juggling in my kitchen

What do you do when your boss leaves a plate full of super-ripe bananas on his windowsill and goes home for the weekend? Steal them away and make banana bread, of course! The "everybody loves banana bread" title comes from the fact that when I was little, I hated bananas, but always loved banana bread. Is that like the kid who will only eat broccoli if it's doused in cheese sauce? Maybe, but I digress: Lately, I've been using more bananas than are normally called for in a recipe (to make a moister, sweeter bread—which also allows me to get away with adding less sugar). When I get home, I'll enter the recipe here. But what I can tell you now is that it's got lots chocolate chips and walnuts.

This weekend I made two pies: one fruit, one custard, both experimental. I made both with an all whole-wheat crust, which I half-knew would be "interesting" , but decided to try anyway. I've been using whole wheat pastry flour lately for a lot of things, including some in pie crust, but never all wheat. Which is, I believe, why the strawberry-blueberry got to its welldone state so quickly (the extra fat content in the flour browned faster than A.P. flour?). Everyone still liked it, but I'm pretty sure I'll add some white flour next time, or at least cook at a slightly lower temperature.

The second pie was made with leftover crust from the first, and I'm proud of it b/c I half made it up...I took the Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cream Pie recipe (really, how could you go wrong with a name like that) recipe from "PIE" by Ken Haedrich, which uses a nutty graham cracker crust and then layers chocolate custard and peanut butter custard and tops it with whipped cream, but instead started with my whole wheat pastry crust, layered sliced bananas, and mixed the peanut butter and chocolate together (sound familiar?) and poured that over the pre-baked crust and then topped it with toasted coconut and refrigerated it. I averaged about 2 slices a day 'til it was gone. One day I had 3(!). Oh, and David ate some, too.

The latest installment of our supper club took place yesterday, with Eric & Lisa, and Kim & Todd & August (the newest and youngest member, who doesn't cook but is responsible for much of the entertainment). We decided to have a picnic, as we did once last summer, when August was still "en route". Last year it was near Eric and Lisa, in Westchester; this year it was a small, beaucolic park in Forest Hills Gardens (oh, to live in one of the houses surrounding this park). We started with the theme of tomatoes and herbs, since Lisa has been growing both all summer. That morphed into farmer's market fare, which eventually became picnic food. Onto the menu: Kim made a succulent, slightly tangy (from a layer of gruyere cheese) tomato tart with puff pastry, and chicken fingers coated with a mixture of breadcrumbs and parmesan, and sprinkled with fresh rosemary (from Lisa's garden). Lisa used her basil to make a pesto for a twist on caprese salad, by dicing yellow and red tomatoes and fresh mozzarella and tossing with the pesto. She also made dessert--individual peach and blueberry crisps topped with homemade vanilla ice cream. I made my mom's corn salsa, which includes kidney beans, scallions, orange peppers, jalapeno, garlic, and just-cooked corn that's then sliced off the cob. It's mixed with a dressing that contains olive oil, white wine vinegar, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, salt. It's all then tossed with chopped cilantro. I also fried up some corn chips, which turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be. Just slice corn tortillas (99 cents for a huge pack!) into quarters, put about an inch of oil in a pot, heat it to 350 degrees, and fry 'em up 'til golden. Then sprinkle immediately with salt. They're incredibly crunchy, and not greasy at all.


	"There are no small kitchens, there are only small cooks."