bananas

Last night, my house was going a little bananas.

Literally.

See, we're having a party this weekend, and we needed some extra freezer space. So we tackled the rather monumental project of cleaning out the freezer, which probably hasn't had a good throw-out session in at least 6-8 months.

While cleaning out said freezer, we found some bananas. Lots of bananas, actually. We all have a habit of throwing our individual bananas in the freezer right before they go bad. And apparently, we've been doing this for a while, because in our freezer there were seventeen frozen bananas.

Seventeen bananas, folks. Sounds like some kind of monkey movie, doesn't it?

So I decided that something had to be done with these bananas. And what better than to make some banana bread? So I thawed and peeled them all (speaking of which, the best way to peel a frozen bananas: stick it in a pan of hot water for a few minutes, cut off the top, and squeeze that sucker right out of its skin).

It looked something like this:

For the next three hours, Molly and I baked. And baked. And baked. We used the Martha Stewart Banana Bread recipe, but substituted plain yogurt for the sour cream (FYI, if you also have 17 bananas, be prepared to triple that recipe...twice). But YUM! That first loaf was delicious.

And I'm sure the rest of them were delicious too. But at some point, there was just a little too much banana bread.

As in, five loaves and a Bundt pan of banana bread.

Thankfully, my coworkers are as ravenous as my cooking designs are ambitious, so we gave away half of the bread. My coworkers also are full of compliments and suggestions for next time I find myself with an overload of frozen bananas.

Suggestions such as Banana Smoothies or Banana Ice Cream (with just bananas!). Or my personal favorite, banana cookies, as IM'd to me by a friend:
squish 2 bananas until they look like a 2 year old got a hold of them.

That's your cookie base, just as if you've mixed up the sugar and butter and eggs.

Then I add oatmeal for texture.

I usually add a dash of salt and baking powder to make them puff.

Then I put in chocolate chips or nuts.

Then I put them on a cookie sheet, and I bake those puppies!

Then I eat them.

I eat them while they're still warm. I don't really like them cold. When they get cool, I heat them in the microwave.
No sugar, just chocolate chips.
So, folks, if ever you are in a banana bind much like I was, now you have a few more choices than just plain ole' banana bread.