Chocolate Bottom Banana Bars

Looking for an alternative to plain old banana bread to use up those aged bananas? Look no further than these chocolate banana bars: a layer of chocolate banana batter on the bottom topped with a layer of banana cake, sprinkled with chocolate chips. These are delicious as is but next time I might try adding cinnamon to the plain banana cake layer and mixing extra chocolate chips into the batter. They'd also be tasty with chopped nuts. Easy, peasy recipe to whip up. Need I say more?

Chocolate Bottom Banana Bars
Recipe from Moogie & Pap

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 3 medium bananas)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13-inch pan.

2. In mixing bowl, combine flour, soda, baking powder, and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg, vanilla, and bananas, beating thoroughly.

4. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat until combined.

5. Divide batter in half. Add the cocoa to one portion of the batter. Spread that portion in the bottom of the pan. Spoon remaining batter on top, swirling gently with butter knife if desired, and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until batter tests done with a toothpick or fork. Cool and cut into squares.

A Photo A Day [Day 131]

Uh oh. What strange sort of hostile alien planet has The Doctor landed upon?

Yes, this picture would be much nicer if my husband and I could agree on pizza toppings.

Theme: blue

A Photo A Day [Days 129 & 130]

Day 129

A flock of birds in the cold winter sky.

Day 130

My short-lived turquoise blue manicure. Shortly after this photo was taken I managed to screw it up while fixing a scuffed nail so I had to take it all off less than 12 hours after I put it on. I'm no good at being a girl.

Theme: blue

A Photo A Day [Days 127 & 128]

For the first time since I started this project I flaked out and didn't take a picture yesterday. Even on days when I've uploaded a photo from another date I've made a point of always taking some sort of picture but yesterday I just couldn't do it. I had such a bad headache that after dinner (and then throwing it up, which is probably TMI) I was done for the day, going to sleep around 7:00 and sleeping for over eleven hours! I considered getting my camera out and taking a quick photo first but I was afraid that much movement would just make me feel worse. So this picture was technically taken on 1/4, but I don't want a gap so I'm counting it for yesterday.

Day 127

Found this mini mixer ornament half off at Target after Christmas for only $2. Not quite as useful as my real mixer but just as cute. Looks like my mixer had a baby! Now if only I could get my money to do the same.

Day 128

Theme: blue

A Photo A Day

I took advantage of the long weekend to do something I rarely do: veg out and be utterly unproductive. I spent most of the time in bed, watching The Twilight Zone, reading, and working my way through the leftover Christmas treats. As you can see, my photos reflect that laziness and inactivity.

Taken as I was getting ready in the morning:

Day 124

I copped out and took a picture of a project already featured on my blog, my alien silhouette plate:

Day 125

Yesterday's photo of my chocolate fudge pomegranate cookies was my photo for day 126. See? I was so lazy that I didn't even bother to take a separate photo for my project.

Theme: Silhouette

Amy Butler's Style Stitches Sew Along

One of my blog friends, Bree over at My Crafty Crap, is hosting a year-long sew along following Amy Butler's Style Stitches book. I've wanted to get my hands on one of Amy's books for some time now so what better excuse than this? Even better is that Bree's currently hosting a giveaway of a copy of the book on her blog so head on over to enter and join in the sew along. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Chocolate Fudge Pomegranate Cookies

Left with some pomegranate seeds after I made Bobby Flay's roasted Brussels sprouts with pomegranate and vanilla-pecan butter (yes, that is a real dish and the recipe can be found here) I hunted down an appealing-sounding recipe to use up the remainder. I was hoping to restrain myself from baking for at least another week since we're still working our way through leftover Christmas desserts but I wasn't about to let such a precious commodity go bad.

After a quick poke around The Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen I settled on some chocolate cookies with chocolate chips and pomegranate seeds baked right in. The flavor combination seemed sensible enough that it wouldn't alienate any of my taste testers but adventurous enough to raise it above your standard drop cookie.

The recipe's simple, quick to whip up, and after setting in the fridge for a few hours bakes into delicious chocolate-y cookies with a surprising burst of fruit flavor from the pomegranate arils and an equally surprising crunch from the seed at the center. I plan to take these to work tomorrow since that's the only way I can think to stop myself from eating the entire batch!

Chocolate Fudge Pomegranate Cookies
Recipe from Tasty Kitchen

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons pomegranate juice
1 cup chocolate chips (I used chunks)
3/4 cups pomegranate arils

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, then pomegranate juice and mix until combined.

Fold in chocolate chips and arils. Refrigerate dough for 2-4 hours (or more). When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F, roll into balls and set on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350F for 8-12 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.