all bananas must grow up

LAST WEEK I set out to try two different banana bread recipes and concoct my own. This was going to be a big step, with the whole trying-to-prove-you-know-the-rules-by-breaking-them bit, and it promised to be a fun project in the kitchen. Alas, the week dragged on, and on, and rolled into a whole new week, with one tiny insignificant problem.

You know how, no matter how unripe bananas may be when you buy them, they still brown faster than you seem to be able to eat them? Well, my problem to date with my banana bread project is the inverse. Last week, I bought the ripest, yellowest bananas I could find because good super-ripe bananas are essential to a good banana bread. And let me tell you, in their high school yearbook, these bananas were voted Most Likely To Brown Quickly. And yet, like the proverbial watched pot that cannot boil, these bananas cannot ripen fast enough.

Stay tuned…