Banana Bread with Walnut Coffee Crumble

The bananas at my house are regularly thrown into the garbage. We buy them, we forget about them, they start to turn a hideous brown color, then we remember their presence and quickly discard them into the trash. It makes me sad to waste so much food all of the time so I decided that it was time to make a change... and that change came in the form of Banana bread! 

Banana bread is by far the best way to use up uneaten and overripe bananas. It makes the perfect breakfast with a nice cup of coffee and is great because the bananas keep the bread so moist. I even burned mine a little and it tasted as if nothing had gone awry at all - that's the beauty of it all. And P.S., another way to save your bananas from the dumps is to freeze them. If you know you won't be eating them, just slice them and put them in your freezer for quick smoothies!

Banana Bread with Walnut Coffee Crumble

Yields: 1 loaf, serves 8 - 10

modified from Over the Hill and On a Roll

For the cake:

3 - 4 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork

1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 extra yolk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups of flour

For the crumble:

1/2 cup walnuts, plus extra

2 tbsn. brown sugar

2 tbsn. flour

2 tbsn. cold butter

1 tsp. instant coffee

1/4 tsp cinnamon

powdered sugar for decoration

Preheat your oven to 350 F. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy. Next, add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the mashed bananas, then the baking soda, salt, and flour. Only mix until combined, if you over mix the bread will be tough. Pour into a greased 9x5 loaf pan.

In a food processor, mix 1/2 cup of walnuts, brown sugar, flour, cold butter, and instant coffee. Pulse until the mixture starts to come together and form little pea-sized crumbles. Top the batter with the crumble, then sprinkle on the cinnamon. If desired, you can add some roughly chopped walnuts for extra crunch. Bake until a inserted toothpick comes out clean or until nice and golden brown, about 50 - 60 minutes. Once done, let cool completely, slice and enjoy with a nice cup of hot coffee!

P.S. Try Laura's fantastic version done with pecans, you can find it here.

Lily Allen covers The Clash

Click below to listen to the song:

Sprinkles {Newport Beach, CA}

I've been to Sprinkles a couple of times before. The flavor that first broke my Sprinkles virginity was a strawberry cake with strawberry icing. I've had strawberry cupcakes before and had horrible, and I mean really horrendous experiences. They tasted so phony and full of ingredients you couldn't even pronounce let alone find the origin of. But sprinkles was different, all I could taste was pure intense strawberry flavor. It won me right then and there.

Their simple display:

Simply tucked away:

Chai Latte on the left, Pumpkin on the right:

It's calling you, "EAT ME."

And eat it, we definitely did:

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a Sprinkles die hard fanatic. I can definitely live without them. We all could live without a lot of things, but life isn't about what we need, it's about what we want. Going through life without wants is like not going through life at all. It's just a cupcake when you think about it, just a damn cupcake, and a $3.25 cupcake at that! But they are delicious and there is no denying it.

The other day I decided to try some more flavors. Though I was heavily inclined into buying their famous red velvet, my love for chai and spiced pumpkin wooed me over. Though the chai flavor wasn't the kick in the mouth that I had hoped for, the nicely spiced cake became friends with my mouth immediately. The pumpkin was all I could have asked for: moist, earthy, delicious. Usually I am not the greatest fan to frosting; I absolutely hate overladen cupcakes! But what is special about Sprinkles is that their cupcakes and frosting combinations are perfectly sweet, at least for me. I lick the frosting till the last spot is gone, and that's pretty rare for me.

FFF (Friday Flickr Favorites)

My most recent Flickr favorites:

P.S. I kind of copied this FFF idea from Slow Like Honey, but shhhh... don't tell!

Chocolate Banana Waffles

I love Trader Joe's, it is my all time favorite little grocery store. They may not have everything, but they sure do have what matters, like their multigrain pancake mix. It is so versatile! I've even seen recipes for biscuits for it. But this time my sister decided to make waffles. She just got a 3-in-1 sandwich press, grill, and waffle maker and thought she should put it into good use. To top things off, she added chocolate chips and mashed bananas, one of my favorite flavor combinations. Making waffles couldn't have been any easier or more delicious! It's great too because we like to pre-make them, freeze them and then grab them on the go whenever we're in a rush. It's a hearty and stress-free breakfast. 

