Samhain, Returns, Bananas

Well, I haven't posted in a year and twelve days, and since "a year and a day is the pagan way," I figure I should get back into posting here, since I miss it. Long story short, last year was Hell Semester, parts II and III (this semester might be part IV, but fuck it). On top of that, my mother passed away in January, and a good friend of mine took her own life at the end of August, so life was just pretty terrible in general. Needless to say, I did a lot of comfort eating.
On the lighter side of things, I discovered that, despite the insanely unhealthy things I was comfort-eating, I am probably the only person in the world who will lose weight when he subsists on junk food and antipasti. Thankfully, I've gained back much of my prodigal poundage, so I'm fractionally less twiggy than I was when I came back to school. All this food talk brings us to...

Samhaintide Banana Bread
(version 1)

So, it turns out that the pantry in my apartment is a really good place to (over)ripen fruit. The bananas that were perfect on Friday were quite beyond ripe this afternoon. Solution? Make spiced banana bread! This was my first attempt at writing my own cake recipe, so it still needs tweaking here and there, but preliminary results are delicious!

4 bananas, mashed
1 stick butter
¾ cup white sugar
¼ cup tightly packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
1 Tbsp 1 tsp bourbon
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2½ tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F
2. Beat together the banana pulp, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, bourbon, and eggs
   
3. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. As it melts, whisk in the white sugar until it is quite smooth
4. Let the butter/sugar mixture cool a little, then beat it into the banana mix
5. Blend in the flour, salt, and baking powder
6. Pour into a 9x9 cake pan and bake for one hour, or until a toothpick stuck in the cake's centre comes out clean

This cake is very dense and spicy and delicious. And best of all, it's healthy for you! (Totally! It's got bananas and everything!) A good use for overripe bananas, especially when the weather calls for this sort of spicy confection. The cake didn't quite rise the way I wanted it to, and it baked a little odd (maybe I should have baked it in glass instead of lovely, non-stick silicone?), so I need to tweak the amount of flour, and maybe add an egg. Also, another tablespoon of bourbon wouldn't go amiss. But, all in all, it is very delicious.
Glad to be back and posting again~ Stay tuned for version 2 of this recipe! Also, coming up in my next post, one of the richest, beefiest stews you'll ever eat. 'Til then, eat well!