Sunday, October 12, 2008

Check your work

I've used this post title before, when I was doing my taxes and made a mistake that had me owing the government a ton of dough.

That mistake was more easily fixed than this one, also involving dough:
If you're making chocolate banana bread, you really should check for doneness before you turn it out of the pan. If you don't, the thing may collapse in gooey pieces on the cooling rack and have to be scooped back into the pan to bake some more.

Your co-workers will be sad, because you meant the loaf for them. But it will taste OK with your lunch.
This particular lunch being sweet potato papardelles with homemade pasta sauce, fresh tomatoes and very lightly cooked fresh green beans (I tossed them in with the pasta for the last couple of minutes). Also, cold-drip coffee with milk, which can be poured over ice or heated, depending on what the office climate-control gremlins are up to today.

11 comments:

  1. the stars tell me that there will be bento in your future as you are already leaning that way....

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  2. Oh, I would have cried if the banana bread did that for me! Lunch looks great though.

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  3. Oof. Almost nothing frustrates me more than a baking project gone wrong. All the measuring and mixing and anticipating and then foompf: the banana bread doesn't make it out of the pan ok.

    Sorry.

    It looks yummy still, though. You could have bread-puddinged the thing...?

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  4. Lady, how do you find time to do all of this cooking? You're a pro!

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  5. db, I've dabbled in bento, but I don't feel like buying a whole bunch of bento gear when I already have a ton of Tupperware/Ziplok/Gladware/Ikea food-storage containers.I just grab whatever sizes I need, fill them and throw them in a paper shopping bag to carry in to the office.

    Mimi and Julie, it was tasty! I'll miss have fresh vegetables right outside my door.

    Joanne and Molly, it wasn't a total loss, at least. Taste fine, just not pretty. I hadn't invested a lot of time in it, happily. If it had been, say, a birthday cake, I would have cried.

    Summer, I wish! The bread takes 10 minutes, the sauce was a weekend project that now fills my freezer, and otherwise it was just boiling noodles and beans and slicing tomatoes. Not really time-consuming at all.

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  6. still looks awesome delicious to me! very creative!

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  7. It's better to taste good than to look good!

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  8. I find banana bread one of the hardest loaves to bake correctly. Often I will just make it into muffins or mini loaves.
    They should really call it the heartbreak loaf. :)
    Lunch, on the other hand, sounds great!

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  9. Thanks, Sonny!

    Amen, wendy.

    Thanks, natashya! I have made good-looking loaves before, but got too complacent with this one. Maybe I'll try muffins next time.

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