Sunday morning sweets

Good morning (ok, afternoon, but I'm still in my pajamas so I cling to morning).

My shoulders ache. This is because I schlepped to the grocery store yesterday and instead of buying just the essentials, as planned, I did my shopping for the next, well, two weeks probably. It is hard for me to argue with the "I'm already here, why not" rationale, even when the basket is already getting too heavy to carry comfortably around the store. I insist on conquering inconvenience. And I succeed!

I also had to pick up my dry cleaning, and while I considered dropping off the two overflowing bags at home first to make the errand less frustrating, I could not reconcile myself to such inefficiency. Upon leaving the dry cleaners (after figuring out how to hold both bag and cello-wrapped hangers in one hand), the nice woman said "You do lot of shopping! You be careful!"

Anyway, I was glad to get home and now that I'm all stocked up, the sore shoulders I can deal with. But what do you think: is it time to get a car? I've been here two years and survived just fine without one, but lately I've really been wanting to have a means to escape the city and just...drive. I don't know though, there's a finality to getting a car that I'm somehow just not ready for. (Commitment, how I elude you.)

What I am ready for, however, is the opportunity to give away this absurdly delicious banana chocolate walnut bread that I made last night. I cottoned to this recipe immediately when I was flipping through the February Gourmet. Banana bread is (after chocolate chip cookies) one of the first things I learned how to bake and over the years it's definitely become one of my favorites. The original recipe called for a cake pan and streusel topping, but I agree with Wednesday Chef that the loaf pan (with streusel ingredients incorporated) is the way to go. Nobody really wants banana cake.

I won't replicate the recipe here because, yes, I'm lazy, but also, I didn't make any changes of my own (except that I used Nestle chocolate chips. Also, note that if you opt for the loaf pan, it will take about 45-50 minutes to cook.) I urge you to click through either of the links above and get to work. The addition of yogurt to the batter makes this bread sing. It's just a little bit more rich, velvety, and fragrant with the yogurt and I can tell you I'll never make banana bread (even the plain old chocolate-free variety) without it again. Have a look.




In other sweet news, I am pleased to report that I did make the cranberry jam, which is wonderfully tart and chewy and easy to make. I skipped the whole canning part (I admit I'm wary still after the apple butter) so we'll see how long it lasts. Gooey cranberries found a good match in the orange-nutmeg muffins from last week (which do reheat like a dream--as if they'd just been baked!). Mmm. I love jam.

So, you can see with all this baking why I can't wait to get rid of the banana bread. It is dangerous to have around. This is the downside of being both a motivated, restless cook and a party of one: there are always too many leftovers and not enough eaters.