Let's Go Back to New York!

Dear friends,

I’m disgusted and frustrated. I tried to make a batch of homemade mayonnaise, twice now, and the result is a big, sloppy mess.

Ugh. I dislike waste. I used my best, expensive extra virgin olive oil. I don’t want to throw it out nor do I want to admit defeat.

A couple days ago we ran out, and I’d been toying with the idea of making my own. I remember making it regularly as a kid, and I never had a problem. I was always amazed at the seemingly magical emulsification.

Well, I don’t have the same recipe, and as the song goes, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to make it again.

After the failed first try, I read some more about homemade mayo, and discovered one can supposedly remedy the failure. The original recipe called for two eggs. I think my broken slurry now contains at least five eggs, and still, no thick, creamy stuff to slather on our bread.

In the midst of my drama this morning Bill had the audacity to announce he was going back to bed. How could he possibly sleep with this noisy old blender grinding away? And the poor upstairs neighbors--if they weren’t awake before I tried to mend my concoction, they certainly were soon after.

I had grand plans to pack some delicious sandwiches with homemade mayonnaise for the plane trip to New York on Tuesday. I guess the store-bought stuff will have to suffice.

 Oh, did I forget to tell you? We are going on a buying trip to the Big Apple. Will you join me anyway, sans decadent mayonnaise?

We’ll take along homemade banana bread instead, which did turn out perfectly this morning. We can munch on it when we come back to the hotel room at night.

See you soon!

~renee


This recipe originally came from my college friend Kim, and I still use it regularly, more than 25 years later. I’ve updated it by reducing the sugar and increasing the nuts. I added about ¾ teaspoon of cinnamon to this morning’s batch, just because.

Kim’s Banana Bread
½ cup butter (1 stick), room temp.
¾ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
2 eggs, room temp.
3 extra ripe bananas
2 cups flour
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. With a hand-held mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Blend in the salt, soda and eggs. Mix in the bananas. Stir in the flour, and then the walnuts. Scrape the batter into a greased loaf pan and put it in the oven. Lower the temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a tester inserted into its center comes out clean and the loaf is golden brown and firm to the touch. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Then turn out the loaf onto the rack to cool completely. Slice and serve with butter.