You might be wondering why the hell I am making a recipe with an ingredient that I hate...well let me tell you. It goes a little something like this.
1. I hope that this one recipe will change my mind about this ingredient
2. If I don't like it I won't eat it and that is better for my lovely little figure
3. Good chefs don't always just cook for themselves they cook for others
4. Because I can...



So today I made Mommom's Chocolate Bourbon Spiked Banana Bread. And I have to admit this recipe had a few ulterior motives:
1. I had bought a giant bottle of bourbon for that bourbon chicken recipe I made a few weeks ago and I thought the 3 T that this recipe called for would get me closer to finishing that bottle


2. If I brought this recipe in to work I thought the 3 T of bourbon would instantly make for a happy and positive work environment
3. I wanted to know who the hell Mommom is...and come to find out it is Joy the Bakers Grandma...cute name right...I always just called my Grandma Grandma...how boring and unoriginal (Grandma I know you aren't reading this because you are blind but just know that I love you even thought I didn't have a cute and sassy nickname for you).

Can blogs also do shout outs? Hell it's my blog so I guess I can do anything I want, right? Anyway I just want to give a shout out to E & J for letting me play with their wazoo camera....having fun trying to take real pictures...yes they are a work in progress but...well hell isn't everything.

So tonight I actually wanted to make a shrimp and orzo pasta salad and I actually went to the grocery store after the gym to buy the ingredients, however the meat/seafood counter was closed. To most people you might be like,"oh crap," however to someone like me it was almost a mini-temper tantrum on aisle 4. However, because I am a Dispatcher I recognized that I needed to be flexible, divide and conquer so that is what I did...I bought frozen shrimp. However, due to my lack of patience, when the shrimp took longer than 14 minutes to defrost I allowed my self diagnosed a.d.d. to kick in and I decided to make banana bread.

I also had another realization tonight...you know you bake too much when you go to bake and you realize that the bowl of your mixer is still dirty in the sink from your last baking experience. Wow aren't I accomplished!!!



Anyway I digress...banana bread! So add the dry ingredients in a bowl-flour, baking powder and salt. I bought my flour at Fresh and Easy and I couldn't find a bad that said all-purpose flour so I bought this. I was a little confused because it said "wheat flour," but I figured all flour starts as wheat and they had a different bag that said "whole wheat flour," so I figured that was more of the wheat variety I was thinking of. Hmmm....

In the past I have also always used "regular" salt for baking and kosher salt for everything else, however recently I have decided kosher salt all around...and so far I haven't noticed any discrepancies in my baking.



In a mixing bowl add butter and sugar and cream until it gets to that pretty yellow color. Add the eggs and mix. You are then supposed to add the mashed banana, however due to my vomit reflex, I decided to throw the bananas in the bowl whole rather than mash them because I was just afraid that the action of mashing bananas might just put me over the edge. Mix the bananas with the bourbon and the lemon juice. Finally add the dry mixture and combine.



 Once this is all mixed turn off the mixer and stir in the nuts and chocolate chips. I have to admit I did add more chocolate chip than the recipe called for because seriously when was the last time you heard someone say,"crap this recipe just has way too much friggin chocolate." Just saying....



Here is the link to the recipe:
http://leitesculinaria.com/80161/recipes-chocolate-bourbon-spiked-banana-bread.html

And although I hate bananas even I have to admit that this bread smells divine in the oven. I obviously can't be a really good judge of the flavor profile of this recipe due to my predisposed judgments against bananas but I did not see anyone go running and screaming after eating it so all is right in the world in my eyes.

"If you have the power to coax something beautifully sweet out of your kitchen, it's as though you have a magic wand in your hands." -Joy the Baker

Happy Monday y'all!!! (yes that is a little Southern shout out...yup 2 shout outs in one blog...that is just the way I role). Peace out!