Friday, January 12, 2007
Come one, come all...
...I've found my definitive, signature recipe for banana bread, and it's here. If you have ever appreciated banana bread, above and beyond bananas, this is the recipe for which you've been looking.
Oops. Didn't mean to publish quite so quickly. I must be drunk on the wine in the banana bread. Anyway, it's damned good. Easy. And, at 6,000' elevation, fool proof, it seems.
This is a small triumph for me because banana bread and our family go way back, to Guam, when the born into family was in it's prime and lived in a house with a banana swamp on the west side. I have fond memories of MCS's banana bread, which I don't think I've ever duplicated. I think all of us sisters have made it. I'm not sure, but I think MCS made the original loaf. That remains one of my primary fond food memories, but it was made in the era when no one thought to use whole wheat flour or to get rid of the milk (or water, or whatever) and increase the bananas. Brown sugar was a little more popular, primarily because Toll House Cookies called for it, but no one would have considered using only brown sugar, back then.
I was familiar with a sweetening method used by more traditional cooks, though, indigenous to supplies of sugar cane, I imagine of which Guam was: Getting a piece of cane, stripping off the hull and standing (or floating, depending on the size) the stripped cane in heated liquid to sweeten it, the length of time determined by the amount of sweetness desired.
I never used this method. I'm sure MCS also didn't, although she probably knows about it, too. It was a popular way for sweetening home made teriyaki marinade.
So, anyway, I've had two pieces of this bread. Robust banana flavor, to say the least. My mother will probably swoon over it and forget to eat her bacon and egg until last. I will, of course, toast and butter (margarine) her piece and sprinkle Vietnamese Cinnamon (the so called "red hot" kind) on her.
I've begun a new label index, and labeling method, as it turns out, for this journal. It coalesces the labeling scheme I had cooked up over the last couple of years for the journals and the new labeling technique available to me through Blogger No Longer Beta. I like the results of combining the two. The third category, and even the second, for that matter, might be better served with dynamically updated, drop down menus, but that's where I got into trouble, before, so I'm taking neither the long nor the short, but the medium length route home on this one. Setting it up was a little on the tedious side, so I'll probably not put any more entries in for some hours, possibly even a day or so. I think, looking at it and using it, especially the third column in the table, will explain its mechanics.
I will, of course, eventually, merge the two label indexes into one. It should be pretty automatic, but it may be awhile in the future. We'll see how it goes.
Not sure when I'm going to awaken Mom. No snow, yet. It's cold and gray out there, cool where I am in the living room, and cozy, cozy warm where Mom is, right now. Where would you rather be?
No snow, yet, although we had a short bout of sleet, driven by an unforgiving wind, so the ground and dead or hibernating fauna are now prepared to receive sticking snow. The clouds are looming. The wind is becoming confused, but is generally driving in from the west. I haven't seen the radar for awhile. I recall that the "Blowing Snow Advisory" mentioned much earlier this morning will take effect at noon today. Yet a half hour.
Hmmm. Well, I'm sure it will be a baking day. I'm not sure whether I'll wait or start without Mom. We'll see. I haven't yet peeked in on her, gauged her sleeping self this morning.
I think I'll head over and fill in stats and stuff for yesterday. If there is any change in our predicted weather, you know you'll know.
Later.
Oops. Didn't mean to publish quite so quickly. I must be drunk on the wine in the banana bread. Anyway, it's damned good. Easy. And, at 6,000' elevation, fool proof, it seems.
This is a small triumph for me because banana bread and our family go way back, to Guam, when the born into family was in it's prime and lived in a house with a banana swamp on the west side. I have fond memories of MCS's banana bread, which I don't think I've ever duplicated. I think all of us sisters have made it. I'm not sure, but I think MCS made the original loaf. That remains one of my primary fond food memories, but it was made in the era when no one thought to use whole wheat flour or to get rid of the milk (or water, or whatever) and increase the bananas. Brown sugar was a little more popular, primarily because Toll House Cookies called for it, but no one would have considered using only brown sugar, back then.
I was familiar with a sweetening method used by more traditional cooks, though, indigenous to supplies of sugar cane, I imagine of which Guam was: Getting a piece of cane, stripping off the hull and standing (or floating, depending on the size) the stripped cane in heated liquid to sweeten it, the length of time determined by the amount of sweetness desired.
I never used this method. I'm sure MCS also didn't, although she probably knows about it, too. It was a popular way for sweetening home made teriyaki marinade.
So, anyway, I've had two pieces of this bread. Robust banana flavor, to say the least. My mother will probably swoon over it and forget to eat her bacon and egg until last. I will, of course, toast and butter (margarine) her piece and sprinkle Vietnamese Cinnamon (the so called "red hot" kind) on her.
I've begun a new label index, and labeling method, as it turns out, for this journal. It coalesces the labeling scheme I had cooked up over the last couple of years for the journals and the new labeling technique available to me through Blogger No Longer Beta. I like the results of combining the two. The third category, and even the second, for that matter, might be better served with dynamically updated, drop down menus, but that's where I got into trouble, before, so I'm taking neither the long nor the short, but the medium length route home on this one. Setting it up was a little on the tedious side, so I'll probably not put any more entries in for some hours, possibly even a day or so. I think, looking at it and using it, especially the third column in the table, will explain its mechanics.
I will, of course, eventually, merge the two label indexes into one. It should be pretty automatic, but it may be awhile in the future. We'll see how it goes.
Not sure when I'm going to awaken Mom. No snow, yet. It's cold and gray out there, cool where I am in the living room, and cozy, cozy warm where Mom is, right now. Where would you rather be?
No snow, yet, although we had a short bout of sleet, driven by an unforgiving wind, so the ground and dead or hibernating fauna are now prepared to receive sticking snow. The clouds are looming. The wind is becoming confused, but is generally driving in from the west. I haven't seen the radar for awhile. I recall that the "Blowing Snow Advisory" mentioned much earlier this morning will take effect at noon today. Yet a half hour.
Hmmm. Well, I'm sure it will be a baking day. I'm not sure whether I'll wait or start without Mom. We'll see. I haven't yet peeked in on her, gauged her sleeping self this morning.
I think I'll head over and fill in stats and stuff for yesterday. If there is any change in our predicted weather, you know you'll know.
Later.
