Banana/Chocolate Chip/Peanut Butter Bread

So back when I lived in Northern Spain my good friend Meghann cooked lots of yummy things. Probably my favorite was her Banana/Chocolate Chip/Peanut Butter Bread. Yum.

I made it this week and lots of people wanted the recipe (and I can never seem to find where I've put it when I want to make it) so I figured I would stash it here on the blog. It's got whole wheat flour and unsweetened PB in it, but I typically don't have those on hand and just use whatever I have (because Meghann said that was ok!) (but crunchy PB is def better than smooth for this) (and basically any kind of oil works, too).

It's perfect for those overripe bananas stashed in the freezer. The yogurt makes it really moist, with two bananas in it, it has to count as healthy (right?), and, let me tell ya, with a smear of Nutella on top--you'll be happier than a bird with a french fry.

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar or raw sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2  teaspoon baking soda
1/4  teaspoon salt
2 medium bananas, mashed (very ripe)
1/3  cup unsweetened crunchy peanut butter
1/4  cup plain fat-free yogurt
1 large egg
2 tablespoons canola oil
3/4  cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Coat standard loaf pan with cooking spray.
3. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl.
4. Whisk together mashed bananas, peanut butter, yogurt, egg, and oil.
5. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture until combined.
6. Fold in chocolate chips.
7. Scrape batter into loaf pan.
8. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out with few moist crumbs.
9. Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes.
10. Unmold then cool completely before slicing.

Austin, Etc.

Well, I am not doing well at my attempts to be productive today. I'm sorting through boxes to get ready to move and I keep running into files full of memories. I've been cringing (oh middle school), laughing (my freshman year in the dorms was possibly the funniest year of my life), and just generally being thankful for all the wonderful people and countless memorable experiences I have had over the years.

Speaking of memorable experiences, while I'm not being productive I thought I'd share some of what I've been up to--namely my trip down to central Texas!

I went down to Austin last weekend A) to see my brother Casey, B) to hear Buena Vista Social Club, and C) to get out of town!

I had a fantastic time. I toured a friend's coffee roasting facility, ate meal after meal of good food, heard five live bands/artists, made my best flan yet for the boys, sweated it out at Batfest (without seeing the bats...which was ok by me!), had brunch with an old friend and then poked around in small towns on my way back home.

I was too busy in Austin to take many pictures, but here's a few from the weekend: (you'll also notice from a few of the pictures that I was finally forced to break down and upgrade my 1998 version phone for an iphone!)

Touring Kohana Coffee's roasting facilities and getting the inside scoop on the entire process from the impossibly friendly owner!

Coffee beans from all over the world! She even had beans from Boquete, Panama! Piper was also kind enough to let me take some of the empty coffee bags with me--I ruffled through and found some good looking ones to go on my new walls. 

(I of course chose one from Boquete!)

I mentioned to one of Casey's roommates that I was on a flan making kick...and then of course I had to make it. I ran to the store and threw one together--surprisingly I think it was my best flan yet!

Buena Vista Social Club put on an amazing show! And let me tell you, 80 year old Omara Portuondo was the life of the party! Grandma can still get down!

On the way home I decided to humor my curiosity and poke around in some of the small towns I passed through on my way back to Fort Worth. When I saw the signs for Lorena, Texas I had to stop.

(I peaked into the windows of this old building to find a bank counter that looked straight out of It's A Wonderful Life!)

Then I made a stop in Waco for gas and drove around a bit: 

A shot from the Dr. Pepper museum!

Then, it was time for the best part of the drive: West, Texas! (Emphasis on the comma!) I stopped quickly in West on the way down to grab a kolache for Casey and me, but I did not hit the right bakery. This time I got it right, and, with time to be nosey, found some great old buildings and colorful locals. 

West was settled by Czech immigrants and still has a lot of Czech flavor...specifically in their bakeries! 

Yum!

