Here's something I learned not too long ago - you can freeze bananas. I mean, it's not that I thought you couldn't freeze a banana, it just never occurred to me to do it. At first I made the mistake of freezing them with the peel on - of course, I didn't realize it was a mistake until it came time to take the peels off. It wasn't so much that they were difficult to remove, the big problem was that I almost got frostbite on my fingers trying to do so.

Now, you may also remember from Jam Season 2008 that I bought a metric shit ton of blueberries, and after making a metric shit ton of jam, I still had about half a flat of berries left over. You can use frozen berries just as easily as fresh in something like lemon blueberry muffins, so I measured them into cups, tossed them in freezer bags, and froze those too.

So where am I going with this? Banana-Blueberry Smoothies, of course! I found the recipe in this month's, or maybe last month's, VT and have been making them a couple mornings a week for breakfast and they are just fantastic, so I thought I'd share. Super easy. I don't have a blender, so I just toss it all in the food processor and whiz...

For 2 smoothies:
2 frozen bananas cut into 1" chunks
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/4 cup granola
1 TBSP honey
1/2 cup to 1 cup water

Place all the ingredients except the water in a food processor or blender and process til smooth. The mixture is pretty thick so I then add 1/2 cup of water and process again. Use up to a cup for a thinner smoothie.

Enjoy!

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Zucchini Muffins:

Seriously, go make these now. Super easy, and no, you don't have to peel the zucchini. You can also make bread, but you have to pace in front of the oven longer.

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1. Grow a metric shit ton of tomatoes.

2. Suffer through three consecutive days of 100+ degree heat in an area of the US that is just simply not equipped for that kind of bullshit.

3. Watch as 10% of your metric shit ton of tomatoes begin to turn red.

4. Follow three consecutive days of 100+ degree heat with three consecutive days of motherfucking rain in an area of the US that IS equipped for that kind of bullshit, but doesn't necessarily welcome it this time of year.

5. Watch as your red tomatoes begin to split because of too much motherfucking rain.

6. Freak out. Pull all red tomatoes from plants.

7. Peel and seed tomatoes. Chop and combine with olive oil, garlic, wine and basil. Simmer for about 15 minutes.

8. Observe how 10% of a metric shit ton of tomatoes is reduced to about 32 ounces of tomato sauce.

9. Fill two whole pints with sauce. Process at 11 pounds pressure for 15 minutes. Hope the canner doesn't explode.

10. Serve with pasta.

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Rustic Bread: Food Processor Edition v.1 is in the midst of its first rise, despite the fact that I thought I killed the yeast. Instant yeast doesn't need to be proofed, silly. I know that. I even intended to use active dry (are you sensing a theme here?) but opened the fridge and grabbed the instant anyway. That's some neural pathway shit I can't explain.

The food processor method was actually faster than using a stand mixer, but also somewhat more pain-in-the-ass-ish and involved a level of guessing I wasn't too happy about. So, we'll see how it goes. You may get a not so great photo of a not so great loaf of bread here in the near future.

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