Coconut Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of those things that you'll do crazy things for, like buying green bananas and leaving them out to get overripe and brown while fruit flies start to invade your kitchen.

This banana coconut bread combined one part crazy with one part leftovers. I recently received a crock pot (courtesy of an awesome contest at Kiss My Broccoli) and made a sweet potato and pea curry that left me with 3/4 a cup of coconut milk. I decided I would make banana bread using the coconut milk, so I took to the internets for a recipe. I found one that gave me an idea of the right proportion of coconut milk to flour and then I poked around some more.

This banana bread was so perfect - it had good texture and was sweet (chocolate chips) but not excessive (there's 3/4 cup of brown sugar). If you've never used coconut milk before, shake the can really hard until you hear liquid then shake some more before you open it. The next time I have leftover coconut milk, I realllllly hope there are bananas in the house.

Coconut Banana Bread

3/4 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 cups self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional, but really?)

Whisk together coconut milk, brown sugar, eggs, honey and vanilla. And mashed bananas and stir.
In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients - oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet and stir until combined. Fold in coconut and chocolate chips.

Pour into a greased 9x5 loaf pan, sprinkle with raw sugar if you have it, and bake at 350 for about an hour and 15 minutes.

Brunching at Foundry on Elm

Wow, so the Boston Brunchers made it back out to the Davis Square neighborhood and went to brunch at Foundry.

Admittedly, this is not my first time at Foundry. It opened right about the time we moved to the Davis area and we go here a lot. As in, my Davis Square go-to. So, apologies is advance for a biased review.  

I've had brunch here before - the first time was the day after our wedding and it was before Foundry got a new chef, so let's toss that from the record. The second time was after an 11 mile run. I nearly fell asleep at the table! But I did have a preview of our starter - these delicious beignets! I'll tell you, they are just as delicious when you aren't willing to eat your own hand. The beignets are dusted in cinnamon sugar (brings back memories of the french toast at Catalyst) and they come with a lemon curd and a chocolate sauce. The nice part about these sauces are that neither is too sweet - the chocolate is a bittersweet and the lemon curd is nice and tart.  Everyone had to hold back on these.... Because.....

Sunday was the launch of Foundry's French country buffet brunch. We all walked over and checked it out. There was so much variety - eggs, breakfast sandwiches, potatoes, little scones and breads. I tried the blueberry cream cheese crepes which were excellent as well as the pain perdu bread pudding - which, you guys, we all raved about! It was lovely and definitely worth going for the buffet if you can't make up your mind at brunch.

Every morning for me starts with coffee, today we added a mimosa.

The vol au vent (bacon, spinach, poached egg, mornay sauce, flakey pastry bowl) and the breakfast flatbreads were the raved about dishes at the table. And, veggies - the vol au vent can be made without bacon.

I had the breakfast sandwich (also without sausage) and apparently was too excited to get a clear picture. Oops! Every time I brunch I debate between the sweet and the eggy. Today I went eggy, which was clearly the right choice based on the aforementioned beignets and pain perdu and crepes... I was pretty happy with my egg sandwich although I could have used some kind of vegetable on this plate.

 

Like I said, I debate between sweet and eggy, so I was pretty happy that we ordered the dutch baby for the table. It was a perfect sweet end to brunch. It also is served with ice cream, which is a bit much for me in the morning. (Put that on record, I'll never say it again.) The apple and blueberries on top were delicious though.

So... Brunch a Foundry? Will I be back? Resounding yes.
Also, I encourage you to try dinner or head over here for a drink. My favorite gnocchi & squash dish is on the menu and is a great winter dish.


And just in case it wasn't obvious by my raves over this great local spot, brunch was free of charge but my opinions are my own.

Garlicky Swiss Chard

I'm going to do something different and post a veggie recipe tonight.

After going for a run this morning, I took the longest drive ever to get to the Union Square Farmers Market. Seriously, I should never drive through Powderhouse Square on a weekend. Or ever.

I got there with 15 market minutes to spare, but luckily everyone still had plenty of goodies. (Although I may be the only one who still has tomatoes.)

Drumlin Farm had beautiful rain ow chard that I picked up along with broccoli and potatoes. I also got apple's and carrots and met Dan of Dan's Brick Oven Bread. I am a bit of a bread connoisseur (I eat a lot of bread) and Dan's and Mamadou (in Winchester, can be found at farmers markets and Whole Foods Fresh Pond) are my favorites.

Anyway, with this fresh beautiful chard, I made my go to chard recipe. So easy, fast, and yummy. Make sure you wash your greens and stems thoroughly so you don't end up with grit on your plate...

Garlicky Swiss Chard

Heat about 1 T oil and 1 T butter in a pan until butter is melted
Add 2 (more or less depending on how much chard you have and how much garlick you like) cloves chopped garlic and a shark of red pepper flakes, let saute until fragrant
Add swiss chard - I toss the stems, then cut the leaves into ribbons about 3/4 inch wide
And saute until wilted, 5-8 minutes, sprinkle on a little salt while they are cooking

I ate this straight up while waiting for the rest of dinner to cook....