You can also pick up some pickled pigs feet if that's more your style

My treasures--apricot and cream cheese kolaches, with cherry and cream cheese kolaches underneath them. I brought enough home to share with my family...but when Brian wasn't home, curiosity got the best of me and I ate his too! : )

Then I had a look around town: 

(An old theatre!)

Overall, a fantastic Texas weekend!

Destination Cooking: Part 2

What's up next? One of my all time favorite dishes--Spanish tortilla.

First off, Spanish tortillas have absolutely nothing to do with Mexican tortillas. They are both round, but that is pretty much the end of their similarities. In Spain a tortilla is basically an omelet and can come plain or with a variety of ingredients. The best version of tortilla, though, is the Spanish tortilla, or tortilla Española (also sometimes called tortilla de patatas).

Though commonly translated simply as a potato omelet, tortilla is much, much more. It is simple and ubiquitous--every bar/cafe worth its salt in Spain will have tortilla--but when you try to make one yourself, you understand that tortilla is not just eggs and potatoes thrown together.

When I lived in Spain there was no point trying to make one. Like I said, you could buy it anywhere, and the grocery stores all sold pretty decent pre-made tortillas for a couple of bucks. I knew it couldn't be that hard though--all my middle school students said they could make one, and...trust me, they were not all the most intelligent creatures. So when I got back to the states I confidently set out trying to make one.

Not only was it much more difficult than I imagined, it took forever. After lots of trial and error (and some secret tips from Spanish friends) I came up with a tortilla that I think rivals any tortilla I have eaten in Spain. The problem is...it takes me all day. Every once in a while I spend the afternoon slicing and frying potatoes to make one, but it just seems wrong that something so commonplace takes so long.

On this last jaunt through Spain I took the opportunity to talk to lots of people about their tortilla making skills. I got tips on how you can boil, roast and supposedly even microwave the potatoes to speed up the process. Then I found a recipe, from a real deal Spanish chef, for a 10 minute tortilla using...potato chips! I was dubious, but thought it was worth a try. The recipe came from Lobstersquad, and was a take on Ferrán Adrià´s recipe.

You need:

4 eggs (beaten together with a bit of salt), olive oil for the pan, 1/2 a cup of fried onions, and 100 grams (~3.5 oz~1/2 a bag) of good potato chips--don't skimp here! 

Mash up the potato chips and add them, along with the onions, into the eggs. Give it a good mix and let them soak for 5 minutes. (And, yes it looks a little gross.)

Coat a small pan in olive oil, heat it up and dump in the egg mixture. When it has started to setup, but isn't cooked all the way through, put a big plate on top and invert the pan to flip the tortilla onto the plate (you'll probably want to use some oven mitts/etc. when you do this so you don't burn yourself). Slide the tortilla back into the pan (runny side down), tuck under the edges of the tortilla and give it a minute or two more (this side will take less time). 

And voila! Tortilla de patatas!

The verdict? It was a little dry...but otherwise a fine substitution. The dryness was probably partially my fault as I was cooking other things at the same time and let it cook a little too long, or perhaps added a few too many chips. I saw other takes on the recipe that added a little broth to the mix--I might try that next time. Or add another egg. It also took me longer than 10 minutes (although not too much longer), but then again it generally takes me forever to cook anything. 

Overall, it might take some tweaking, but dang, for 10-15 minutes in a Texas kitchen, it was a pretty good tortilla!

Destination Cooking: Part 1

Until I move into my house (hopefully soon!) I am back at the parent's house. It's great and they are lovely, but it's also weird. So this week while they are on vacation it has been a great opportunity to take advantage of the (almost) empty house. What am I doing?

I'm not throwing house parties.

I'm cooking!

I'm no great cook and I always end up dirtying a thousand dishes no matter what I make, but I enjoy cooking. It's been a long time since I had a stocked kitchen to work with, so I got busy on some recipes/dishes I had tagged to try. I find that when I can't travel, cooking and eating does a pretty good job of filling the exploratory gap. My brother Casey has filled me in that people he knows are cooking up some of my recipes, and it's been forever since I had any on here, so I thought I might throw some of these up as I go through them!

