Cocoa Banana Bread

 This morning was beautiful! The sky was bright, the sun was big and yellow, and it was just breezy enough to keep things awake. Which was good because it was 7:30 and I had until 9:15 to make breakfast for us girls, eat it, make this divine bread, clean up the living room, fold the clean diapers and pack up dinner and the vacuum for a friend that just had a baby. I left the dinner, brought the vacuum back...

I'm sure you've probably made banana bread before. It's kind of sticky, very sweet and pretty much every other banana loaf you've had. Which is fine! If that's what you want. But if you want something else, let me propose you try Dorie Greenspans Cocoa-Nana bread. Recipe to follow. Let me ramble first.

If you're like me you never have ripe bananas when you need them, and the bananas are always brown when you have no time. So freeze them. I use the bags on the left in the above picture to freeze two bananas together and then I'm ready. It makes about 1 cup of mushy banana. Also, save your butter wrappers. Room temp butter leaves plenty on the paper to grease your pan...

 This particular recipe uses a delightful ratio of cocoa to flour. 1 cup of cocoa to 2 cups of flour! You must try. You just have to. So take your butter out of the fridge and come back in a couple hours to bake this bread.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup semisweet cocoa powder (I used unsweeetened and it was deliciously bold)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 stick of room temp butter, and wrapper
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large bananas, mashed, ripe
3/4 cup butter milk, or yogurt, plain

(optional)
additions: 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped walnuts, toasted hazelnuts, pecans, more chopped chocolate(!)

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9x5 loaf pan and place on two baking sheets stacked to keep the bottom from cooking too fast.
Mix the dry stuff.
Beat your butter at medium speed until light. Add sugars and beat a couple more minutes. Add eggs and between after each one. (It may look lumpy or curdled, it's ok, it will come together).
Turn mixer to low and mix in the bananas. Add dry stuff in three additions, mixing until it's barely incorperated. Add buttermilk or plain yogurt and mix. Stir in additions, and scrape into pan.

Bake for 30 minutes. Loosely tent with aluminum foil to keep from getting too dark and bake another 40 or 45 minutes, until a sharp knife comes clean. Transfer to a rack and cool at least 20 minutes before running your knife along the edges and carefully inverting to remove and cool right side up.

Fast Dinner Ideas for a Busy March!

Here's my little souz-chef helping me with the dinner prep. She's got a mean stirring arm!

We just sat down and made up our aux pioneer schedule for March, and it includes two afternoons a week from 3:30pm to 5:00pm. That means I am on the look out for some good easy but legitimate dinners! I thought I'd share some of my current stand-bys, and I hope you share some back...:)

Gussied up Macaroni and Cheese

We like to use Annie's boxed Mac n Cheese wihen we're sqeezed for time. But I add some extras.
My favorite additions are half a head of kale torn up and added to the pasta water for 5 minutes, along with some chopped up mushrooms that I can sautee while the pasta and greens are cooking. Hardboil some eggs while everything else is going on and it all comes out done at about the same time. Salad on the table and dinner done in 15 minutes!

Sweet Potatoes (thanks to Mom and Dad for this idea)

We started doing this dinner in December and it's been a great winter meal. The potatoes bake for about 1 1/2 hours, so if I put them in at 3:30 they're done when we get home.
I put a bag of spring salad mix on the table with some cottage cheese and it's warm, filling. Plus, very two year old friendly. Nice at the end of a long day.

Loaded Nachos

The title says it all. For our house, one half is vegetarian, and there's that salad mix on the table again. Add some fresh salsa and you're done.

 

Quiche (of all sorts)

Quiche is basically scrambled eggs and cheese baked in a crust. Crustless if it's a really crazy day. Quiche is one of those things that you can always throw together (because you always have eggs!) and it's usually amazing. If you have left over vegetables from another meal, throw them in. A small amount of meat that isn't enough to do anything else with? Chop it up and add that, too. Just remember one thing: you need as least one flavorful ingredient.. Add lots of sauteed garlic, or use parmesan or feta instead of cheddar or mozzarella. Sprinkle some extra cheese on top and when that's slightly browned you know it's done.

Not Your Grandmothers Brussels

Looking to eat more vegetables? Me, too. But maybe a cold salad isn't exactly appealing in February?
Yeah. Well, try this. Saute halved sprouts with garlic for about a 2 minutes. Splash some white wine in the pan and cover until they're as soft or crunchy as desired. I sprinkle mine with feta and pecans, along with salt and pepper. But you could take it all sorts of places. Parmesan with lemon zest, chili flakes, etc. It's so warm and comforting, and it's feels good knowing it is good. On the inside.

Rustic pear almond cake with chocolate

I am calling this cake rustic because the batter is more of a quick bread recipe, but it bakes up light and tender, and the crunchy/sparkling almond topping gives it an addictive texture.

1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cups sugar
2 eggs and one egg white
1 stick of butter, melted, cooled
2 ripe pears peeled and sliced
1/2 cup of dark chocolate chunks or chips (keep the bag handy for snacking)
1/2 cup sliced almonds divided
preheat oven to 375. Grease a 9x9 baking dish with butter.

wisk first three dry ingredients.
Beat eggs with sugar about two minutes in a large bowl. Add butter and beat well.
Mix with dry until just combined.
Spread half the batter in pan. Lay half the pear slices  evenly over the batter and sprinkle with half the chocolate. Cover with the rest of batter and repeat with pears/chocolate.
In a food processor mix 1/4 cup almonds with 1/4 sugar until finely ground. Add egg white and mix til smooth. Drizzle over cake and finish with the rest of the almonds.
Bake about 25/30 minutes, or until a toothpick or very sharp knive comes clean. (I never seem to have a toothpick around when I need one...)