Catalyst with the Brunchers

On Saturday while I was sitting in the car in the driveway listening to a fascinating episode of This American Life or some other NPR Saturday show, I got a message on twitter from Renee of Boston Brunchers asking if I could join a brunch at Catalyst the next day. Well. Yes! I was bummed I couldn't make it to either brunch in Davis Square, so I was happy to be able to join something on this side of the river.

Catalyst changes their menu weekly, which is awesome, although for me, this week's menu was a little meat heavy. Vegetarians, don't let that deter you (although dieters, maybe you should keep your distance, or at least come with very good restraint), because the other options were fantastic!

 When you walk into Catalyst, you see a nice big space, with a large chunky bar and a cute chicken on the chalkboard. One nice thing about being in Kendall Square is that it's kind of hip and fresh (compared to my usual haunts in Davis) - even the bathrooms were so cool. I snapped a photo of this light fixture that was hanging over the seating area with fireplace by the entrance. From our table we could also see into the kitchen where brunch was being made!

After two nights of beer, I was prepared not to have a cocktail and to just drink as much coffee as possible, but our waitress suggested the seasonal mimosa of the day, which was an apple cider mimosa. I don't think any of the 10 brunchers at the table said no to that. (And it was phenomenal. 110% worth it.)



We started with a plate of ENORMOUS chocolate scones, skillet coffee cake, and spicy maple syrup wings for the table. Seriously, those scones were as big as my head. I admit to being a scone snob, so I'm going to tell you about the coffee cake. I saw it come out of the kitchen to another table and I could tell that this was going to be insane. And it was. There must have been so. much. butter. It had a nice crunchy crust on top, and a good ratio of crust to cake. This would make a nice breakfast on its own. You should definitely come to Catalyst with a table full of sharers.
 

Last time I was at brunch (post wedding of the year), I got eggs, and I was just plain sad about it. So today I went for my one true love, panko french toast. Admittedly, panko french toast is not my true love, but french toast in general, yes please.

This was no ordinary french toast, you guys. It was a nice crispy sourdough bread, crusted in panko, and I'm pretty sure deep fried, then coated in cinnamon sugar, and served with a dollop of bourbon whipped butter. I'd suggest you share this with your brunch date. I could barely eat through half of it. So crazy good.

My table mate had a delicious looking poached egg. Word on the street too is that the homemade ketchup is outstanding. I can vouch for the honey mustard sauce that came with french fries.




When you're dining here, you notice the theme is this cute little rooster who shows up on everything - including the water for the table!

I had a fabulous time at Catalyst, and it's on the list of Kendall Square restaurants/bars to bring my husband back to. 


And brunch was free of charge & my opinions are my own. 

Pumpkin Beer Bread (AKA facebook stalking for breakfast)

I came across this recipe on facebook a few weeks ago and I think I've made it about 4 times. There's currently a loaf in the oven, and I have fingers crossed it comes out ok. I accidentally on purpose added the beer to the flour before the pumpkin mixture. Don't do that. (Or maybe do, we haven't seen the outcome yet, but really, probably don't.)

The first time I made this, I thought it was too sweet. Super moist, but sweet. I'm pretty sure I didn't accidentally double the sugar, so I'll recommend using pumpkin from Whole Foods and not the reglar old Libby's brand.
The second time I was annoyed by the sugary sweetness, and upped the whole wheat, cut the sugar by half (?? It was the last of the brown sugar), and added walnuts and chocolate chips. As one would expect, the texture was off, though the flavor was not so bad.
Needless to say, I didn't do that twice, so third time came out quite nicely. Following directions FTW.
And now? Well, we'll see what comes out of the oven in an hour...

Also, I use Brooklyn Brewery's Post Road Pumpkin. It's appealing and not too aggressive for drinking.
As a pumpkin beer, I highly recommend Dogfish's Punkin. And if you like either of those, and don't like to drink candy, you should stay away from Southern Tier. It was the gooiest sweetest beer I've ever had. (Might have worked in this bread though.)

Apparently I don't have any pictures of this bread, so here's a double rainbow.

Summertime

Well, it seems as if I went the whole summer without any blog posts. 

Here are five highlights:

1. There was a work trip to Hawaii. I learned to surf.

 2. Benson's ice cream. Post beer festival and trip to Ceia Newburyport. 

3. Trip to Montauk/reliving childhood beach days

 4. Famous kitteh is famous, #eastwooding. Followed by weekend in upstate New York.

 
5. Mass Brewers Fest

Also, my favorite birthday cake, and some words of wisdom.
 

Anyway, we've hit fall, and I Facebook recipe-stalked this awesome pumpkin beer bread. Many stars, rave reviews all around from the inlaws, and leftover beer to drink!

In the Night Kitchen

It has been a rough week here In the Night Kitchen. Just a shout out here to Maurice Sendak, the inspiration for this blog name, who passed away today.
His NYT obit is here.
And his appearance on Colbert from a few months ago is here.

The Night Kitchen is still really distressed about MCA. Ugh, world, ugh.