Have you ever started out with what seemed like a good plan, what might even be thought of as a delicious plan, and then had it linger on a little too long without completion? So long, in fact, that you are forced to consider that maybe the plan wasn’t quite thought through properly in the first place, that maybe you hadn’t considered all the consequences? So very long past any hope of actually achieving what you set out to do that it starts to smell a little odd, to appear discolored, to get all soft and mushy but still, against all reason, you just can't bring yourself to let go?
Of course you have. It isn’t a secret; everyone knows, and you don’t have to be ashamed.
You aren’t alone, we’ve all had it happen at least once in our lives, and there is hope. You don’t have to cling, bitter and weeping, while little flies start to gather and circle the slowly corrupting remnants of your decomposing dream; come with me, let me show you how to get past the grief.
When Bananas Go Bad,
make banana bread!
Ingredients
½ cup butter
¾ cup brown sugar
2 – 2 ½ cups ripe bananas
2 medium to large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp ginger
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
½ cup sour cream
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
Preparation
Warm butter to soften. Place butter and sugar in a large bowl and blend until smooth.
Break bananas into pieces into the bowl. Crush the bananas and combine with the sugar-butter until uniform in color.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs until uniform in color; add to mixture.
Add baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices to the mixture; blend all until uniform in color.
Add extracts and sour cream to the mixture and blend just until reaching a uniform color; the mixture will foam, that’s a good thing.
In a separate clean bowl or a plastic bag, mix the two flours until uniform in color. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients. Slowly fold the flour into the mix just until uniformly moist. A little unblended flour is fine.
Do Not Overdo The Mixing; if the batter is beaten, or mixed too long, the bread will turn out too dense.
To intensify the flavor, let the batter stand for 20- 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350F. Position rack just below the middle of the oven.
Butter a 5x9 loaf pan, add batter. Spread batter to a uniform depth, working it into the corners and up against the walls.
Bake for 60-65 minutes.
Test for doneness with a toothpick, trying at least two places until it comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes on a rack.
Remove from pan and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes or until comfortable to the touch.
The fractured top is a feature, not a bug.
There is hope, for those who are audacious enough to embrace a change in plans.
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Comments
To get bananas, sometimes it's time to move swiftly to fix
Got me wondering how that delicious fruit gets to my sparkly market where everything looks so perfect and yummy.
A bit of a downer to learn the anguished choices banana farmers must make so we fortunate ones may enjoy our bread. I'm sure it would taste even better if we just look away from information like this:
When insects infest the banana crop
I was thinking about that same issue...
... when I was looking at my garden and preparing to whine about my tomatos. What if my life depended on that garden?
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
My comment*
*Also a riff.
The bugs will get us all, in the end
Meanwhile, still kicking and not at all ready to give up the fight. There are creepy crawlies attacking the roots, yes there are. Some ope and brutal discussion needs to be had, so we can sort out waht to do before the whoe enterprise dies off.
Thanks, Bo; made me stop and think.
And THEN we make banana bread with whatever we're dealt with
Sounds like a plan!
Glad at least somebody understands me around here. Next step, you'll be agreeing with me.
Let's both be careful about that, shall we Bo?
Overt agreement, I mean. You, for one, have a valuable reputation to uphold.
Serially, I don't know what else to do right now. Not going to just quit, not going to support or encourage or enable Republicans, absolutely not; nothing for it but to take the big steaming pile of crap that's being offered by the Democrats and figure out how to turn it into fertilizer, make my garden grow.
Cockney?
'Ope?
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Spasticity, not Cockney
Should have been "open", as in "open and brutal discussion".
Moving day yesterday for eldest daughter and grandson. Today, the morning after a solid 14 hours of lift and tote, my joints are not as fluid as usual. Where usual is stiff as a board.
Among the many reasons I loath the threaded reply format is this inability to go back and correct typos after a reply has been made. There is good reason, of course, to keep the essence and even the style of a post or comment in its original form; a very, very bad idea for an author to put something up and then pull it down or alter it substantially, destroying the character of the original. However badly considered, the worst post is better kept up and intact and let the comments section straighten it out, including any author retractions or corrections.
