Monthly Archives: July 2009

Starbucks’ banana walnut bread recipe

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Starbucks’ banana walnut bread

My mom came home the other day with a card from Starbucks containing their banana walnut bread recipe.  I thought I’d give it a try since it calls for buttermilk, which is not a common ingredient.  I have to say that we all liked the bread, which was moist and flavorful.

The batter turned out very dry for me, so I added a bit more buttermilk.  However, the bananas I used were a little south of large and not overly ripe, so just know that you, too, may have to make adjustments based on the state of your bananas.  I mean, until I added the extra buttermilk, the stuff would not even move!

The recipe calls for a baking time of 45 – 60 minutes, but my loaf needed a good 20 minutes more before the wooden test skewer came out dry.

One little tip:  keep a container of baker’s buttermilk on hand.  It’s sold dry and you have to reconstitute it with water.  It’s a godsend when you need small quantities of the stuff.

Here’s the recipe:

Starbucks’ Banana Walnut Bread Recipe

Downtown in Berkeley not up to snuff

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fried olive appetizer at downtown restaurant in berkeley CA

I think it all comes down to the fried anchovy-stuffed olives in terms of whether or not I’ll ever go back to Downtown in Berkeley.  Six of us went there for dinner recently to celebrate a birthday and had a subpar experience from the get-go.  First off, we were seated in the back room, which I was hesitant about, since it does not have the same vibe as out in front, but I figured I’d keep my big mouth shut for once.  Bad idea, as the service was not good.  Bread was slow in coming (which was particularly irritating for this meal, since much of what we ordered turned out to be so watery and/or skimpy, but more about that later) and water and other beverage refills were almost nonexistent.  As a matter of fact, the server assistant was not very nice when he caught wind of our unhappiness.  Instead of trying to turn things around, which is really not so hard to do with our group, he just seethed each time he had to bring us something.

Let’s start with the apps.  Matthew and I had just had the patatas bravas at Cesar, where they are magnificent.  I broke my own rule by ordering something that is great somewhere else and I was again reminded why I have that rule.  The patatas at Downtown were a shadow of what they should be.  They were like soggy steak fries that you could have anywhere, with a wimpy sauce.  We also had an $8.50 fried calamari that was made up of the smallest, most uniform rings that I have ever seen.  My question about the uniformity and lack of tentacles was met with a “deer in the headlights” look.  I cannot believe that Downtown uses a manufactured, frozen product, but I can’t explain what we were served.  As usual, we loved the fried olives, and ordered two plates.

All six of us had the chicken entree, which was not consistently plated, with several of us not receiving one or more of the stated accompaniments, and with the pieces of chicken varying in size from miniscule to reasonable.  I wondered who was expediting that night.  The jus on the dish was little more than stock, and it just didn’t work, to boot.  I felt bad for the whole party, having “pushed” the chicken, given how excellent it always was at lunch, regardless of how it was being served on any given day.

The server caught on to our displeasure and did not add the automatic gratuity to our tab.

I was really surprised to find this state of affairs, having eaten at Downtown many, many times for lunch – back when they served lunch – always finding the food and service fabulous.

Here’s hoping they just had a bad night.

PB&J breakfast

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Grilled peanut butter and peach preserve sandwich

You’ve seen the lowly PB&J elevated in recent time by food people everywhere.  From Peanut Butter & Co., a restaurant in the West Village of Manhattan devoted to the 60’s lunchbox classic, to magazine features adding all kinds of crazy ingredients to the mix.

I’ll be honest with you:  I can’t stand peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  My mother would never have packed one for me as a kid because she knows it would have ruined my day.  As a adult, however, I realize that the problem was crappy peanut butter and bad bread, which I have since made adjustments for.  Also, these sandwiches must be griddled.

I like to keep it simple by not adding a whole lot more than good, organic peanut butter, real peach preserves and a good bread, like Vital Vittles’ Sliced Real Bread, which gets a nice crunch, and a little butter for griddling.  The only other things that I might add are sliced bananas or a little grilled ham.

Here’s what you do to make grilled PB&J sandwiches:

1).  Melt a tablespoon of butter in a pan that does not stick, over low heat.

2).  Spread a good amount of peanut butter on one slice of bread.

3).  Droop a dollop of peach preserves on top.

4).  Gently press on the top slice of bread.

5).  When butter is hot, but not burned, gently lay in the sammie.  Cover and keep on LOW flame.

6).  After about 3 minutes or when bread is browned, gently turn over with tongs or spatula, first adding a little more butter if the pan is completely dry.

7).  Cover and leave on low flame for a couple of minutes or until browned on that side.

8).  Remove from pan, cut in half with sharp knife without burning yourself and eat.

Elsie the Cow’s cookbook

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Botsford, Harry. Elsie’s Cookbook. New York: The Bond Wheelwright Company, 1952.

I remember Elsie the Cow from my childhood in the 1960’s, when she showed up in all kinds of advertising pamphlets – made to look like “real” children’s books – we were given in school to extol the many health properties of milk.   The Borden Company must have spent big on all that targeted advertising back in the day, and people were not as sensitive to companies taking advantage of children as a captive audience and laying who-knows-what on them.

Elsie, created as a cartoon character in the 1930’s based on a real cow  purchased by the Borden family,  is still around as the Borden/Dairy Farmers of America spokescow.

I thought this cookbook would be corporate nonsense, but it’s actually very good.  Then again, milk is a more versatile subject for a cookbook, than, say, Cool Whip or Jell-O.  There are classic sauce and potato recipes here, and there is no reason this book could not stand as one of a cook’s workhorses when it comes to cooking with dairy products.  Sure, if has some scariness, as all cookbooks from that period do, but it’s minimal.

All in all, a highly usable piece of corporate advertising.

First pages of Elsie’s Cookbook

The new Berkeley Bowl

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Pasture butter and Acme rye bread from the new Berkeley Bowl

Matthew and I are not yet at 100% from our recent illness, but after two weeks we needed to get out of the house.  Since we had not yet checked out the new Berkeley Bowl (or, I should say, its newly-opened second location, Berkeley Bowl West) at 920 Heinz Avenue, we thought we’d head over there since we needed to pick up a few things for the weekend anyway.

This location is wonderful.  Although we were approached by political advocates for signatures, we were not overcome by numerous groups at the same time, nor by panhandlers.  This is Berkeley, so you have to be able to deal with this kind of thing, but I prefer to shop without being approached, so I was very pleased about not having to make a mad dash from my car to the store like I do at the Shattuck location.

It’s a very nice, modern market with wide aisles but very much like the Shattuck location, so Berkeley Bowl shoppers will feel at home here right off the bat.  There is a separate building that serves as a cafe with a Peet’s Coffee, and it is connected to the main store by a covered walkway.  There’s an inside garage (can you believe THAT?), so rain will not touch you whether you shop or have coffee at Peet’s.  Nice.

I got the suspects that Berkeley Bowl excels in:  fresh fruit and vegetables, good bread, pasture butter, sushi (the store-made sushi is really, really good) a couple of pecan sticky buns with so many pecans I don’t know how they make money on them at $1.50 apiece, and a large piece of frozen sashimi-grade albacore at $7.99 per pound.

I’m embarrassed to say how much I spent but I am typing from a home with a full larder.

Matt and I had a thick slice of Acme rye spread with salty pasture butter when we came home.  There is nothing better than a cup of tea with good bread and butter.