Tonight I am prepping a romantic lover's picnic as part of The Boy's birthday present. Of course, it'll be hard to top last year's birthday present (which was umm.. well... me), but I figure this will just have to do.
The forecast calls for rain, which very well might ruin my plans to take the ferry to the island and find a secluded lakeside spot to eat, but even if we simply end up sitting on the floor of his condo at least we'll have plenty of tasty edibles to deal with the disappointment.
The Menu:
Tortellini Salad
Calzone with Calabrese Sausage, Sundried Tomato Pesto and Artichoke
Chai Banana Bread
//
Chai Banana Bread
⅓ cup white sugar
⅓ cup brown sugar
¼ cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (around 3 medium bananas should do)
¼ cup strong chai tea
1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ cup candied pineapple, chopped
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly butter a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.
In a medium bowl, beat the sugars and butter until creamy. Beat in the eggs, tea and bananas until well blended. If your bananas aren't particularly ripe (which always happens to me because I never plan to make banana bread until the last minute and then discover the only bananas I can get are ever-so-slightly) add a tablespoon or so of honey to the batter at this point to compensate.
Mix in the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder until just combined. Quickly fold in the pineapple and pour into the greased loaf pan.
Bake in preheated oven for about 40 minutes. Bread is done when the top is firm to the touch and a golden brown color. Set aside to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes or more before slicing.
Anonymous says
I saw on your chocolate banana bread recipe that you were considering making this one chocolate; That could, at least in part, be accomplished with President's Choice Chocolatey Chai Tea (available at any Loblaws/Superstore etc. chain.
(P.s if you have enough bags left over, try the President's Choice Chocolatey Chai Latte...It's out of this world, and can be found on their website)
shannon says
Made this tonight, it was delicious! I made mine with 1 jumbo egg (it was what I had on hand) and added 1 tsp. vanilla, 5 chai tea bags brewed with a very small amount of water and I didn't have any candied pineapple on hand but it was still so good. Thanks for sharing this recipe.