going bananas!

I volunteer at our local thrift store, which benefits our food bank. Lately, the food bank is only open once every two weeks instead of the previous weekly schedule. And occasionally they get fresh produce from local markets and gardens which really helps out with feeding the people, but sometimes this fresh (perishable) food doesn't "sell" well with the clientele, and instead of throwing it away it is put outside the food bank for folks to help themselves. Well, the other day I walked to the thrift store to do my volunteer work and there must have been 50 pounds or more of bananas with the free sign on them. Unfortunately, when the food bank is closed or it is near the end of the month (both were the case this day) the thrift store traffic goes way down. The other volunteers know that I preserve foods and suggested many times that I should take some home. As it turned out, very few people came by the thrift store that day and very few people took any bananas. I decided that once I was done with my volunteering I would walk home and get my car so I could take some home before they all became compost. And I did.

I brought home a ton of these very ripe bananas - and yet, I barely scratched the surface on the amount of fruit that was there. Amazingly, even though many of them were (and are) quite bruised and spotted they are pretty good inside. I have been busy drying most of them as this is the best way for us to preserve them at the moment. 

But I've also been trying some interesting recipes with them too. We went to a friends house for dinner last night and I made a Banana Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting for dessert. Tasty.

I would have taken a photo of one of the individual pieces but they went very fast. You'll just have to make it yourself to see how it looks inside.
I also made a Jamaican Banana Bread for our breakfast the next day. Also very tasty.

fresh out of the oven

So, the house smells very banana-y right now as the dehydrator is busy doing its thing. We will reap the rewards and enjoy these sweet, dried-yet-chewy morsels all winter long.