banana bread hands & regina spektor ears

Less than a week after the pumpkin walnut muffins, I'm back in the kitchen with the baking apron figuratively wrapped around my waist. (One day I'll actually buy myself an apron from Anthropologie...and never want to don it because I'd prefer batter splatter on my clothes than on its hand-embroidered, elaborate design.) This time it's banana bread, the catalyst being another close friend who turns 24 tomorrow. (Happy birthday, tomorrow, Shaunda!)

I've never made banana bread; I've never made a lot of things. For as much as the sweet bread tickles taste buds, it was surprisingly easy. In my case, it did necessitate peeling a frozen banana. Have you ever peeled a frozen banana? Ok. So it's really not difficult once you give up trying to use your fingers and weld a quality knife. And with minimal ingredients, clean up was a snap, particularly since I have a dog who lingers at my feet, displaying his uber-willingness to give mixing bowls a licking pre-wash cycle. The only confusing bit was that the instructions suggested inserting a toothpick in the center of the loaf to see if it's done baking. "Toothpick may be moist from bananas," it informs, "just make sure it's not moist from batter." How am I supposed to tell if it's banana moistness or batter moistness? And on top of that, I don't have toothpicks so I use the wooden side of a match. That's my creative baking technique for you.

I'm a batter eater. I always have been. (Batter is like the prelude to the story, a foretaste--quite literally.) But for what may be the first time in my life, I almost couldn't stomach smacking my lips in banana bread dough. Had you seen the squishy, thawed bananas as they slipped out of the freezer bag in their dirty-puddle brown syrup, it might have grossed you out, too. That something so unappetizing, married to a few other ingredients, could result in such utter deliciousness is nothing short of a culinary phenomenon. In the end, my impatience for taste-testing won, and I twirled my finger in the bowl a time or two before passing it off to the dog.

Mom and I love banana bread, so I made an extra loaf. (This also helped resolve my previously described problem of moisture differentiation. The extra loaf provided a tester, and when stabbed with a knife, it returned with undeniable batter moisture.) But the superfluous loaf also means it's time for me to grab the cream cheese...



[If you're wondering about the Regina Spektor reference, well...I listened to her while I baked. Maybe her unique and eclectic style will--by osmosis--infuse my cooking.]