First up--Southern Spain: Gazpacho. My brother Brian has a garden and his tomatoes were piling so I decided to channel my Sevillian friend Maica and make some gazpacho. (Gazpacho is a cold vegetable soup for those who aren't familiar.) Normally gazpacho includes day old bread--originally, before the days of blenders and food processors, the bread helped to pulverize/liquify the other ingredients. Maica, because of stomach issues, doesn't eat grains so makes her gazpacho with carrots in place of bread. It sounds like an odd switch, but it tasted just as good to me.

Here's the non-recipe recipe: It's more like a ratio. You want to blend together a bunch of tomatoes, a little bit less quantity of cucumber (peeled--don't be like me and forget that. It will definitely make the soup look less appetizing to have bits of green peel floating in it!), green bell pepper, a handful of chopped carrots, and a clove or two of garlic. You then pour in a good dose of oil and vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar), and some salt to taste. Then blend it up! Give it a stir and add in a little bit more of whatever you feel like it needs, or of what you like.

You will most likely want to add some water in, depending on how juicy your veggies were. Gazpacho is always served chilled, but Maica had another trick up her sleeve. Just blend in some ice in place of water and voilà, the gazpacho is instantly cold. Que inteligente!


You can also mix in some toppings to take it up a notch--Spanish jamon (cured ham) is typical, but I liked the addition of melon (cantaloupe, honeydew or watermelon), too.

Turn on the flamenco music and enjoy!

Camino De Santiago: Day 18 Leon-Villar de Mazarife

I WILL get through these Camino posts! My memories are already seeping out of my brain, so I'm gonna get on it!

(Last Camino post was here.)

After a skipping the suburbs of Leon to make the Easter celebrations and a rest day on Monday to take in the sights of Leon, I was feeling ready to hit the trail early Tuesday morning. For our rest day in the hostel we found out that the Benedictine nuns who run the hostel also rent out a handful private rooms. A few of us scooped them up and lived in what seemed like perfect luxury (towels! sheets! a door that separated me from the hundred in the next room!). I slept like a baby, the swelling in my ankle had gone down considerably and in this strange restlessness that hits you on the Camino, when I woke up on Tuesday I was ready to get to hiking again. 

I was also starting (what was in my mind) the last third of my Camino with a new resolve to not walk more than 20 km or so a day and to take care of my feet--hurrying through the wet Meseta resulted in numerous blisters, which, let me tell you, were GAMECHANGERS. So 20 km a day was the goal. No need to hurry. No more than 25. Or so I thought.

Leaving Leon I bid San Isidoro--looking lovely in the morning light--goodbye.

I also stopped to snoop around in the Convent of San Marcos, which is now a Parador (government run fancy hotel). 

Outside they had a pilgrim statue. I stopped to take pictures for the French women who were standing around it and chatted for a while. I definitely resonated with this pilgrim taking off his shoes... 

...and resting in the sunshine. By day 18, I knew that feeling well. 

I threw the concierge a nice smile and he let me have a little look inside the monastery. It is hard to wrap your mind around the fact that they allow you to sleep in these places. I was pretty taken with San Marcos. 

The ceiling of the monastery/parador

On the trail again! Oh how I love those arrows!

Just outside of Leon were these little houses built into the ground. I thought they might be some kind of cellars, but I think they were actual houses. Anyone want to enlighten me on these?

For some reason I told myself that Leon was the end of the Meseta. I don't know where I came up with that, but it isn't true. The flat, (normally) dry Meseta stretched on.

On day 18, like most days, I met up with some colorful people. One interesting character was this guy:

We all had pack envy of his rolling bag. He just zoomed right past us with his rolly pack. So smart! 

