The apartment has been trying to clean out the freezer, as I have previously mentioned. But here's why:


While it's exciting to pretend our freezer is turning into Hoth, it is not very practical. Neither practical is the three frozen pie crusts my roommate has had in there for months. But someday! He will make us quiche. But probably not in the next week. I had a bag of frozen berries that I hadn't used yet, so with my college-learned skills, I came upon the novel idea of making berry pie. I'm a genius, I know. I didn't think I would have enough berries though to fill up a pie, so I also bought some fresh strawberries. I glanced at my 'vintage' (1985!) Sunset Pies and Pastries book. They called for 6 cups of fruit, while the frozen pie crusts want 3.5 to 4 cups of filling. This detail was somehow lost on me, as I used about 5.5 cups of fruit. This ended up filling the crust to the brim. Hmm. This is also a problem when you put the pie into the oven or take it out, as the flimsy disposable pie tin is...flimsy. And bendy. Anyway. The below is somewhat adapted from the Sunset book, although it's really pretty basic.

End-of-the-summer, dying-freezer berry pie


Thaw frozen berries for a few hours, and drain off any excess water or juice. Add enough sliced strawberries to make 5.5 cups of fruit. Add 1 cup white sugar, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, and a half tablespoon lemon juice. Stir gently and let sit for about 15 minutes. Take out frozen pie crust and also let thaw for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
While everything is sitting, make the streusel for the top. Sunset says 1 cup flour, 1/2 brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, then rub in 6 tablespoons of butter. I had to sub white sugar, as I really truly believed in my heart that I had brown sugar. I also added 1/4 cup of oatmeal for a healthy sort of appearance. Dice the butter first, and then mash it in with a fork, then your fingers. This ended up being too much for my already overloaded pie and I had maybe a scant cup leftover.
Brush pie crust with a beaten egg. (I poked it a few times with a fork, but I don't think I really needed to do this.) Add as much fruit filling as possible. Panic. Top with streusel, panic some more. Wrap edges of pie crust with tin foil. Place in oven for one hour. (If you are me, don't make the streusel until after you put the pie in the oven, because you're looking at a different recipe. Make the streusel, and add it on 10 minutes later. Take the pie out of the oven, spilling filling in the process. Wipe up with kitchen towel. Add topping, place back into oven. Spill more filling. Wipe up with kitchen towel, which is now scarred for life. Thank your lucky stars that you had enough forethought to place a baking sheet on the rack underneath the pie when it spills some more, because this sort of thing has happened before. Not recommened, except that last tip about the baking sheet.) Take out of oven-carefully- after about an hour, when streusel is golden brown and filling is bubbling or near bubbling. Let cool while you're passed out from the combination of late August heat and standing in front of the oven while you were trying in vain to get the pie out safely.Confidential to travelling roommate: Come back soon. Other roommate apparently doesn't like berry pie at all, and I'm pretty sure I could eat the whole thing myself if I really tried.

This post is brought to you by the letter "B"

Well, now there's all this pressure to be entertaining. Hmph. Speaking of entertaining, I had my father visiting this weekend. My mother tells me he likes super-ripe bananas, so I went out and bought some. He ate one, leaving me with five. ("Yes, we have no bananas" was a favorite song of my mother's. I still have no idea what it means.) Which means...banana bread! (And maybe banana pudding somewhere down the line, but I don't know how that's going to work out.)
My favorite banana bread recipe is Big Bird's. Yes, that Big Bird. The recipe is from a Sesame Street book, part of a series of...I dunno, 26? I'm pretty sure it's out of print, so I'll post my version of the recipe. I've tried a few other recipes, and none of them are good. Or maybe I was just brought up to prefer a really moist and dark banana bread.

The first step is mashing three ripe bananas to kingdom come. As shown in the lovely image below. It gets better, really. Or at least briefly. Just looking at the pictures alone will show a distinct narrative arc of not pretty, pretty, and not very pretty. Add 1/4 cup melted butter. Mmm. Then add 3/4 cup of honey, 1/2 tsp of baking soda and 1.5 cups of flour. (Big Bird suggests whole wheat flour, but I generally just use white flour and am all the unhealthier for it. I am not a role model like Big Bird.) Having stirred that altogether, pour into an oiled loaf pan and placed in a preheated (you did preheat, right?) oven at 350 degrees. Bake for one hour, although after one hour my loaf feel apart when I took it out of the pan. So use a loooooong toothpick to poke through the whole loaf to check for doneness. Cool briefly in pan, then let finish cooling on wire rack. Let's linger for a while on the pretty picture. Well, apparently the banana bread doesn't want to linger, but wants to get a move on. Or I need steadier hands.
Shoulda baked it longer. I tried cooking it a little longer in a turned-off oven after I got the top half off and then pushed it back in. It didn't really work very well, but was definitely moist and tasty as ever.
In conclusion, children should be allowed to watch television as it leads to things like the best banana bread.