bananas

What do you even do with those stupid things?

I put them on cereal.

A person I know puts them in baked beans. I expect his recipe calls for plantains not bananas.

I looked at these three bananas day after day and thought, you know, I'm just not into you. I watched them turn black. Until finally they have flavor. Cut off their tips and squeezed them out of their skins like toothpaste. Then whipped them into the mixture.

But there is no recipe. I just did the things that you do.

1 stick of unsalted butter creamed with one cup of sugar.

2 regular size eggs whipped in to that.

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon maple syrup because the jar was sitting right there on the counter.

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

2 tablespoons buttermilk powder

Tested pH with litmus paper. It turned out to be 7, no change. Right in the middle of color bars. And that told me to use baking powder without any extra baking soda.

1 + 1/2 cup flour folded into the wet mixture. First one cup then 1/2 to get the desired stiffness.

1/2 teaspoon salt

The raw mixture tasted mild and understated but still full.

3/4 cup broken pecans

3/4 cup jumbo raisins

2 level teaspoons baking powder.

The mixture is stiff.

Baked at 350℉ for 45 minutes.

OMG. This is más delicioso que imaginarse. A thick chunk of this was dinner. 

The whole time I was thinking I could add some of that banana liquor. The bottle hasn't been opened in years. It's very good tasting and it adds significant flavor. And I could add cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and a teensy teeny tiny bit of clove, like five molecules, even ginger. But I didn't. 

There are all these other things that could have been added like figs and dates and cranberries, pears and apples. Almonds, Brazil nuts, Hazelnuts. Peanut butter, and tahini. Orange peel, and lemon peel. Even coffee and chocolate and various fruit preserves. Fresh blueberries and blackberries and oatmeal, brown sugar. But I left them all out. 

And the plainness that results from leaving out so many options is pleasant.