One of the loveliest, and simplest, people I met was a farmer in one of the small towns along the way. He was knocking the mudd off of his wooden clogs at the edge of his place when I walked by. We got to talking. There was little more than a block's worth of a main street to the town and I think he might have just been thankful to have someone to talk to. We chatted for a bit, and then he grabbed me by the back of the arm and told me that I was always welcome to come back to the tiny town and visit. I was quite touched actually. 

I also walked quite a bit with German Christian, Australian Kate and the Russian girl. I'd known Christian for a while (we had dinner together back in Terradillos), but had just met Kate. She was an Australian urban developer (and reminded me tons of my good friend Meghann). It was always fascinating to me to notice how our different backgrounds caused us to notice different things along the Camino. Christian was on a mission to teach her a new German word or phrase each day. I couldn't keep up, so I just learned two really well (Ja genauuu!). 

The Russian girl was a new face. She was walking huge distances each day and so had caught up with us from behind. She wasn't ready to stop at the end of the day and continued walking to the next town, so I didn't get to know her really well. What I did learn about her was that, while I wouln't even fathom carrying an entire bottle of shampoo, she was carrying a huge block of cheese, a liter of milk and an entire bottle of whiskey (which she drank together). 

Another vivid memory of the day was that the trail was lined with fragrant herbs. Kate, ever resourceful, picked herself a giant handful of what we were pretty sure was fresh thyme to go into the pasta dinner she was planning. 

When we got into town we had a peek at all three albergues and chose the one belonging to a guy named Jesus. Its walls were covered in sayings and messages in a dozen different languages, I ended up with a room to myself (hooray!), and the place had a kitchen--Kate, Christian, myself and a very talkative guy from San Francisco decided to cook dinner together. 

After cleaning ourselves up and doing laundry, I did a little blister maintenance and then soaked my feet in a laundry basket. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that before. We then made our way to the corner store to see what we could come up with for dinner.

Just walking down the street to the store we saw Villar de Mazarife pretty much in its entirety. It also turned quite cold when nightfall hit. It was time for layers and I had no shame walking around town and the albergue like this: 

We also got to feeling good when we started eating. We made something like a bag and a half of pasta, loaded with veggies, and a giant salad for only four people. We invited everyone we could, but there were no takers. Instead actually we ended up with more food--someone gave us their leftover bruschettas. It seemed impossible that we could eat that much food, but, let me tell you, we did. All of it. And it tasted so good. It also put us in the best of spirits. Maybe it was just the good food and good company, the nice view from our table on the rooftop of the hostel, or just the good day all around, but, sober as could be, we couldn't stop giggling and having the best time. When we looked back...we wondered if those sprigs of herbs might not have been thyme after all!

David, Panama!

{The ambitious agenda for today is: to do laundry. Don't ask me why after 2 months of hand-washing and hanging my clothes to dry everyday I am so unmotivated to do laundry when I have access to a washer and dryer. But such are the mysteries of life. To compensate I am sitting around in my Strongbad hoodie hugging my mug of tea (its COLD outside!) and listening to hands down the best pandora station I have ever made. I figured instead of staring into space I could at least keep going through some pictures and catch yall up a bit more. So here we go!}

After my brief stay at Farallon, aka the beach with no normal place to stay, I hitched a ride (yeah, yeah, I know, but his name wasn't Stu) to Penonome, Panama. Penonome, besides being a trabalengua (tongue twister), means--the chief is dead (one of the many things I learned from my talkative driver). From there I grabbed a bus to David, Panama. Originally I was just going to stay the night so that I could wake up early and get a bus out to Boquete, but after getting there and getting settled I knew I was not going to be ready to hop on yet another bus the next day. Even though it was sweltering (David is well known as the hottest city in Panama) and turned out to have zero tourist sights, it was still a nice place to get my city fix, relax and read for a little while. Unfortunately I don't have too many pictures of David--I didn't feel like whipping out my camera in most places. Here's a few though:

Looking down one of the streets. I will say I actually really enjoyed peeking into all of the old tailor shops. 

