There they sat. In their bowl on the counter, reproaching me with every glance at them. Slowly losing their vibrant color, bruises and marks deepening, growing smaller perceptibly every day. Bananas. Happy George of the Jungle yellow ‘naners making me anxious and sad with each passing day. I am not one of those people who relish the brown banana. Ever since I was a kid and peeled one open on the advice of an adult that it was “perfectly good” and found a soft, slightly slimy, beige-ish, most definitely not my idea of a banana inside, brown bananas make me shiver. Most assuredly I am not the “throw it in the freezer until you want to make bread with it” person either. Those almost black, withered things lying in the freezer horrify me and make me slam the door and hold it shut with both hands so it can’t possible every escape to terrify me in the dark. So….I almost never buy more than two bananas at a time. I delight in perfectly yellow, just lost the touch of green, firm bananas. But you have to be diligent because they turn into the banana zombies almost overnight. So two, only two, at a time. I’ve started to get organic fruit and veggies delivered to the house every week, from Door to Door Organics, and last week, in my bitty box (the smallest one) were 5 bananas. 5. I thought I’d be okay as I had family here for a few days, and surely, the bananas would get eaten. But there they were, so I decided this time I was going to use them even if it was technically (according to the banana bread fanatics) too early to use them. Bah! They worked fine. They were soft enough that the mixer could smash and mush them up, but still not to the zombie stage. I had a bit of dark chocolate that I thought I thought would be lovely in the bread, just a hint, to complement and give the bread some depth and texture. I have to tell you, it worked out perfectly. I went looking for recipes out on the ‘net and ended up combining several to get what I wanted. No more banana monsters for this girl.
A Plate Full 