Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Today I am going to do something I very, very rarely do: attempt baking.
The reason for this is that last week I for some reason succumbed to the desire to buy a very small bunch of organic bananas from Loblaws. As I've mentioned elsewhere (with regard to my mosquito woes) I rarely eat bananas, but in this case figured I might as well because I could not possibly be any more attractive to mosquitoes than I already am. But they were not altogether ripe when I bought them, and ended up just starting to ripen when I left town -- and of course, being overripe when I got back.
It didn't seem right to just compost them, and there is only one other thing to do with overripe bananas: bake.
I found a recipe online for a fairly healthy-sounding banana bread* that did not use anything I did not already have, apart from flour which I really ought to have, so I got some flour yesterday. The bananas are in the fridge, in an effort to stop them from getting any more overripe than they already are. I do not have anything like a bread pan, though, so I will have to use my square pan and maybe just bake them for less time.
Now, baking and I have not always gotten along well. I attempt it rarely, and when I do, it doesn't always work out. I have, for example, attempted to make my grandmother's blonde brownie recipe several times and it has never worked -- they always seem to get overdone at the outer edges before getting anywhere near done in the middle. But we shall see... I am in general more domestically-inclined these days than I used to be, partly as a result of shifting my grocery-buying habits toward more fresh veggies and less convenience food, so I suppose baking is the next logical frontier.
And if it doesn't work out, I can always make an entertaining story our of it for failed_recipe.
* That site that recipe is on, Post-Punk Kitchen, seems pretty cool. I really need to get the cookbook they're flogging, The Veganomicon, if only for the name and the claim that it will swallow your soul. Who couldn't fall for a marketing pitch like that?
The reason for this is that last week I for some reason succumbed to the desire to buy a very small bunch of organic bananas from Loblaws. As I've mentioned elsewhere (with regard to my mosquito woes) I rarely eat bananas, but in this case figured I might as well because I could not possibly be any more attractive to mosquitoes than I already am. But they were not altogether ripe when I bought them, and ended up just starting to ripen when I left town -- and of course, being overripe when I got back.
It didn't seem right to just compost them, and there is only one other thing to do with overripe bananas: bake.
I found a recipe online for a fairly healthy-sounding banana bread* that did not use anything I did not already have, apart from flour which I really ought to have, so I got some flour yesterday. The bananas are in the fridge, in an effort to stop them from getting any more overripe than they already are. I do not have anything like a bread pan, though, so I will have to use my square pan and maybe just bake them for less time.
Now, baking and I have not always gotten along well. I attempt it rarely, and when I do, it doesn't always work out. I have, for example, attempted to make my grandmother's blonde brownie recipe several times and it has never worked -- they always seem to get overdone at the outer edges before getting anywhere near done in the middle. But we shall see... I am in general more domestically-inclined these days than I used to be, partly as a result of shifting my grocery-buying habits toward more fresh veggies and less convenience food, so I suppose baking is the next logical frontier.
And if it doesn't work out, I can always make an entertaining story our of it for failed_recipe.
* That site that recipe is on, Post-Punk Kitchen, seems pretty cool. I really need to get the cookbook they're flogging, The Veganomicon, if only for the name and the claim that it will swallow your soul. Who couldn't fall for a marketing pitch like that?