The city's one museum, which is housed in an original colonial home, ended up being under renovation. The architect did let me into the courtyard to snoop around a bit though.  

Still the museum/house

In the few days I have been home I have gotten lots of questions on how I budget/saved/afford to travel long term. Although I did have a nice dinner at a Lebanese restaurant in David (I saw the restaurant in the Lonely Planet guidebook and it might or might not have been one of the main reasons I chose to stay in David...) this is an example of how make my money stretch--a 25 cent meal of (nostalgically delicious) roman noodles.

On a related note: I also bought a small packet of curry powder to take my noodles from 25 cent average to 50 cent gourmet (saute some onions, add the curry powder then stir in the drained noodles--you won't be disappointed!)  but lazied out and just ate them straight out of the microwave. Ever the penny pincher when traveling I tucked the unopened curry packet into my backpack for the next stop. Unfortunately, for about a week every single piece of clothing in my bag (yes, all 7 of them) faintly smelled like curry. Oops.

And finally, this picture was taken in the courtyard of my hostel in David--The Purple House, which I would recommend. Everything in the hostel is purple, but they have binders full of tourist information/guest recommendations, artisan crafts for sale (the profits of which go straight to the artists), volunteer opportunities, drinkable tap water, and an former Peace Corp volunteer owner (who on the phone mistook me for a Spaniard! Granted it was a short conversation, but until I gave her my name on my credit card she thought I was "bien espanola." (For some reason my Spain accent is much stronger on the phone than in person. Don't ask why...) But after the disaster in Farallon, it was a small victories.)    

Also, at the entrance of their courtyard they had Hebrews 13:2 painted on the wall which was a happy reminder.

OK, that about wraps up David. Next up is Boquete!

{And seriously. This is the best Pandora station ever. It was perhaps a stroke of luck, but I feel like a genius.)

Go West Young (Wo)Man

I never planned to actually go to Abilene, much less make it my home (on and off again) for six and a half years. I swore I would never go to college there and then once I was there I swore if I ever did grad school I would go far, far away. We all see how that turned out. I won't lie though, it wasn't all easy: I spent a large chunk of time hating the place, the Mesquite trees, red dirt and ridiculous wind. Eventually though, I came to like the place. I even miss it when I'm gone. 

This past week I drove out and was busy both catching up and saying goodbye. It's tough cramming a semester's worth of socializing into one week, but I think I was lucky enough to touch base with just about everyone--from classmates and professors to friends, old roommates and former students who are now speaking English and holding down jobs with the best of them. On top of that I got to take in a few Abilene institutions like La Popular for breakfast one morning and The Paramount for their Christmas showing of It's a Wonderful Life. It was good week, so good in fact it even had me considering staying and taking a job there. 

Abilene I tell ya, it sucks ya in. 

I thought it through though, and I know I can't stay. So finally I got to say goodbye to Abilene (maybe) for good. 

A few pictures from the week: 

Driving out I remembered just how amazing west Texas sunsets can be. 

My friends also threw me an "engagement" party.

Thaaanks, guys. 

It was also time for our second annual Christmas cookie decorating party. This year thankfully Krystal made sure Abby didn't steal any of my cookies.  

Krystal's

Mike's 

Mandi's 

Mine

Abby's 

And, Cody's. Which are always a little special.  

Yum! 

Krystal's airplane cookie 

I also found this guy hiding away in my master's hood (which, I wore all weekend by the way). He came into our possession when we all worked in the Williford/Ellis suite at Logsdon. Some undergrad made an extra-credit 3D map of Paul's journeys with this lovely little guy standing in as Paul. Somehow we decided it would be fun to hide it in each other's bags/gas caps/furniture/desks/etc. Apparently it was my turn, but friends beware: I found him before I left town, so there is no telling where he is!

I also got to spend a lot of time with this little lady. 

Overall, it was a great week (even if I didn't make it out before my allergies exploded!). A big thanks to the people who made this week (and the last 6.5 years) great!