an hour of super

Last night, I arrived at my house at 5:25pm with a plan: make dinner and go back to school for rehearsal. And the plan actually happened as planned.

This is an account of the hour of super.

I fed the cats and petted them as I walked in. I allowed myself time to actually use the bathroom (it had been a busy day), and then to the kitchen I went. First, I put water on to boil for making rice. I squished a clove of garlic into the water with my garlic press. I preheated my oven to 400 and took the chicken drumsticks out of the fridge. I greased my glass 8"x8" pan and arranged the chicken in it - all to one side. I cut up half an onion and arranged those on top of the chicken. I found the whole carrots and sliced them lengthwise into sticks, and they went on the opposite side. Lesson in quick cooking: use pre-made sauces.

I pulled out the Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce, and smothered the chicken and onions in it. Next, I got out the creamy Caesar dressing and drizzled the carrots with it. I topped those with some Italian bread crumbs and put the whole pan into the oven.

Then, I turned around to my boiling pot of water and added brown rice.

Here comes the most super of parts.

I realized that there were two overripe bananas on the counter, and I was immediately inspired to make banana bread. Well, muffins. Out came the Betty Crocker cookbook, and I began. Oil, reduced amount of milk, eggs - wait, there are no eggs in this house because I'm a grad student who doesn't have time to shop for groceries. Literally. No. Time.

Is there a recipe for banana muffins without eggs? (I wondered this to myself, going over to my laptop.) There is!! I found it here. I'll also post for you what I did, because, as you know, I don't follow directions very well in recipes.

Banana Muffins Without Milk or Eggs (amazing, I know!)
1/2 c. shortening (I used Crisco)
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp vanilla
2 smashed overripe bananas
1/3 c. chocolate chips (I used Nestle's dark chocolate chips)

First, cream the shortening and sugar. Add the vanilla. Mix in the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. The dough will be rather stiff at this point. Add the smashed bananas - it should look better now! Spoon into prepared muffin tins. Bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes. Watch carefully.

The muffins came out dense, moist, and fabulous. I discovered that parchment paper can be used to sub for paper cupcake liners - effective.

Also, my dinner was done in sufficient time for me to eat it. Win.

And I was on time for rehearsal.

Feeling (momentarily) super.

September, in summary.

I've been taking photos for the past month, I promise! Here's a quick catch-up for you:

Banana cream pie from scratch - turned out deliciously!! The custard was delicious.

A whole big kettle full of apple sauce from the apples we picked up in our yard - mmm!


And an apple-blueberry pie for good measure. The cute little star cut-outs in the crust are from an antique cookie cutter that I picked up for 75 cents at an antique store.
I've been loving my Pyrex mixing bowls, and just got a medium-large light yellow one, courtesy of my mom. I now have one of each size - large yellow, medium-large light yellow, medium red, small blue. Yay!

Here is my first ever attempt at meringues - they look great, here...
...and here. They also tasted yummy. However, they were sooo sticky! They didn't get crispy enough. I'll try again, another day.


September has also included so much busyness at grad school, various conducting opportunities, weekend travel, football, poetry-writing, reading, not enough knitting, and time with the handsome husband. That's September, in summary!

blue-rhu-banana muffins

Two very ripe bananas, one with an Alleluia! pick in it from the Easter butter lamb. Hubby and I find this very funny, and we maintain the (cleaned) pick to put in surprising spots throughout the year. Here is a butter lamb for reference:

Alleluia!

But, there was no milk left.

And a lot of rhubarb - massive 1" across rhubarb (haha - alot of rhubarb)

Frozen blueberries

+ cinnamon

=

Blue-rhu-banana muffins!

Here's what I did:

Preheated the oven to 400 degrees F.
2 medium bananas, very freckly and ripe. Peeled, then smashed with a potato masher.
1 large egg and about 3/8 cup canola oil added to the smashed bananas.
Got concerned that perhaps it would not be liquid-y enough, so I added about a quarter cup of blueberries.
Remembered that I have a ton of rhubarb cut up and waiting in the fridge. Dumped in about 1/2 cup of that.
Re-read the recipe and realized that I was supposed to add the dry ingredients before the extra fruit. Slight panic, but kept calm and carried on. Insert British royal graphic design here.
Make stuff.
More like, forged ahead with abandon.

2 cups of flour, a rounded and packed 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons baking pow-pow-pow-powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt...
And a 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon would be good, too. Yes. Do I diverge from the recipe path often? Yes.

Stirred gently so that most of the dry ingredients got wet. Good.
Still slightly concerned about the thick batter, I dropped large spoonfuls into the paper-lined muffin cups. It made about 21 muffins, some of which were much larger than others. It probably could've made 24.

Baked each batch for 20 minutes, hoping that it would work.

Ate one.

Ta-da! They are delicious.

I had another one...
and another one...
and another one... somebody stop me!