Miniatures

The other day Amy rescued these tiny white bowls out of dreck, and now I can't quite decide what to do with them.

My first thought was condiments....some sort of meal where you need dipping sauces. Fondue? Tapas? A french fry smorgasbord?

They look quite cute holding grape tomatoes, and I'm sure olives or smallish artichoke hearts would look equally appealing, but the more I look at them, the more I think desserts....miniscule ones. Tiny ice cream sundaes? They'd be adorable, but unsatisfying I think. Itty-bitty shortcakes? Again, delicious, but insubstantial. Small puddings? Although only a gluttonous Borrower would be able to finish one, I think I'd want to eat three, which sort of defeats the whole purpose.

Then I thought about how at Montana Avenue they have those sugary, cinnamony, puffily ginormous doughnuts that come with a little pot of creamy sweet dipping sauce. Everytime I eat one I end up with sugar all over my chin and sauce all over my fingers, and a smile of contentment on my face.

So I think maybe I might have to have a doughnut party. I figure items needed: deep fryer (check), tiny dipping bowls (check), doughnuts (must find good recipe), dipping sauce (ditto), and people to eat the doughnuts (that's you guys!). Mmm....doughnuts!

What To Do With Black Bananas

I got home from work yesterday to discover that the bananas on the counter were really yellow, ok almost black, and smelled supremely banana-y (banana-ish?). Considering that the Amish bread starter that is proofing on the counter is making my whole kitchen smell like I'm brewing beer, I really couldn't handle the beer/banana combination that was occurring, so I decided that the bananas would have to become banana bread, pronto.

I have several 'fancy' banana bread recipes I've been wanting to try...two from Orangette's blog, a Martha Stewart one, an Alton Brown one...but since I was rushing I decided to go to the tried and true Betty Crocker Cookbook, the 3 ring one with the red checker-board cover. It had exactly what I wanted, a basic banana bread recipe that was super easy. I went from yellow-black (yack? blellow?) bananas, to golden-brown banana bread in less than an hour, including 45 minutes of baking time!

The end result was just what I wanted: simple and delicious. The sugary top crust is slightly crunchy, but the rest of the bread is smooth and moist, with an occasional lump of banana goodness. The bread also makes your kitchen smell tantalizingly fresh and cinnamony, and will totally smother any overpoweringly yeasty smells, I promise.

Betty Crocker Banana Bread
Slightly tweaked

4 large overripe bananas

2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cups white granulated sugar

3 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash ground cloves

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves, set aside. In a food processor puree together the bananas, eggs, oil, and sugar, until mostly smooth (or mash the bananas with a potato masher and stir in the rest). It's ok if there are a few lumps left.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once, stir until just combined. DON'T overmix! Divide the batter between two lightly greased 8x4 inch loaf pans. Combine the additional sugar and cinnamon, sprinkle over the tops of the loaves.

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, then rotate and cover loosely with foil if necessary, because the sugar makes them brown quickly on top. Bake an additional 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before attempting to take the loaves out. Carefully remove them from pans to a wire rack to continue cooling, and for best results let the bread rest until the next day before slicing. But you can dig in right away; a slice of warm banana bread makes a lovely snack!

Makes two loaves, about 24 slices, and should keep for about a week if well-wrapped.

Bad Guys: Aaron Burr

 

 I've been reading "Fallen Founder: the Life of Aaron Burr" by Nancy Isenberg, which attempts to portray Aaron Burr as a midsunderstood man, who really wasn't such a bad guy. While I will admit that Burr was obviously tainted by the duel with Hamilton and that his tarnished image was unfair, I kind of feel like American history needs him as a bad guy. If all the founding fathers were really that great, then it just makes the current political leadership in this country even more depressing. We need to know that Hamilton picked fights and Adams was bad-tempered and that Jefferson could be petty, and that Burr was a murderous, lecherous, possibly treasonous man. I'll give us George Washington as a paragon of perfection, I think it's just as necessary to have a "good guy" to look up to, but I think Burr is needed as the archetypical antithesis of Washington's persona.

