Bananas!

I had a bunch of brown bananas and asked my friends what I should do with them and was surprised and very much delighted at all the ideas I got! I’ll reproduce some of them here…

I started out of course with banana bread: plain or with the cranberry orange swirl. The first friend to respond gave me banana muffins (with crushed cheerios replacing the wheat germ). Another gave me two excellent suggestions of banana chocolate bars and a banana rum cake! And then another vote for some sort of banana chocolate (monkey!) bars.

And of course a roasted banana ice cream. Of course says I, why didn’t I think of that right away! Apparently you roast them till the liquid all drips out, leaving the ice cream with less water to form crystals and the flavors stronger. And then if you drizzle it in fudge you have a very compact banana split!

Or banana polenta: Heat 2c milk to a gentle boil. Rain 1/2 c polenta into milk, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Keep stirring over low heat until cooked through. Fold in bananas and season with salt to taste. Edit: works deliciously with grits too! Or banana polenta cake.

Or an all-time favorite  banana bread recipe. “If you want, add walnuts for more yumminess, and/or mix some cinnamon with sugar and sprinkle it on top before baking. Sooooooo yummerlicious! :D”

Or use a really ripe banana in place of an egg to make cookies. And a peanut butter, chocolate chip, and banana scone.

Apparently “if you bake banana bread in a cake pan, you can cut it up into wittle squares and put some buttercream frosting on it. it’s fucking awesome.
you can also throw them in front of unsuspecting people walking and make them slip. hehe.” Which is a pretty good sell I’d say.

There were quite a few assault suggestions… ranging from simply “assault” to “Although really I vote for throwing them in front of unsuspecting people.” I blame Jenny, who started out with a suggestion of a banana-flying contest. (:

And one I’m going to have to try sometime this summer on the grill: “Leaving the peel on, slice it lengthwise to make a sort of boat. Put some chocolate in there. Wrap it in foil and put it on a hot grill for a few minutes. Burn your mouth with deliciousness.”