Banana Festival

Sacramento hosted the 5th annual Banana Festival this weekend. Charles and I like to check out festivals so we slathered on the sunscreen (we're white and burn easily) and headed down.


Some festivals are great. Others are just OK and then there are some that just suck.

The Banana Festival was probably somewhere in the middle. Here is my critique:

First negative was that they charged an entrance fee. It was only $5 per person, but it was a pretty small festival.

The second negative was that they promised a whole bunch of banana treats and goodies and I did not really see any of the promised items. I was looking forward to trying to decide what I wanted. The food booths were plentiful (considering the overall size of the festival), but they did not have good signage so I did not know what half the booths were actually selling. Plus they did not have two festival staples--kettle corn and fudge.

They did seem to have a good entertainment schedule. When we arrived a small circus group from San Fran were performing. It was a little strange and after we found out where they were from it all made sense.

Overall, we both felt we could have spent our time doing something more interesting. But you never know until you try something.

Bake Off!

This afternoon I participated in a Bake-Off. It was hosted by the base community center. It ended up just being me against one other lady, but it was a lot of fun. It took me a few days to decide what to make. I decided on my Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.

I ended up winning Best Tasting! My competitor's cupcakes were salted caramel mocha and tasted very good, too. I am glad I was not a judge having to choose between the two.

Bananas Foster French Toast

Once, back in college, my school cafeteria had some culinary students making things. One station had bananas foster. It was so delicious! Charles and I made it once since then, but we didn't get it quite right. For some reason lately I've been thinking about making it again. We finally bought some Rum and had a bunch of bananas, so I was going to make some for dessert, but then I remembered that we did not have any vanilla ice cream to enjoy it with.

The next morning, I wondered if there was a recipe for Bananas Foster French Toast. Thanks to Pinterest (yes, I'm obsessed just like everyone else), I found a great recipe! I was going to take a picture of my delicious breakfast, but the camera battery was dead. But it was definitely worth sharing. Here's the picture from Pinterest and a link to the recipe.

Source: I added a tablespoon or so of rum in mine. Yes, it was for breakfast, but the alcohol cooks out. And it's not bananas foster without it.

Banana Bread French Toast

I had a few bananas saved in the freezer and Charles wanted me to make banana bread. A week or so after he asked me, I finally made it. Banana bread is simple and easy to make. As if banana bread isn't amazing on its own, I made banana bread French toast! I had it at a restaurant outside of San Antonio in October and I've had a recipe for it sitting on my computer for a while now. 

Here's how you can make it, too!

Ingredients:
1 loaf of Banana bread (I used the Betty Crocker recipe, but feel free to use whatever recipe you would like)
3 eggs
3 Tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (I didn't have any, so we just used milk and some sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk the ingredients together. Slice the banana bread. Heat a skillet on medium high. You can butter the skillet. I didn't and it didn't make that much of a difference. Dip the slices in the mixture so they are fully coated. Place on skillet and cook until each side is golden brown.

The banana bread French toast on the griddle

The finished product with some powdered sugar...just like the pros.

Later this week, I'm going to share my no-sew cushions for my kitchen chairs. Super easy project!