Spice Island Banana Bread

spice island banana bread

When Leigh offered up some fresh dates she got from a customer at the store (thanks!!!) I knew exactly what I’d make. This is the Spice Island Banana Bread from Passionate Vegetarian. The vegan option, of course. I’ve never used fresh dates when making this. They left these moist little date bombs throughout the bread. Even after baking 55 minutes, I was wondering if it still wasn’t quite done. But I couldn’t let the outside brown anymore than it had. I think part of the problem is that I of course hacked into it shortly after it came out of the oven. Hey, I was hungry! The second piece I cut (hey, it’s dinner!) was a little drier so I think it’s fine.

In other news, I’m now pretty well convinced that my super power is getting a crazy amount of shit home in my car. Today I got a kitchen cart, a fold-out sofa bed, mattress, cover, two side tables, an area rug, 2 curtain rods, two bags of miscellaneous stuff, a bag from the liquor store, 2 gallons of paint and another bag of stuff from Lowe’s into my car and/or hanging slightly or even a lot outside of it. The key is to never go anywhere without tie downs.  Fuck, now I guess I have to paint the 2nd bedroom and put together all this shit. I feel really, really tired all of a sudden…

Time To Bundt

Look what I found at Ross for $15:

cathedral bundt pan

Yep, this the cast aluminum fancy one that normally sells for $25+. Especially nice since I didn’t have a bundt pan and need one. Well, needed one in the way that I need to have a big ol’ cake sitting around my house, which is not at all. But still, I can’t wait to try it out. Watch this space for future experiments in cake building.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

See, some people had a huge meal Thanksgiving Day. Other people, like me, ate normal amounts on T-day and use the extra time off to cook some of those time consuming items that don’t fit well into our daily lives when what we really should be doing is cleaning the house. Anyway, today’s decadence was the Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls from Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk issue #2.

I think the last cinnamon roll I had was a couple of years ago when I was in Washington D.C. and made multiple trips to Sticky Fingers Bakery.  These were worth the long wait. And the prep time. I even held off on the morning coffee just so I could have the two together. The only problem I had is one that I always  have…the rising. I’m not sure if I’m looking for something more dramatic than is going to happen or what, but whenever recipes say something is going to double in bulk, I just don’t see it. Judging from pics from other bloggers who have made these, I think I am short a little bit of rising, but they didn’t seem to turn out dense, so I think they’re fine. The pumpkin flavor was really subtle and seemed to add color more than flavor. Hmm…now that I’ve put down 3, I should work them off by cleaning the house.

Before glaze

pumpkin cinnamon rolls

After glaze

pumpkin cinnnamon rolls glazed

Banana Nut Muffins

I ordered both issues of Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk cookzine a couple of weeks ago and finally this weekend got around to making one of the recipes. I had some gushy bananas waiting for me when I returned from Virginia, so the Banana Nut Muffins were a perfect choice. She’s right…these are wonderfully moist and I love the topping. I used walnuts instead of pecans because it’s what I had but you all probably know that walnuts & bananas love each other. Oh, and you can’t taste the flax seeds in these at all. So you can pretend they’re all healthy and shit. You know, looking back at the recipe, they actually are a bit healthier than most muffin recipes. Bonus!

banana nut muffins

You know how you have a couple of muffin’s worth of batter left but don’t want to bake another whole pan for just a couple of muffins? I have these mini ceramic cups I use for mise en place, sauces, etc. I just plop the excess in those and bake along side the rest. The ceramic is a little slower to warm in the oven than the metal pan, so their doneness will be slightly different from the big batch. But I’ve also found if you take them out at about the same time, since the ceramic holds heat, they will continue to cook a little and “catch up” to the rest of the muffins.

single banana nut muffin

See that black spot in the second photo? I’ve started getting these on some, but not all, of my photos with this camera. I’ve tried cleaning the lens, but that hasn’t helped. My digital camera is 3+ years old. Maybe it’s time to break down and get a new one.