Friday, June 22, 2007

The Banana Battles

I have a confession: I love bananas. Passionately. I do believe they might be one of the world's most perfect foods. Sweet, fragrant, satisfying, and they even come in their own wrapper. You don't even have to wash them before eating! And if you believe my parents, the peels make for great plant food for rosebushes. Since my parents always have roses blooming in the backyard during the warmer Michigan months, I'll take their roses as proof that roses love bananas too.

But like most things in life, bananas are not perfect. My problem is that I am very picky about the ripeness of my bananas. I don't like them when they are green and starchy, nor do I like them when they become soft, mushy, and overly sweet. I prefer them when they have just lost all traces of green, their texture is firm, and their taste is sweet. Since I live alone and persist in buying big bunches of bananas at the market, I end up with loads of overly ripe bananas. Being the frugal type, I can't throw them out, so following some advice given by Crescent Dragonwagon in her fabulous book Soup and Bread, I peel them, split them in half, place them in little plastic baggies, and throw them in the freezer. This solution is fine if one actually USES all those frozen bananas in a timely manner, but now they are threatening mutiny within my freezer! So this weekend, I plan to make Banana Nut Muffins (from Soup and Bread--hey, I should be getting paid for all these Soup and Bread plugs!), but what about the other twenty pounds of bananas in my freezer? Perhaps until I use up all those frozen bananas I should put a halt to buying fresh bananas...but that would be like ending a friendship because the person was too darn lovable!

So does anyone have any new ideas for a frozen banana stash beyond the usual muffins, banana bread, and smoothies?

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