When Life Gives You Ripe Bananas...Make Banana Bread!

Having a (guy) roommate has allotted me a few new joys. There is always someone to talk to. There is always someone to clean up after (not truly a joy but you know what I mean). And most importantly, there is always someone to bake for!

Two weeks ago my roommate bought a bunch of bananas. However, before he could eat them all, he had to leave for 9 day business trip. We are very considerate roommates when it comes to food. I don't eat any of his without permission, and the same goes for him. Not that either of us would really mind if we ate the other's food, but we try to be polite and considerate of each other's things. So needless to say, the bunch of bananas that he had bought continued to ripen and go uneaten, until he returned.

However, even upon his return, he realized there was no way he could eat all these bananas. So the question became "What are we going to do with a bunch of ripe bananas?" MY solution: make banana bread!

A day and a half later this was what had become of the banana bread

I think my roommate is enjoying my solution.

*For the recipe check out Banana-Bread-Recipe.com

MIA but still baking, cooking, eating away!

Ok, ok so I have been extremely MIA. If my old boss and friend, Mark, were here right now he would be shaking his head in disappointment, since I have not kept my promise to blog once a week every week. My sincerest apologies Mark...and anyone else who reads this and has missed me (I know you're out there).

What can I say? Life has been busy. My move from NJ to San Fran has been a huge success. It took a while for me to get settled in, but I am finally in my apartment, making friends, and eating, baking and cooking like no other. San Francisco is a foodies paradise. There are a million different restaurants to try, lots of fresh and healthy produce and food options to cook with, and lots of dinner parties with friends. So needless to say, I have been in food overload...in a good way.

Here are a few things that I have been cooking, baking, eating, just to bring you up to speed.

Halloween: My friends out in Palo Alto had a Halloween party. I was asked to partake in devising the menu as well as cook and bake some things. The end baking result were the following cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting decorated to look like garve stones and pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting to look like, well,  pumpkins.

Dinner with Friends: Some of my new friends and I decided to make dinner one night. We worked up a menu and each took one dish to buy the groceries for and cook. We decided on baked cod, a mixed green persimmon salad and a warm couscous salad with roasted butternut squash. The salads were a thing of beauty

The rest of my experiences I, unfortunately, don't have photos of but I'll give you a run down and try to provide you with as many links as possible so you can get the best possible idea of what I have been doing.

For "Friends"giving I made an oatmeal nut crunch apple pie

Also at that Halloween party I made "Hungry Girl's" pulled pork sliders

I made spaghetti squash for the first time, with sundried tomatoes and garlic. Just whipped that up on my own.

I have eaten at The Plant, Marlowe, Super Duper Burger, Susie Cakes, Kara's Cupcakes, Bar Bocce, Tacolicious.

So you can see, I have been busy. I will try not to stay away for so long from now on, but if I am please know that I am still baking, cooking, and eating away!