A Tale of Two Banana Nut Breads

I'm an absolutely horrible blogger, the posts coming in fits and spells.  I'd thought about doing a histiocytosis awareness post back in September when it was Histiocytosis Awareness Month.  I thought about doing another dental visit post similar to the last one.  I also thought about doing a combined post, championing histio awareness and dentistry, considering most of us adults with the disease (even in remission) seem to have a host of dental difficulties.  A recipe post on the fresh apple cake was almost written but, at the last moment, it was decided that posting it straight to the notes in FB would be a lot easier. I'd even considered writing a post on how I've gotten over food, previously my best friend, and lost 60 pounds this spring/summer/fall.   Days and weeks came and went.  Words didn't gel together.  Those five posts didn't get written.

And so it goes.  There's nothing much to tell these days, no amusing stories coming forth from Mama, no misadventures beyond taking a wrong interstate and driving completely around Birmingham, Alabama.

And it isn't that there's less free time to be a better blogger.  Free time exists.  Life gets complicated; minds get tired of thinking.  At the end of the day, I'd rather open a book and disappear into it than think another thought. Unless the book is thought provoking.  I like thought-provoking books...

Annnnyways.  I'm using a lot of words to apologize for not keeping to my own set standard of a post a week (on average).  I'll try to do better.  I will.

To kick off getting on the proverbial bandwagon, I've two recipes for Banana Nut Bread.  TWO.  Both of them start with a cake mix.  I'd been to the Pig earlier in the week and spotted a big bag of bananas in the reduced-for-quick-sale produce cart.  There must've been five pounds of bananas in the bag for a dollar.  A dollar!  Even after sharing half with Mama, there was still a huge bunch of bananas to do something with.

 Holidays are quickly approaching.  What better time to get a headstart on holiday baking?  Banana nut bread freezes very well, you know...

Except there were other cakes to be made and icing to be whipped and cardboard to be cut and covered.  I needed a recipe that wouldn't require a lot of preparation.  I googled recipes for banana nut breads and combined a couple of them to come up with two very tasty, quick and easy recipes beginning with butter cake mixes:  Pumpkin Spice Pudding Banana Nut Bread aka The One with Pudding In It, and Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread.  I didn't photograph for tutorials;  just the ingredients and finished breads.

So, without another moment's procrastination, here are the ingredients for
Pumpkin Spice Banana Nut Bread

One butter golden cake mix
Four eggs
One half cup oil
Two to three bananas - mashed
Three fourths cup of buttermilk
One box of Jello brand instant pumpkin spice pudding mix
One teaspoon vanilla
One cup nuts

Despite all the directions to combine all the wet ingredients first and then add all the dry ingredients, I absolutely dumped everything but the pecans together in the KitchenAid bowl and let it do the work all at once.  Life is easier if you plow around the stumps.  It worked a charm.  Try, yourself, and see if it doesn't.  Stir in the pecans when it's all mixed well.

Pour into two greased and floured loaf pans or a small bundt pan.

Bake at 350 for an hour or so until it's done.
                                     

Maybe I should've rechopped Mama's chopped pecans.

Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread

Five bananas - smashed

Three eggs

One butter cake mix

Eight ounces cream cheese - room temperature

One tablespoon vanilla

One cup chopped pecans

Seriously.  Just dump everything together and mix well, stirring in the pecans before pouring into two greased and floured loaf pans.

These are larger sized loaf pans 8 x 4 x 2 1/2.  If you've smaller

loaf pans, best to grease and flour one more.

Bake at 350 and hour or so until done.

At the point this was photographed, I was already well

into an insulin response over having consumed a slice of the

first banana nut bread.  It's a fuzzy photo.  My body was

feeling fuzzy and warm, too!

Both recipes yield a less bread-like i.e. dense loaf of tasty bread.  The pudding recipe, with oil in it, not to mention buttermilk, definitely is the moister of the two.  And the flavor the pumpkin spice pudding gives it is out of this world.  BUT, the cream cheese and banana-ness of the second recipe???  It's difficult to decide which recipe is the better one.

I've only found pumpkin spice pudding at WalMart.  Other food bloggers had been ranting and raving over it and I had to have it also.  It's worth tracking down, but you can use whatever pudding tickles your taste buds.  The original recipe had, of all things, instant banana pudding in it!

There.  It's a two-fer:  Two recipes for banana nut bread in one blog post after a month's slacking...

Y'all enjoy!

Pan Fried Bananas? In the Deep South? Introducing Southern Pan Fried Bananas

Oh yeah!  Pan fried bananas.  And not just in any pan and certainly not with just any ol' oil either.  A little cast iron griddle, bacon grease, and bananas have made an incredible side dish for a seared steak today.  Well.  It was actually a couple of weeks ago, but I took photos so we can pretend it was today.

**Tangent warning:  I'm about to get side-tracked for a paragraph.**

I knew from the get-go that I wouldn't be a daily blogger:  responsibilities and time limitations won't allow for it.  I also seldom cook for myself any more.  Sometimes I have a twinge of  something or another when other foodies ask "What's for dinner/supper/tapas?" and I haven't any response.  I'd as soon eat a fried egg sandwich noon and night as cook a meal just for me, washed down with a pot of coffee in the morning and a quart of iced tea or ice water in the evening.  Let the holidays get cranked up and I'll try my best to post a few favorite recipes in the making -- keyword there is try.  Truth be told (don't you LOVE when folks say that as if every other thing said weren't the truth?) I'm really not that much of a food blogger but for the fact that I can cook, turn a decent phrase, and I bake a bunch of cakes over the course of a year's time.

