded ginger. I don't like ginger, but Gentleman Caller does. So, I'll make a Chinese chicken salad or an Asian tuna salad for him, but I'll have to buy chicken or tuna to do so. With a handful of new ingredients, I can can achieve bare pantrydom!

Banana Bread #5, Marbled-Chocolate Banana Bread
Recipe from Cooking Light. This is not a traditional banana bread, because you melt chocolate chips and stir the melted chocolate into half of the batter, then alternate dropping the batters into the loaf pan and swirl it all together with a knife. Great fun! And messy too! But the bread looks really nice, is moist and dense and tastes quite sweet. Toasted, with some peanut butter, turns breakfast into dessert.

Dinner last night: leftover maple-balsamic pork tenderloin and polenta
Dinner tonight: Slow Food Charcuterie party (details tomorrow)

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 05:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Banana Bread #4, Orange Banana-Nut Bread
Recipe from Cooking Light. Had all the usual ingredients, plus orange juice and grated orange rind. I omitted the nuts. The bread looks nice and rustic, with a dark brown crust and a deep crack in the top that shows off the golden brown interior. The orange flavor is mild; it is more pronounced when warm but takes a backseat as it cools. This is a perfectly acceptable banana bread. But in this battle, acceptable isn't good enough. Bye bye.

Dinner last night: Chinese take-out.
Dinner tonight: pork chops and potato salad

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've made quite a dent in my overflowing cupboards and freezer. Now there is room to see everything with minimal shuffling. Mostly I've been paring down the things we like to eat fairly often: leftovers, frozen vegetables, canned vegetables and so on. I defrosted a giant log of ground beef and made lots of meatballs (which I froze) and a classic ground beef lasagna. I combined all the various styles of canned tomatoes in the cupboard and made some marinara, which I froze in ice cube trays and put in a baggie (and used in the lasagna). We somehow managed to eat all the ice cream in the freezer. This is a tough undertaking. So, while I'm making room in the freezer, I'm still adding things to it. Today, I used a falafel mix that's been in the cupboard for a long time. Finally, I'm using up those things that sounded good at the time, but only languish in the dark recesses of the cupboard. I also had a jar of tahini, so I made some tahini sauce to go with the falafel. Now I have to find something to do with the rest of the open bottle of tahini. Any suggestions?

I also made another loaf of banana bread:
Banana Bread #3, Blueberry Banana Bread
This recipe is from Taste of Home, and is a more traditional banana bread than the first competitor (which was more desserty, like a banana pound cake). It had a golden center flecked with banana threads, and a thick, dark (but not burned) crust. The flavor was sweet with a pronounced banana flavor. The blueberries were a nice addition, adding some moisture and sweetness, but the bread could easily stand alone. This is a really good banana bread.

Dinner last night: Spice-rubbed pork chops with mango-lime salsa; oven-baked potatoes and onions
Dinner tonight: falafel salad with tahini dressing

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 08:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Snackdown Banana Bread competition transcends all loyalties and pits grandmother against grandmother in a no holds barred, spit-out-your-teeth-and-throw-another-elbow battle. You know that my grandmother's recipe is the standard against all other recipes are competing. The second competitor is a recipe from my other grandmother. Here's how it fared:

Banana Bread #2, Banana Oat Pecan Bread
This recipe uses corn oil; I subbed canola because it is healthier. I also omitted the nuts, because I don't really like nutty bread. It included oats, which gave it a rough texture, but still rather moist. The biggest drawback to the recipe was the lack of sweetness and a slight bitterness, perhaps from the baking powder. Sorry Granny, but this recipe suffered some career-ending blows.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Frozen ripe bananas have black skins and a more pronounced banana flavor than do fresh ripe ones. So I usually have a few bananas in my freezer, chilling out (pun intended) and waiting to be made into banana bread. I always use the same recipe for banana bread. It is my grandmother's recipe that was passed along to my mom, and then to me. My mom made a few alterations to the recipe and I have made further changes. It's pretty close to perfect. But still I keep collecting recipes for banana bread, thinking that maybe I'll find something even better. There could be a gem, but I'd never know because I never stray. Until now. I have around 20 recipes that I'll test over the course of the next few months to see if any can rival my grandmother's. The Ultimate Snackdown Banana Bread Battle has begun!

First up: Cream Cheese-Banana-Nut Bread:
The recipe is from the Southern Living Cooking School 2005. I omitted the nuts. Sometimes I like nutty banana bread, but usually I don't. The bread has to be good on its own. I used 3 bananas from my freezer and fat-free cream cheese. The result was a very thick batter that baked into a golden brown loaf with a nice thick crust and a moist crumb. The addition of cream cheese made the loaf rather dense, like a pound cake. The flavor is delicately sweet and, because the bananas were stirred instead of beaten into the batter, there are chunks of banana throughout the bread. A mighty fine start, I must say. This banana bread is really, really good. Like sneak to the fridge in the middle of the night good.

Dinner last night: leftover beef & noodle casserole; green beans
Dinner tonight: ?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 04:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)