Saturday, July 29, 2017

Cafe Read-A-Latte

Feeling nostalgic, I thought I would talk about something amazing my teacher did in sixth grade. Once a quarter (four times in the school year) she would do something that she called "Cafe Read-A-Latte." The teacher would transform the classroom into a coffee shop by various methods. She would turn off all the lights and have real lamps that she brought in from home to set a dim glow. Then the desks would be pushed from rows into little tables covered in lace table cloths. The walls would be decorated in seasonal items, such as Christmas lights or cutouts of bats and pumpkins. The finishing touch was that she would bring in an industrial size peculator that would be used to make hot chocolate that we would eat with small snacks. Our English teacher would use this little event as a reward for reading. Only people who had read their books could attend and the students at the little table would spend the class time talking about their books while sipping chocolate. I do not remember the books that I discussed, but "Cafe Read-A-Latte" has always stuck with me. I was a big lover of reading before my teacher did this, but I always thought that this was a fantastic event that was rewarded to those who loved books.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Banana Bread

Hello everyone! As everyone knows (or should know) life has been a bit hectic. Hopefully life will slow down so that I can post more. There are a few things that have changed that will allow me to have a bit more free time. I have graduated, moved into a house with a dishwasher, and have gained a steady job. A jot that frees me from having to having to work two not so good jobs.

Despite my major, I have chosen to work in the field of hotels, the front desk to be specific. Though I never expected this to affect my cooking I could not have been more wrong. Working at a hotel gives me access to certain things. The first thing is that I now have access to the newspaper on a daily basis. As a child my mother always stressed that one should read the paper, so as I was perusing it on my break I was delighted to find a wonderful article on cooking. As the title suggests, the article was on banana bread. Here is a link on said article if you wish to read it.

http://www.semissourian.com/story/2411596.html

The other thing that I have access to at the hotel is over-ripe bananas. Apparently customers do not enjoy eating bananas with too many brown spots, so the fruit that gets to this state is free for employees to take home. When I saw a box of abandoned, over-ripe bananas on the same day that I found this article I simply thought it fate. This was how my night of baking came to be, resulting in:


a whole lot of muffins. I was not prepared for how many muffins a whole box of bananas would create. I was baking until the early hours in the morning. What is not seen in the picture is that in addition to all of these muffins there was also a loaf of bread. Having nearly passed out on the last two loads of muffins I decided to just pour the last bit of batter into a loaf pan to get rid of it (this was how I learned that my new oven has racks that were far too close to the ceiling). In case you do not want to read the article I will transfer the recipe over.

Three-Bowl Banana Bread

Servings: 2 loaves make 10 generous slices
Start to finish: 1 hour, 15 minutes (Active time: 15 minutes)
Pan: 8x4x2.5 -inch loaf pans, disposable aluminum pans work very well.


Ingredients:
* 3 large and very ripe, "brown" bananas (you can use 4 small bananas)

* 1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar, divided

* 1 teaspoon vanilla

* 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

* 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

* 1/2 teaspoon salt

* 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

* 3 large eggs

* 3/4 cup Crisco all-vegetable oil

* 1-2 cups toasted walnut halves, coarsely chopped plus more halves for decorating

* Flour and oil baking spray

Directions:

  1. Toast walnuts in the oven at 250 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove and let cool.
  2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  3. Meanwhile, mash bananas with a fork and add all but 1/2 cup of the sugar. Mix and add vanilla. Continue mixing until the mixture is completely smooth.
  4. In a separate large bowl, measure flour and stir with a whisk or fork to aerate. Place 1/2 cup of sugar in the bowl. Add baking soda, salt, cinnamon and whisk well.
  5. In a third bowl, mix eggs and oil with a blending fork until emulsified.
  6. Using a fork, mix eggs well with the flour mixture. Add banana mixture to the egg-flour mixture and stir with a fork until completely combined. Add chopped walnuts and pour batter into prepared loaf pans, using a baking spray so that the bread doesn't stick to the pan. Decorate the top with walnut halves.
  7. Bake for about 60 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  8. Remove from oven and let sit in the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack. Can be served warm or completely cooled. 
Nutrition information per serving: 513 calories; 267 calories from fat; 30 g fat (4 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 65 mg cholesterol; 326 mg sodium; 55 g carbohydrate; 3 g fiber; 34 g sugar; 7 g protein.


I have not made banana bread very much before acquiring this recipe. Though I love banana bread I do not enjoy bananas, and unfortunately stores do not often sell over-ripe bananas. Since my new job has provided me with an almost constant source of the browned fruit I have been able to make this bread to the point that I am practically sick of it. Even my fiance who loves banana bread does not want to touch it. Fortunately I have many family members and neighbors who love banana bread so much that they have started begging me to make it for them.


Though I have not experimented with many banana bread recipes other people have told me that this recipe is one of the best that they have tasted. I usually like to add stuff when make recipes, but other than taking out the walnuts I have not changed a single thing with this recipe, and I could not be more glad. This is a moist and flavorful recipe. Very simple and easy to do I am sure that anyone could make this despite their skills in baking. I have even made the recipe using a single mixing bowl instead of the three that the directions call for with great success. The only other things that I have played around with is topping the bread with oats (from a can of oatmeal) or changed the amount of bananas. The oats were pretty, but though I have done this twice I would probably not do it all the time. This decoration does not change much in the flavor or the texture in the bread, but I simply prefer it without them. As for the bananas, I have tried the recipe with four or even five bananas for a batch. Three is a good number, but more bananas adds for more banana flavor. The bread is still tasty even with the deviation from the amount of fruit included.


Simple directions, ingredients that are easy to find in anyone's home, and a delicious recipe. This is everything a good recipe calls for. I give it a 9.5 out of 10.