This is partially Isenberg's point of course, she points out that Burr has had popular biographies, movies, and even pornography (!!!) written about him, but up until now there was never a serious intellectual biography about him. Most historians of the founding era have been content to let him remain the bad guy, the scheming counterpart to the others' nobility. It seems like Isenberg has gone too far the other way though; her attempts to show that Burr's shady land deals and frank sexual affairs were just part of his era, or at least no worse than any of his other contemporaries on the New York political scene don't make him seen any less sketchy; they just make all the politicians, including the Clintons and other big New York families seem equally tarnished. I don't think that badmouthing everyone else is the right way to go about making Burr look less bad, but it is original, I'll give Isenberg that.

The two things that I learned about Burr that really interested me were (1) that he was Jonathan Edwards' grandson. (How did I miss this?!?) and (2) that he was pretty much an early feminist. His wife Theodosia was ten years his senior, a well-educated, articulate, political hostess, who was actually married to a British officer when he met her. He and Theodosia exchanged very intellectual letters discussing the educational philosophy of Rousseau and the feminist philosophy of Wollstonecraft. Their daughter Theodosia was educated in Greek and Latin, highly unusual for a woman of that era, and Burr treated both Theodosias as his intellectual equals, a refreshing mindset in a man of his status.

I do think that Isenberg brought up a good point here; that both Theodosias died young, and therefore Burr didn't have numerous progeny polishing his image for posterity the way that Adams and Washington and other founding fathers did. But all in all, I got the vague impression that the book was as much about Isenberg trying to resolve a crush on Aaron Burr as it was about revamping his image. If you're looking for an unusual lens for viewing early American history through, this book will fit the bill. Otherwise, I'd stick to David McCullough or Joseph Ellis, they're much more readable.

Sugar Free "Icebox" Pie

Given that we know about sixteen people that are diabetic (and I'm related to at least half of them) I've been thinking that I ought to come up with some more sugar free recipes. We celebrated my father-in-law's birthday last week, and since he was one of the diabetic people that we know, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to test out a sugar free recipe from my mom. It's super easy, a no-bake pie, but it's delicious and refreshing, and you really can't even tell that it's sugar free.

I did make my own graham cracker crust, which makes it not quite sugar free, but you can easily buy pre-made sugar free crusts. I just like the taste of homemade crusts a lot better.

All it takes is sugar free jello, sugar free whipped topping, some ice and some boiling water, and a few add-ins if desired. I made two with orange jello, and split a small can of well-drained mandarin oranges between them. I made another with raspberry jello and added 3 oz of chopped sugar free dark chocolate. Both were really good....one of my mandarin orange ones came out with a slightly soggy crust, but the other one was fine, so I'm not quite sure what happened there. But each pie was creamy, cold, sweet, and quite pretty looking. I decided to forgo blowing out candles, since I was afraid that the heat of the candles might melt them a little bit, but they were festive in their own candle-less way. The raspberry chocolate one came out looking especially pretty. So make a diabetic happy, go make a sugar free pie!

Sugar Free "Icebox" Pie

one (9 inch) sugar free graham cracker pie crust

one (0.3 oz) pkg sugar free jello

one (8 oz) pkg sugar free whipped topping, thawed

2/3 cup boiling water

2 cups ice cubes

optional: 3 oz sugar free dark chocolate, chopped

or one small can no sugar added fruit, well drained

Dissolve the jello in boiling water, whisk till completely smooth. Whisk in 2 cups ice cubes, stir for 2 minutes, or until jello starts to quick-set, remove any remaining ice cube pieces. Fold in whipped topping. Fold in fruit or chocolate if desired. Spoon into graham cracker crust, refrigerate at least one hour before serving, serve cold. Refrigerate any leftovers.