Banana Bread

 Okay I am tired of bananas. Tired of looking for new recipes and tired of baking with them. Luckily, (I think) when we lost power due to the storm we lost my entire shelf of frozen bananas. I am annoyed but not upset. I was planning to make a bunch of banana muffins and freeze them. Darn. Oh well! Right before the storm, I made this banana bread recipe from the 1963 edition of Charleston Receipts but as giant muffins. Because muffins are great but giant muffins are better! 

Super easy looking, nothing unusual or special. No judgement so far. It could still be amazing...

Hmmm....Everything is so white...

Just getting everything prepped. Eggs beaten and bananas mashed!

Just creaming shortening and trying to get artsy. I think it's a cool pic. What do you think?

Everything is all ready to mix together. I debated on pulling out the standing mixer but it was not necessary. I love my mixer but sometimes it is too heavy to deal with.

This recipe made the perfect amount for 6 large muffins. Just for fun I added a light dusting of raw sugar on half the muffins. I am hoping for a lovely layer of crunch on them!

These baked up beautifully! So...I have no idea which ones had the sugar on top. It looks like the sugar just sank in. Interesting.

Isn't this a great looking muffin?!

This was an easy recipe with pretty common ingredients. They baked up very nicely, are moist, and have a good flavor. But, as I suspected, nothing special or unique. Dylan did not share my opinion. If you are looking for a tasty and simple recipe than this one is perfect however I would probably add nuts or cinnamon next time. Or more sugar on top. 

My Rating: Good but not great

Dylan's Rating: Delicious! They are a little dry but overall they are great.

Banana Waffles

Bananas. Bananas. Bananas. Dylan loves bananas however he rarely finishes the batch before they go bad. I may eat one or two but they are not my favorite. So I always am throwing brown ones into the freezer. Not to brag but I now have a banana shelf in there. Dylan whined that I needed to finally use them so I went on the hunt. I find banana bread boring so I needed to find something else. The 1953 edition of The Modern Family Cook Book had this interesting find and since I live with someone who loves both bananas and waffles we had to try banana waffles!

Super easy and I have plenty of banana! I even had one that had not quite made it into the freezer.

I decided to go with the evaporated milk. We didn't have much milk left and Dylan drinks more than a family of 4.

There is no way to make mashed bananas look apealing.

I don't have a rotary beater (it's not high on my list of cool kitchen gadgets) so we went with the whisk. Still turned out great!

Your eyes do not deceive you. That is a cute personal waffle maker! I bought it on a whim a couple of years ago and I love it. It takes a while to do a whole batch of waffles but once I make them I put all the extra into the freezer and toast them in the morning. They are also the perfect size for egg sandwiches.

It takes a few tries before you get the perfect amount of batter. It's always a bit less than you think.

Waffles! And coffee make a perfect brunch on the porch. 

Topped with pure maple syrup...

Easy to throw together and delicious! We now have a bag of them in the freezer for a quick breakfast or snack. I am so happy to have an alternative to banana bread and banana muffins. The banana flavor is strong but not over powering. I think these would be great with fruit toppings as well. These waffles stay very moist so if you want to bake extra to freeze, I would cook them a little bit longer to help dry them out. Or lay them on a sheet pan to freeze separately before bagging them. My freezer wouldn't allow that so we just chisel them apart when we need them. 

My Rating: Keeper! Perfect for family brunches.

Dylan Rating: "I'm not quite awake yet but these are good."

Lemonade

Holy Crap! It has been hot out. Usually I love the heat but this year it is killing me. Probably because I can't do anything but stay home and attack the vines in the back yard. Last year was great when Dylan lived on the beach and I had to visit almost everyday, somedays when he was still at work. This year we are in a cute little house and I am finally able to have a garden. So after gardening one day I was feeling a little old fashioned so I needed an old fashion summer drink. Lemonade! The 1924 edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer delivered.

This super easy recipe didn't call for as much lemon juice as I thought it would. But, I can do this!

I always have lemon juice on hand for cocktails but I thought I should probably go with fresh lemon juice for this drink. Don't you just love my parrot glass? It's huge!

There is something very satisfying about juicing the crap out of a lemon. I strained out all the seeds and pulp. Almost left some of the pulp in. For texture.

So this basically made a simple syrup with lemon. Sorry there are no pictures of boiling water. It was boring.

First I had to do the basic lemonade, ice, water, and the lemonade syrup. It was a lot sweeter than I thought it would be. I don't know why I was surprised. I saw the amount of sugar that is in it.

Let's have a little fun with this! I have watermelon and peaches! The drink on the left has a couple of scoops of watermelon muddled at the bottom. The one on the right has about half a peach.

The basic lemonade was too sweet for me. But it was great mixed with other fruits! The peach was my favorite but I could see keeping this on hand and making fruit lemonades all summer. Strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry would be tasty. Next time I will make it with more lemon juice to give it more of a bite.

My Rating: Too sweet as is but great as a mixer.