Chocolate Banana Waffles

Yields: 15 - 20 Waffles

1/4 of Trader Joe's Multigrain Pancake Mix

2 - 3 overripe bananas, mashed with a fork

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

canola oil spray

In a large bowl, mix the pancake batter according to the directions on the box (you can make as much of this as you want, just make sure to fix the chocolate chip and banana amounts accordingly). Stir in mashed bananas and chocolate chips. Heat waffle iron and spray with canola oil before each time, cook until golden brown, about 8 - 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Excitement!

I just got some new things for my scrapbooking collection at home today, YAY! Don't you just love target? The dollar section has increased my dependence on weekly visits. I could spend all day there and I always tend to walk out with a checking account less filled than when I walked in.

Chinese Chicken Salad

I've been finding myself craving this salad for the last couple of weeks and quite frankly, I'm sick of buying $10 salads for something so brainlessly easy to make at home, and let me emphasize, much, much cheaper. I love saving money, especially in times like these!

Chinese Chicken Salad

Yields: Enough for 3 - 4

2 Romaine hearts, chopped

1 can of mandarin oranges, drained

8 oz. slivered almonds

3 green onions, sliced

20 wonton wrappers, sliced into strips

2 tbsn sesame seeds

1 cup or more of canola oil

4 Tyson teriyaki chicken breasts, sliced (from Costco)

Feast from the East Sesame Dressing (from Costco) 

In a small saucepan, toast the slivered almonds and sesame seeds over medium-low heat until nice and golden brown. Remove from the pan and fill with canola oil until it reaches about 1 inch in height. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until oil is glossy and hot, about 5 minutes. Drop the sliced wonton wrappers into the oil in small batches, making sure not to overcrowd! Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Repeat until finished and let cool for a couple of minutes. For the salad, toss all ingredients together and top with your desired amount of dressing. Enjoy!

YSL love

I've been looking for a new handbag and I was thinking Marc by Marc Jacobs since its the only designer that I can relatively afford. But it definitely didn't stop me from browsing such beauties as those seen below. I love the textured leathers and metallics at YSL, and especially the cross body bag: practical and glamourous. 

Spring Ready-to-Wear 2009

Here are some of my favorites from the recent Spring Ready-to-Wear collections:

Loved, loved, loved the technical gathering at BCBG Maz Azria...

...and the scalloping detail at Chloe...

...and especially the sparkle at Colette Dinnigan...

...and the killer revamping of B&W at Marchesa...

...and the three F's (fun, flirty, feminine) at Nanette Lepore!

But what I REALLY loved was Christopher Bailey's gorgeous collection for Burberry Prorsum; it had a way of tugging at my heartstrings. The beautiful earthy tones splashed in with pastels and the layering of sheer, wispy fabrics with strong architectural jewelry... I really could gush on for days. 

All photos by: Marcio Madeira

Bi-Rite Creamery {San Francisco, CA}

On a rainy day in San Francisco after a trip to the cult Tartine Bakery in the Mission District, we (some friends and I) wandered along the streets into Bi-Rite Creamery. Before finding lunch, we decided a starter of handmade ice cream would perk us up. We even dared it in the frigid weather! But honestly I could have been in the midst of Antarctica and I still would have opted for a scoop of Bi-Rite over a bowl of steaming soup.

I chose a double scoop of roasted banana and ginger toffee swirl, and let me tell you, the moment that cute wooden flat spoon hit my lips, I began swirling into a dream like world of sunshine and eternal happiness. No, I am not exaggerating. The roasted banana was beyond words and although I usually despise strong ginger flavor (odd, because I'm Asian), I could not get enough. Not only did the deliciousness make my day, but the staff was so incredibly charming and let us try as many flavors as our hearts desired! Because trust me, it was hard narrowing it down to just two.

The selection is just stunning!