I am up to my ears in soup. Seriously. Friday was a very tough day - I had a chunk of change in car repairs, I got hit by a high school kid on my way to get the car fixed, I stood in the rain for an hour to deal with a rude police officer with height issues (aka - a short man). After my gut wrenching estimate on my car was made, Evan then asked what I wanted to do for dinner: I suggested ramen noodles.
Let me just take a moment to say how wonderful he is - Evan not only planned to pick me up from the shop, he came immediately once I said "Uh, I got in a car accident" and stood in the 60 degree rain in flip flops. We came back to my house and made vegetarian chili. I don't really think you should have a recipe for something like chili, but there are definitely some things that make Evan's chili exceptional. He uses taco seasoning, chili beans, beer, other various beans, and a lot of hot sauce. I added some chopped red pepper at the perfect moment, and we had a wonderful bowl of chili. I then fell asleep on the couch at 8:45 PM.
Like I said, it was a rough day.
Anyway, so I have that. I have this winter squash that I MUST use today in a Jane Brody recipe for Creamed Squash Soup. I have all this rosemary that can ONLY be used in Molly Wizenberg's Chickpea -Tomato soup. And I just found an opened quart of Trader Joe's Roasted Pepper and Tomato soup. Ugh.
So I made some bread. Banana bread, specifically. My new Trader Joe's (about 1 mile away, oh glory day) had all of these ripe bananas. I felt guilty not buying some, like they'd be tossed to the curb by the end of the day. But they are so ripe, I couldn't eat them in time if I tried. Then I realized that all of this soup will need something aside from, well, more soup. It's in the oven right now, and the whole house smells like fall.
Again, thank you Bon Apetite for making my life just a bit more better.
Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water
1 cup mashed banana
Preheat your oven to 350. Grease and flour a bread pan.
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, water, honey, and banana. Add to the dry ingredients. Mix well. Pour the batter into the bread pan, and sprinkle 2 tsp sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon on top of the batter. Bake for 1 hour, or so. Eat and enjoy the fall.