All that to say, I was excited to find a whole bag of bananas for $1.00 at the Pig a couple of weeks ago.  They're normally $.79 a pound.  A frazzling pound!!!  I like bananas.  I think they're one of the most perfect fruits ever, being easy to get into, consume, and dispose of the peeling.  I can almost do it one handed and certainly need no equipment to eat one.  Aside from their high glycemic index value, they're full of potassium and fiber and are yellow, a primary color (and who doesn't like primary colors?).  These are freckled with ripeness.  I like them this way (perfect for mushing into peanut butter).

I also purchased a package of thin sirloin steaks.  They were in the green meats, also know as "reduced for quick sale."  I'll buy beef that way, the bit of discoloration caused by oxidization of iron in the beef blood.  Tastes great!  I like to season it or put it in marinade and put it in on in the freezer.  I don't know why I picked up the thin sirloin -- it's hardly steak by our inch-and-a-quarter-thick definition, guess the price was right.

ANNNnnnnnyways.  Three or four bananas went into a batch of spiced banana nut bread.  Three or four bananas went into an easy banana cobbler that I had seen the recipe for on someone's blog.  I'd encourage you to try it.  It's that easy peach cobbler only made with bananas:  a cup of sugar, a cup of margarine (or butter) melted in the pan, a cup of flour and a cup of milk.  I put three bananas in the freezer for a later batch of nut bread and had four left.  And thin sirloin steaks.

I got to wondering how pan fried bananas would be as a side dish.  Lots of cuisines have fried bananas.  Could I make a Deep South fried banana?  Why, yes!  Yes I could.  Bacon grease is necessary so if you've been looking for a reason to buy bacon and cook and consume it, a driving desire for Southern Pan Fried Bananas is your excuse.

You'll need a skillet or a good heavy frying pan that holds and distributes heat well.  This is the cast iron griddle Mama gave me for a birthday.  I think she's given new cast iron pots and frying pans over the years to keep me from sneaking taking hers that have the seasoning of time firmly coated in them.

That's a good blop of bacon grease on the griddle.  How much is a blop?  It's enough to coat the skillet and both sides of a cut ripe banana with a little left over to cook a steak -- probably two tablespoons.

It's not rocket science, folks, although there is some science to it.  You need a good pan with excellent heat distribution attributes 'cause the bananas are going to be seared and pan fried in the same moment using a medium high temperature. The bananas are already ripe and soft but not mushy.  I don't want mushy bananas as a side dish.  A nice firm caramelized crust with the same texture as an uncooked banana is desired here.  A low heat cooking temperature will make for a goopy nasal-mucous-y looking banana.  Seriously!  How do I know what a lower temperature cooked banana looks like?  Shall I answer that with another question (Hhhhha!  I just did {I really do slay me sometimes})??  How do you think I know to use a higher temperature? I didn't even save the photo from the first batch.  We eat our mistakes in this kitchen so if you like baby-food consistency adult foods go ahead and cook it slow and low; it tastes fine but the texture is unpleasant.

Peel, slice and quarter the bananas.  Mine quartered themselves as I was flipping them so if you do it in this step you'll save fetching the split banana from the edge of the pan and the fire.

The griddle has been heated to a medium-high temperature where a drop of water dances and sizzles across it, evaporating within seconds.  The bacon grease is added after the griddle is hot.  It isn't smoking but it's pretty close to it.

Add the sliced bananas.  Within a few seconds the edges will be fried and you can see the natural sugars beginning to caramelize.  Make yourself count to ten slowly and flip the bananas.

The aroma here was a most pleasant surprise.  It reminded me very much of Bananas Foster with the added element of the smoky bacon smell.  I had to try out a few bites and discovered a slight sprinkle of coarse salt completed all the flavors.

Pan frying a thin steak to rare is impossible.  For me.  Two minutes on one side and a minute on the other was still too long.

I had to settle for medium for the green sirloin steaks but they were tasty and the side of pan fried bananas was delightful, the previously unthought of marriage of flavors between the two a sensory discovery.

A young friend was over the next morning and I again pan fried bananas and served on top of the spiced banana nut bread that had been sliced and toasted (in bacon grease) on the griddle.  It. Was. Awesome!

Make it healthier if you must, with vegetable oils.  It's not my business what you do once you make it your own (as long as you're not plagiarizing).  Try it with bacon grease just once, though.  It'll be worth every artery-clogging molecule of plaque.  I promise....

Those ingredients again are:
2 to 4 tablespoons bacon grease
multiple bananas
light sprinkle of coarse salt

Heat griddle or pan to medium high temperature.  I could go on a google search to tell you what this will be but instead, I'll tell you to have a cup of water ready to drip a drop of water in the pan.  When the water dances and sizzles and dissipates in a matter of ten to fifteen seconds the pan is hot enough.

Add the blop of bacon grease, swirling it to quickly melt and coat the pan.   When it's hot and almost smoking (perhaps a minute at this point) add the bananas.  Let cook on one side, watching for coloration to begin on the edge of the banana.  Flip and cook another few moments.

Serve with a light sprinkle of coarse salt.  I like coarse salt to finish a dish.  I like the way there's a bite and explosion of salt in my mouth that quickly spreads across the palate to season the food.  Coarse salt is the ONLY way to go with these pan fried bananas.

Y'all enjoy!

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And here's a cake made for a young fellow that's frequented this front porch.  He's a Reese's Peanut Butter cup fanatic.  The cake is chocolate, the filling is fluffernutter and cream filling, with fudge icing.  Peanut butter cups and kit kat bars complete the decoration.