This is Love. Martinlove.: Bottom of Barrel Baking & a Very Real Photo Tutorial

We've had a little collection growing in the freezer. I wanted to start baking with a few earlier this summer, but I thought the oven was broken. I say 'thought' because one day it didn't work, then 10 bananas later I realized it did 'miraculously' work. So, today I had enough of staring at black bananas in the freezer, and of digging into the chocolate chip bag whenever I needed a chocolate fix. They both had to go.

I googled, "Banana Chocolate Chip" and printed 3 recipes - cake, muffins and bread. I thought I might get to all today, then realized that I was quite low on staple ingredients, so the bread won out.

I love beautiful photo tutorials that you find all over the blogosphere. Crisp, stylized photos of step-by-step instructions for recipes and crafts and such. So, here is my version of a 'real' low-staged tutorial. I just grabbed the camera and tried to capture the process. Above is that shot that shows you everything you'll want to gather if you want to follow along. I've got photos of Grady opening every drawer and pulling out dangerous items I need to move. I settled on sharing this one as it appears he is helping by making sure we are using a clean cup. Actually, he's used to getting treats in these cups, so I'm sure that's what he's checking out. As you can kinda see, you'll need 1/2 cup butter, softened, 1.5 cups sugar, a tbsp. vanilla, 3 large very ripe bananas, mashed, 1/3 cup sour cream, 1/3 cup buttermilk (I had to make it by mixing 1 tbsp. vinegar with 1 cup milk), 2.5 cups unsifted cake flour (somehow I had this on hand) 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/4 tsp. baking powder and 1.5 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Oh, and 2 eggs.

Preheat oven to 350. The recipe said to lightly grease a 10" tube pan or use 5 greased & floured mini loaf pans. Here's what I could ocme up with.

In large bowl, cream together butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Stir in eggs one at a time, beating each time. Stir in vanilla. Mix in mashed bananas. I should note here that it bugs me when a photo tutorial skips one of the more interesting steps. Slicing the frozen skins and mashing the bananas was fun, but my camera was already too close for comfort in this project, so I left it alone during that process.

Next step - avoid tripping over open washer & tricycle in the middle of the kitchen on your way to combine the flour, salt, baking soda & powder.

Note that sugar and salt need to be added to shopping list.

Also, vanilla. (Here is a lovely shot of my catch-all garbage bag in the sink as I work.)

After stirring in the flour mixture into the sugar/banana slop, take the time to test the chocolate chips before folding them into the mixture. There may be 3 or 4 shots of this on my camera.

Pour batter into prepared pans. I only ended up using 2 of my bread pans.

Now, pop 'em in the oven for 35 - 45 minutes. Then, check to see what son has been doing this whole time...

"Nothing to see here, Mom - bye, bye!"

OK, I hear daughter stirring...

"Hey! What took you so long?!"

Oh! Bananas!

Back to see what son is up to now...

Ok, he's fine.

Now to clean while we wait, and to supervise...

Uh, oh... this won't be pretty.

Anna doesn't get all the fuss.

Helping to put the spinner back on the bike I notice a little artwork.

Now to check on the breads. Here they are at 35 minutes. Somewhat golden, but not popping back up to the touch. Knife test -sloppy.

A few more minutes, not really sure just kept checking and voila!

The lovely underside...

This next shot is blurry as I'm rushing it to my mouth!

And, of course we have to clean the pan.

Now, fast forward a few hours.

I'm on the phone and I hear a bang!

Followed by that cry that says, you oughta check out what that bang was.

Oh, dear!

He was horrified. I'm sure just because he thought he wouldn't be able to eat it now. I was just surprised he wasn't quiet about the whole thing and just stuffing his face.

The photo might make it look as though the floors are clean, but they. are. not.