Rosemary Banana Bread

These next few posts will be a collection of projects that have kept me busy over the last month.  Morsels.  I'll go ahead and tell you, if you don't like rosemary, you should probably browse on back to tumblr or pinterest or whatever it is the young kids do these days.  With their music.  And saggy pants.  But really, I have been rosemary-ing everything, from tea to banana bread to peasant bread!  Can't stop, addicted to the rosemary.  I should probably skip the music career and stick to baking and knitting...



Brown Butter Rosemary Banana Bread

3-4 superripe bananas
2 (3-inch) springs fresh rosemary + 1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/3 cup salted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 lightly beaten egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
probably 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 C flour

Mash the bananas with the tablespoon of chopped rosemary, and let sit for a while.  [See Recipe Notes]

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Butter a loaf pan.  


Melt the 1/3 cup butter in a small saucepan with the rosemary sprigs and allow it to turn a medium brown over medium heat.  It should smell nutty, but I evidently have an immunity to aromatic nuttiness, in wine aromas and otherwise.  Take it off the burner immediately and allow it to cool.

Mix the brown sugar, cooled butter*, egg, and vanilla into the bananas.  Sprinkle the baking soda and salt on, then mix those in too.  Gradually mix in the flour, then transfer the whole deal to your loaf pan.  Sprinkle approximately 1 tsp kosher salt and 1 tsp sugar on the top before popping in the oven for around 40 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.

Enjoy sprinkled with salt, or butter it up, or just eat it plain.


Recipe Notes: If it's going to be over an hour or so, I'd probably stick the banana-rosemary sludge in the fridge.  Be careful though--if it is too cold when you mix the batter, it may affect the baking time.  I convinced myself the bananas became infused with the rosemary flavor in the fridge, but it may not be crucial.   Also, my bread seemed to bake up a lot faster than other quick breads I've made.  I'd suggest keeping a weather eye on it.
*Note: if the butter is too hot when mixed in, the egg will cook, and no one wants scrambled eggs in their banana bread.  No one.


Coming up soon: rosemary peasant bread, monster cookies, oven-dried tomatoes, and knitted gloves!

Come Dancing!

Let me start off by saying I absolutely cannot dance, though the post title may suggest I intend to.  Let me assure you, I don't.  I do, however, intend to listen to the Kinks.

I have been making some killer meals and baked goods and knitted FOs lately!  Summer is amazing for Coon Rock Farm CSA produce.  The last few weeks have been filled with beautifully sweet yellow and orange grape tomatoes, green beans, new potatoes, and corn.  Corn on the cob used to be my favorite food as a kid, but once I got to high school I dismissed it for whatever reason.  That means that it has probably been seven or eight years since I have had corn on the cob, which is ridiculous.  It has resumed favorite food status, although these days it's more of a group of foods rather than singling out any one.

Tonight, I made some tasty broiled ginger-soy eggplant, last year's home-canned crowder peas, and corn on the cob.  So yummy and beyond affordable.  The ginger-soy sauce on the eggplant was really simple, fresh ginger, soy sauce, garlic, red pepper, sugar, sesame oil.  I started the crowder peas in some chicken stock with bacon-sauteed onion and garlic.  A quick broil for the eggplant and boiling of the corn after the beans had gotten a good head start and that was that!  I guess I boiled the corn somewhere in there.



I have been knitting lately with probably the most satisfying skein of my knitting career, Lucia from Dirty Water Dyeworks.  I won this in a drawing for Holla Knits--thanks, Allyson!  She has had a crazy number of giveaways so far.  Superwash merino with 25% nylon, the Seaweed colorway is drop-dead gorgeous.  I made the Basketweave Neckerchief (pattern from another project Allyson is affiliated with; proceeds go to WORK+SHELTER), and I'm so happy with how it turned out.



The colors are just spellbinding, and the basketweave manages to showcase the color variations while still looking smooth and fluid.  I sometimes am disappointed with how color variation comes across in sock patterns.  It can make it look kind of random and mottled, but I think this was the perfect compromise.  The subtle pooling makes me so happy.  I'm working on some fabulous fingerless mitts to go with!  I'll show off those, oh, next month or whenever my next post is.