Good thing nothing like an author taking down an ill-considered post ever happens here. On the other hand, I wouldn't mind the ability to correct spelling and word-order errors. Once again, I suppose, can't have it all.
Is this a squishy fix?
Haw.
Not that I'm obsessed with blogospheric minutiae, or with settling scores.
And thanks for the brilliant riff, bio.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
It is all about the clicks
Can't see the "# of reads" meter on Corrente, but I'm guessing more than one of my fans clicked Read More in anticipation of another outrage only to be confronted by simple sweetness.
Or was it?
I, too, have no interest in settling scores. (Said calmly, while slowly drawing the fillet knife across the whetstone.)
flashing knives... oiled stones...
yo. sweetie.
banana bread, the only thing bananas are good for. i deliberately go to the store and buy over-ripe bananas, just to make them into bread. immediately. won't give them houseroom otherwise. and yeah, cracked is a feature, not a bug.
their cousins now, different story. mofongo, tostones, mmmm; fufu de platano i've not tried yet but it's fun to say.
Hipparchia!
Glad you're back.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
The only thing bananas are good for?
You have led a sheltered life, haven't you?
Hey, sweetie! Good to have you back. Understand there's a story to be told, close call with Thor's Wrath sort of thing. Expect full details, especially what you've been doing to attract lightening. Spare no detail.
anything a banana can do
something else can do better. and with better taste. zucchini bread beats banana bread any day of the week, especially if you toss a couple handfuls of chocolate chips into the batter.
thor. thor was but a mere coda. like you, and the dnc, and the rbc, the god/dess/e/s hate/s floridians generically, and rain thunderbolts down upon us randomly, a veritable orgy of celestial whack-a-mole, if you will.
double post
.
Thank you Bio
Helpful pics too!
I can almost smell how good it is.
toss bad bananas in the freezer
if you can't or don't have time to make the bread, that's another i do when mine go bad. BIO is 100% correct, nanabread is a great solution to the problem of food gone bad and it do smell wonderful. i reccomend keeping it in the fridge tho, after you've baked it and enjoyed the first, warm slice. it tends to set mold much quicker than other kinds of bread and there's no fix when that happens.
i've read, but not verified, that we're the last generation to enjoy bananas. what i read was that the corporations who control the production and distribution/sale of bananas have wittled down the genetic component, of course to maximize growth and regulate flavor, but done so in such a way as to make a vast majority of banana plants sterile. so when they die, bananas are gone forever. i really hope that's not true. my nephew and nieces all really love banana and i'd like to see them feeding their own children some one day.
Frozen bananas
Do you peel them first, or just chuck the whole rotting mess in with the ice cubes and that single pork chop you meant to reheat last March but never got around to doing and now is covered with a thick coat of crunchy frost?
The reason banana bread goes moldy is because it doesn't get eaten fast enough. Made this loaf for my mother, she had the neighbor ladies over and it is half gone already. Sister and brother-in-law will be up for a stay this weekend and that will be the end of it.
I got one measly slice, and will now have to wait until the next time Mum overestimates her appetite for bananas to get another chance. Bringing joy to other people, blah blah blah; vicarious thrills are vastly overrated.
Lambert, I believe the correct spelling is "tomatoes" and feel
free to whine about them. You've given them some of the best moments of your life and they've "turned" on you. I'm very pleased with my sad, lonely little tomato plant. Much like the Charlie Brown's christmas tree, my slender tomato plant barely holds up the three prizes. I'll eat them gladly and look forward to next year's yield.
I love this job!
I love this job!
Another headline misspelling
Gainesville Sun needed an e after "Gain" a few posts back. I didn't say anything about tomatoes because I didn't know if it's better to draw attention to typos or not. Lambert?
Sure, why not?
Good quality is good.
That said, if it's not caught right away, it's hard to change, since the URL is based on the title, correctly spelled or not.
So, if you catch it right away, I'd call it out in the subject line so it shows up in the sidebar; otherwise, leave in the body.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
don't worry about bananas, be happy!
