Chocolate Banana Bread

One of the breads I absolutely love is banana bread. A warm banana bread and a cup of tea always make my day. I should make it more often, but sometimes I get lazy. I almost always will have over-ripped bananas that do not get eaten in time. I usually freeze them until I muster up enough energy to make Ackara (a W. African finger food that I will blog about soon). My kids will eat it all up in one sitting if I let them.

Today I wanted to jazz up the banana bread, so I added chocolate. BTW, most of my recipes I get from the Joy of Baking website. I just love the videos and that the recipes have been tested. Their instructions are precise and easy to follow. However, being the person I am, I almost always change something in it because I sometimes don't like to follow directions. ha ha..

I lessen the sugar from 1cup to 3/4cup and instead of using chocolate chips, I used 3 blocks bakers chocolate that I chopped up. I didn't have chocolate chips and figured this would work. Didn't have any nuts on hand, so I forgo that as well.


Ingredients



I like my bananas a bit lumpy

 

As I was prepping, my DH was watching Master Chef and of-course in true form he starting timing me while using his best British accent. If you know us, you will know that I had to play along. I started using my Afri-Itali accent and he shot this video.

One thing I always worry about is the banana settling in the bottom and it breaking when taking out of the pan. This time I must say it is perfection. I love it.

The finished bread. Looks, smells and tastes delicious. Even DH who doesn't like banana said it is goooood and chocolaty. Exactly what I wanted to hear.

PopOvers

Last year we took a trip to Arcadia and had a blast. Several times we tried going to Jordan's Pond for popovers, but nap times kept getting in the way. To solve our popover disappointment, we bought two package of their popover mix. Well it's being almost a year and I had yet to bake them. Why you may ask? Well I discovered that the pans are not so cheap. Finally remembered to ask one of my neighbors to borrow theirs.

The instructions are not too clear for someone who has never made popovers before, but I went with my best guess.

They suggest you refrigerate overnight, which is exactly what I did. I thought it would rise like bread, but it didn't.

Off to the oven they went. I was worried because it says to bake at 450 for 14mins, then for 15mins at 350.

 

 These babies look good, not bad for my first go around.

 Add some butter and enjoy. The kids had it with jelly

 Of course I had it with some tea. Yummy

Thai Green Curry Soup

I love Thai food, let me say it again I LOVE Thai food, my DH not so much. I did get him to take me to a Thai restaurant for my birthday and he was shocked that the food is not what he thought it was. What did he think it was? I have no clue. Maybe Chinese.  Either way he ended up liking it.  He surprised me this summer when he planted Thai basil at our garden which I took as a sign.  I've had these ingredients at hand, but time was delaying me trying to make my favorite soup, green curry.... Thinking about it makes me salivate.  I typically will order it from a restaurant by my job, but at $9.50 for a small container, it's a splurge and not the norm. BTW, if you are ever in the Mount Vernon area of Baltimore, check out Thai Landing, their food is awesome. Simple and tasty.

 

I read up on some recipes and saw that even though there are various ways to make it, the base is almost always the same.  I decided to make my own version with these ingredients.

 

The green block in the small bowl is the Thai basil frozen to preserve the flavor. I added cilantro because I didn't have Kaffir leaves.

 

 

 

The process was simple; browned the chicken in hot wok, saute the onion and garlic, then add the fat from the coconut milk in with the curry paste and carrots. Let that cook for a bit (while the kids start coughing because of the spice LOL).  Add in the fish sauce, broth, rest of the coconut milk, basil and cilantro. Let it cook for a bit and you are done.

 

 Serve over a bed of rice. DH and DD loved it, DS was tired and wanted nothing but the chicken.  Overall, my version is a PASS.  I could not make it as spicy as I would like since the kids had to eat from it, next batch will be strictly for me.