Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

What do you do with all the bananas you promised to eat but didn't get to and now are very ripe?

Usually we make banana bread. Actually SB does this and I always encourage him to include chocolate chips, because who doesn't love chocolate and banana's. This time I wanted to do something different and was inspired by Ina, yes the Barefoot Contessa, yet again. What's not to like about her. The recipe is found in her latest cookbook "How Easy Is That." And it was easy. You can find the recipe here.

I love that the recipe called for zest of one orange. That orange flavor is perfect, enhances the bananas and brings depth to what might be an average cake. I think next time I'd add it into the cream cheese frosting as well. The frosting is delectable as it is, but that extra flavor would be fantastic. I left out the walnuts, for one I'm not a huge walnut fan, even though I ate them in droves when I was a kid.  Plus I suspect I might be slightly allergic. But Ina includes them in her cake and decorates the top with them as well.  Make it your own and ready a nice cup of tea to go along, which is exactly what I did.

Apples

Where did last year go. It was a busy year for me and not a lot of posting going on. It's when I finally have time off I get a chance to reflect on why I started this blog. First of all it was a chance to pick up my camera more often and take pictures of the things I love. Food. Travel. And the wonderful things that make Life so great, partly more food and more travel. At least I'm honest. This year I hope to post more often.  My friend at eatdrinknbemerry told me yesterday, you need to pick up your camera more.  He is so right.  I promise more pictures.

SB and I have a pending trip to London and Paris. I'm sure I'll have lots to share, maybe even get a picture of SB on this blog. One can always hope he'll give in, but if not, no worries, we'll have plenty to tell.

Last year was a good year, we finally reached a spiritual goal that we've been working towards for many years. We look forward to whatever the future holds for us. Our motto, "go thru the doors that are open and stop trying to push the ones that are closed." So we hope to continue to live by that thought.  

What else have I been doing this past month. Quite a bit of baking and cooking, yay! Also with a few days off from regular life I had time to organize closets, shelves, books, and all kinds of stuff. I tossed out a few old cooking magazines and reminded myself of recipes I've longed too try. On visiting a friend she laid out a forty clove garlic chicken for herself to make and handed me Ina Garten's French Apple Tart to try. So I've made it 3 times since the last week of December.

Did you know that there are 7,500 varieties of apples ranging in color from red to gold, yellow to green, and being slightly larger than cherry and can be as big as a grapefruit. Approximately 2,500 are grown here in American. I found that amazing, I had no idea, as I've only touched probably only 6 - 8 different types of apples. I personally love apples with peanut butter, usually a gala apple. Really though, I like anything with peanut butter. So here's a picture of my french apple tart (this is the 2nd time). I have to say the 3rd was the prettiest, and was taken to a pot-luck dinner at my bosses house. I forgot to take a picture as I was so worried about getting it transported there without making a mess. If you want to make it, the recipe is found here.