Banana Bread

Bananas. I found a whole bunch of organic bananas for 50 cents/pound and could not resist. Banana bread was their future, as well as the freezer. And let me tell you, this recipe is hands down the best I have ever had. I am never really satisfied with my baking, there is always something to adjust, but I messed around with some recipes and came up with this one. It is a winner. When I make banana bread I add nuts, either pecans or walnuts and if the mood strikes, chocolate chips. Although that is very rare. Not a huge fan of chocolate chip laden foods. It has to be either full blown chocolate, or none at all... usually. This bread is really the base.

My Banana Bread.

2 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
4 medium bananas (1 1/3 cups mashed)
1/3 cup whole milk
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 Tbsp melted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325 f. Butter and lightly flour loaf pan.
In a large bowl, mix together eggs and sugars. Add mashed bananas, milk, vanilla and melted butter. Add white and whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined. Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Let rest 10 minutes, then remove from pan to cooling rack.

Enjoy!

In the last two days.

Hello. It has been a long stretch of time since I have posted. I have tried many times to post pictures but It took to long for them to load, I became frustrated and went on to other projects. So as I was sitting in bed at 3:30 this morning ( I woke hungry and needed a piece of cake) I decided that I would just write about my cooking and projects, and the pictures will come later.
I have been busy. I tried my hand making a sachertorte yesturday, this was a long time coming ( http://www.gastronomersguide.com/2009/05/sachertorte.html) a friend requested it for Easter, but I made cupcakes instead. It seemed too daunting a task to be made for a group I was still quite shy around. Delicious, especially at 3:30am. There are a few tweeks here and there that I will do when I make it again. I really like trying to perfect a recipe. I have spent days making a peticular dish or dessert over and over, hopefully improving it with time and experience.
I went to the farmers market on sunday and picked up some young zucchini and a glorious bunch of purple kale. Last night, I made dinner for katrina and jenn. I have fond memories of this hardy meal, sitting in the cafe after close with nathan and alistair, digging into it with our fingers and a fork ( and cold beer of course). It is a one pan meal of sausages from oyama, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, olive oil and salt and pepper. After all those flavours marry together, you soak up the juices with handfuls of crusty bread. It is surly one of my favorite comfort foods. simple and full of good memories. Like comfort food should be.
Tuesdays being my usual day off, I woke up, put on some music, made some coffee, and started looking for recipes to fill my day. I was lucky enough to find some beautifully spotted bananas on the counter and still having some zucchinis, I made a bread out of the two. It is still cooling on the counter, so I can not comment on the flavour, but the smell that fills my house is very promising.
Oh and there is more... I have been looking for different ways to use my sourdough starters ( I have one apple starter and one "regular" starter that I have been feeding and using for months) other than the usual suspect, bread, and I found a recipe for pancakes. You use one cup of starter for them, and they turned out alright. Needs some tweeking ;) But there seem to be an abundance of different starters. You can essencially make a starter out of any fruit that will ferment. My next project is a potato starter. Yum, potato bread...

chicks and snakes

Okay, I have two chicks. I have had them for a week now and am starting to loose my mind. If I have another sleepless night from their constant chirping, I'm going to loose it. snap. They are terribly cute, and If I hold out a few weeks longer, they will find a nice home in Richmond...
And holy shit! Midge laid 12 eggs. I did not see this coming. I just thought she was a really big girl. haha. She is a very protective mother, as she coiled and hissed as I removed the lone egg she disregarded. I opened that egg, curiosity got the best of me and I really wanted to know if the eggs were fertilized. Turns out they are and I will be expecting 10-11 baby snakes in 50-60 days. If anyone is interested in having one, feel free to contact me about it...
This is moments before I cut it in half. I definitly cringed apon seeing the yogurt-like fluid come spilling out. There was a little snake fetus inside, probably the size of a nickle. The shell was not soft and not hard, more like leather, and the dents in the egg are from lack of humidity. crazy.