"...a vast majority of banana plants sterile. so when they die, bananas are gone forever."
Kinda true, kinda not. Navel oranges are sterile too. Farmers have to produce new banana plants all the time to replace old ones; being sterile in some plants increases a crop of what we want--banana flesh (no seeds, see), ditto for oranges, etc., seedless watermelons...All the farms have the ability to produce new banana plants, it's part of what they have to do as growers. They can do T/C (see below.) And suckers, and in oranges trees grafts, etc. It's all actually very interesting.
Bananas are a very successful world wide crop and will continue to propagate themselves, even without seeds for every plant, through humans for a long time. No worries, okay except for this, but hopefully even that would be post-banana bread.
Here's a nice article on African bananas that discusses some of the techniques. I love the intercropping of vanilla orchid vines and bananas--yum!
My banana quote was made up
It was an allegory of partisan politics. Like BIO's post.
We need to work on our cues...
I read it as well; I'm under great RL pressure, and my sense of irony is not what it could be, and I'm sure others are in the same boat. Now, if the source were, say, "Juan Valdez..."
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
The Farmer Quote? Really?
Ha ha ha ha.
Can't hear the laugh from here
So can't tell if your ha-has are sarcastic.
But yeah, the farmer saving his crop for insects quote was fake. Thus no link.
Bo, really funny
My ha-ha's are never sarcastic, seriously. (Somehow that sounds funny...?...but I mean it.)
I appreciate the fake source humor a lot especially in view of linky goodness.
Yay!
Thanks, TP!
Bio
thanks for the intro...poetic.
the path from there to here
no banana discussion is complete with a link like this:
http://www.theunapologeticmexican.org/im...
___________________________
.delusions of un mundo mejor.
___________________________
.delusions of un mundo mejor.
Nezua, friend! /waves/ and you're right
such must always be brought to the fore in any discussion of those gloriously phallic fruits.
Banana you glad to see me?
In somewhat answer to CD, this from Wikipedia:
"While in no danger of outright extinction, the most common edible banana cultivar 'Cavendish' (extremely popular in Europe and the Americas) could become unviable for large-scale cultivation in the next 10-20 years. Its predecessor 'Gros Michel', discovered in the 1820s, has already suffered this fate. Like almost all bananas, it lacks genetic diversity, which makes it vulnerable to diseases, which threaten both commercial cultivation and the small-scale subsistence farming.[15][16] Some commentators have further remarked that those variants which could replace what much of the world considers a "typical banana" are so different that most people would not consider them the same fruit, and blame the decline of the banana on monogenetic cultivation driven by short-term commercial exploitation motives.[14]"
Apparently the Gros Michel was a MUCH more flavorful fruit than the more bland Cavendish. So we already missed out on that one.
It's more wrapped up in the United Fruit Companies current and historic actions across the globe to create banana monocultures than Wiki can describe (wouldn't want to offend UFC, now called Chiquita).
-----------------------------
Around these parts we call cucumber slices circle bites
-----------------------------
Around these parts we call cucumber slices circle bites
Reports of the banana’s demise
are greatly exaggerated.
If more flavor is what you’re after, go for the plantains. Maduros sliced lengthwise, fried in a little butter then sprinkled with brown sugar and topped with fresh vanilla ice cream or vanilla-flavored fresh whipped cream, they are spectacular. Also good cut into chunks, then rolled in tempura batter and deep-fried; serve with a generous sprinkle of powdered sugar.
You're just trying to get me into trouble
and we can't have that, especialy now that I'm so widely admired.
Why does everyone hate moles? Wee, soft furry creatures, wouldn't hurt a soul unless you're a slug or a snail or a grub.
wee, soft furry creatures
now you're just trying to distract me. i've still got my heart set on bats, y'know. you're not going to make me tell you my bat story, are you? [it's not anywhere near as good as my dog story]
oh well, you were probably talking about baseball bats [not that those aren't handy as weapons] or cricket bats or
Bats
the science is not cooperating; hate it when that happens. Bats as in the belfrey.
drat
i've always liked the little critters.