Marbled Nutella Banana Bread yumm

  

       As much as I'd like to throw off the burden of expectations of filling gender roles, I must say it has been a thorn in my side for quite some time that I am not the most domestically gifted of women. I remember well the time a guy I was seeing asked me if I was domesticated. Domesticated? Well I don't pee outside of the toilet, I haven't chewed up a shoe in quite some time and I get along pretty well with humans, so yes I suppose I am domesticated! I found it quite humorous, but it did get me thinking that I am far from a natural homemaker. I don't cook very well and when I do laundry, I do a load of whites and a load of non-whites. Nothing fancy. If a future kid or husband wants to know the best way to wash something or whether hot or cold water sets a stain, I'll do the same thing they will---google it. I was just recently turned on to the existence of color-safe bleach, so that tells you how behind the times I am. I'm also vegetarian, so even though I can prepare a handful of tasty dishes, I don't know the first thing about preparing meat. Sometimes I feel like a failure as a woman, especially when I burn popcorn in the microwave (a domestically-challenged woman's best friend), but then I think of the one domestic thing I can do, BAKE!

       Not to toot my own horn too loudly now, but I'm known to make some awesome homemake cookies, banana bread (I must get it from my grandmother), pancakes, and quiches. Well, I'm probably more famous for the quiche because I accidentally added 2x the amount of cheese called for one time, so I had to improvise and ended up with 3 quiches instead of one. I'm not actually sure how that came about.

One thing I love to bake is banana bread, perhaps because I came to love eating it for breakfast every morning when we visited my grandma. She makes amazing banana bread. I've chosen a slightly different recipe, one more tailored to my personal taste---Nutella banana bread! I made it for the first time in Chile for Thanksgiving, and it's a miracle it "turned out" given my complete lack of measuring tools and baking powder and also the difference in degrees F and degrees C. This is my first time making it back in the good 'ole US of A and other than being a complete moron and thinking that 2 mini bread pans equal one 9 inch bread pan (which they obviously don't), it turned out surprisingly well.

My 2 biggest struggles when making banana bread are:

• Using barely ripe bananas because I don't possess the foresight to get them early enough to ripen properly
• Not being able to get the center cooked enough without drying out and burning the outside

This time I got the idea to make banana bread from two otherwise disgusting-looking bananas sitting on the fruit stand and I had also recently bought two mini bread pans to remedy that second problem, though I evidently should have bought three. 

As you can see they weren't the prettiest loaves, but the interior marbled nicely and they tasted great. I'll be straightforward and tell you though that as heavenly as the Nutella sounds, you can't exactly taste chocolate. Like at all. I prefer to smear (additional) Nutella on a toasted piece instead of butter :) I just really enjoy the marbled effect and the banana bread itself is wonderful, so I continue to use this fantastic recipe.

I have quite a few projects in the works, so keep your eyes open for the next update. Have a nice week!