Recipe: Banana bread (with nuts)

I must admit to not have eaten banana bread (in German it would be a "Kuchen") before moving to the US. But now, I have noticed that my husband and I intentionally let bananas ripe on our kitchen counter: time for banana bread!

Yes, I bake other things than cookies. ;) Usually, I prefer bananas when they are still a little greenish ... But this is an alternative:

Whole grain banana bread (with nuts)!

Ingredients (makes one loaf):

• 3 really ripe (brown!) bananas
• 150g (or 5 oz) butter, not salted, at room temperature
• about 130g (or 4-5 oz) sugar (I usually use raw cane sugar)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp almond extract (optional)
• 230g (or 8 oz) whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 100g (or 3.5 oz) chopped nuts
• 100g (or 3.5 oz) rolled/old-fashioned oats

First, mash the bananas with a fork on a large plate. Really, mash them as if there's no tomorrow. ;) (Sometimes I sprinkle a little bit of lemon juice over them to prevent browning, but that is optional.)

Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl. In another bowl, beat butter, sugar and eggs (and almond extract) until slightly creamy – I do use a handheld electric mixer, but a fancy kitchen aid might serve as well. ;) 

Then add the dry ingredients and make a dough. Finally, fold in the mashed bananas.

Bake in a bread loaf pan or a square shaped pan for about 45 minutes at preheated (oops, I forgot to mention that earlier) 350°F (180°C). 

After 20 minutes already, the yummy yummy smell should lead everyone to the kitchen.

Enjoy pure with coffee, for dessert or buttered for breakfast with honey!


Remarks:
 * Of course, you can always substitute margarine for butter!
* The almond extract is optional, but does - in my experience - enhance the nutty flavor of the whole wheat flour.

Monumental Memorial Day weekend

I guess we must be finally americanized to make a ten hours one way trip at Memorial Day weekend. But to be honest, driving a US highway is much calmer than driving the German Autobahn. 10 hours would be equal to a trip from Hamburg to Munich without traffic jams and speed limits on the left lane at about 160km/h (=100mph). Something very unlikely I would never do. Because even at 160km/h on the left lane, somebody would be faster ...


However, here in the US we drove from SE Minnesota to Western South Dakota where our friends and us had both rented a cabin in the Black Hills. And we did some major sight seeing!

Our first stop after checking in was - of course - Mount Rushmore.  Overseas, this mountain carving is as much an icon of the United States as Lady Liberty in New York. We also heard a lot of foreign languages on the terrace and the President's Trail. I was also surprised by the variety of license plates in the parking lot. The only state I remember not having seen was Hawaii. ;)

Mount Rushmore - unfinished rock carving

Afterwards, we checked the map to see what also to do before returning to the small and rustic cabin. To our surprise, the world's largest mountain carving in progress, the Crazy Horse Memorial was just 15 miles south! What started as a one man's vision in 1948, is now continued and funded by a non-profit organization. Offers of financial support from the U.S. government have been turned down at least twice ... Therefore, it still is a lot of work to do before the carving looks like the model. The head alone took 50 years to complete!

Crazy Horse Memorial - unfinished rock carving 2 - but work is in progress

One day, it should look like that ...

Because we celebrated camping to much on Saturday, our Sunday started late ... We had late lunch at this lake and picknick spot in Custer State Park - such a beautiful place!

Nature at its purest, Custer State Park

 Afterwards, we continued our monumental sight seeing to Wyoming. You might know the Steven Spielberg movie where this impressive butte or monolith was featured prominently in. Its official name Devils Tower was caused by a wrong translation, the most common Native American name would be Bear's Lodge.

Devils Tower, Wyoming - a "rock pimple"

On Monday (Memorial Day), we packed, returned the keys and hit the road again. But we left the I-90 in Wall (but did not stop at Wall Drug Store though it was advertised along the interstate since we entered South Dakota) and took the scenic loop through Badlands National Park. Wow!
The sun was shining brightly, we had bottled water in the park - but I somehow felt drying out while taking those pictures of the several viewpoints featured along the road.

Badlands National Park, but could as well be on Mars

Badlands National Park - striped mountains

green + yellow + red + brown = bizarre

On the next weekend, we are planning to explore more natural beauty at the north shore of Minnesota at Lake Superior.