Chunky Monkey!

My sweet husband let me spend all of the Costco rebate (and then some!) on stuff to make my blog great. I have a new scanner/printer/copier that scanned this lovely photo of me at about age 2 in Hawaii. And a new camera that took this picture of my buttonhole bag, all felted and done.

Isn't he nice?

Getting it all to work took all afternoon. The scanner set up like a dream, the camera took wonderful pictures. And then when I tried to get those pictures off the camera and onto the computer, we had a problem. My little Mac and the camera refused to be friends--they wouldn't even let me introduce them, let alone talk to each other and share my lovely photos. After too much time of trying to convince them that they'd really like each other if they just gave it a try, we headed back to Costco, returned the camera, and came home with a new one. This one loves my computer and they became instant friends with almost no help from me at all.

Don't you love it when you meet someone and instantly know you'll be great friends?

I'm very lucky to have wonderful, wonderful, dear, dear friends. All my life, I wanted a bosom friend like Anne's Diana, and as an adult I have so many! I'm very excited because my friend Sarah is coming to visit later this month for a whole week. We're going to knit and wander around La Jolla and have breakfast at Pannakin and brunch at Il Fornio in Del Mar and walk on the beach and knit and drink coffee and talk about books and go to Noble Knits and maybe ride the train downtown. Doesn't that sound like fun?

It's raining outside and I may have to go sit in the hot tub in the rain for a while after the girls go to bed.

The kitchen is starting to smell good--my knitters (the knittin' yahoos as Toben calls us, the knittin' llamas as Emma calls us, and the knittin' mamas as Audrey calls us) are coming in the morning so I'm baking Chunky Monkey Bread. Think Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream in bread form. Yep, it's that good! I'm making enough for Bible study on Thursday morning too, since it's my turn to bring food.

I get requests for this recipe all the time, and I usually forget to write it down for people. It's just forgetfulness really, I'm not guarding my secret recipe! Just to prove it, here it is for anyone who wants it.

Chunky Monkey Bread

1/2 cup margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips (mini ones, if you can find them)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)

Cream margarine and butter. Add eggs and bananas; mix well. Gradually add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Grease loaf pan and flour lightly. Pour in batter and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. Makes 1 loaf.

I usually double this recipe, because what's the point of only making one loaf when it will be gone in about 15 minutes? (A double batch will do a bundt pan nicely.) You can make these as muffins too. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. A double recipe will make about 2 1/2 dozen muffins. And they freeze well, so what's not to love?

Enjoy!

Comments

[Jen B.]

Will this work just as well with butter rather than margarine?

[chapmanchick]

thanks for the Anne reference. i thot it was just a canadian girl's obsession. i can summon the theme music at a moment's notice.... ahhhhhh gilbert!