When the idea of getting a canner really looked like it was going to happen, we sat down and made a list of all the things we wanted to can so that we could get an idea of how much space would be necessary and what all we would need to acquire for the canning. One of the things on that list was bananas. So I hit the internet and began looking for how you go about canning bananas. There is very little out there. In fact there was so little that I had to call my local agricultural extension to ask questions about why different agricultural extensions claimed different things. According to the lady who called me back, the funding for testing the canning of bananas isn't as important and spending the funding to can something more "normal." As such different university extension programs might have different ideas about the safest way to can the product. Well, that made some sense. She referred me to the University of Georgia. This is apparently the mecca for anyone interested in home preservation.

As far as I now know, there are two ways to can bananas: puree and chunked. The only thing that everyone seemed to agree with is that you cannot process bananas with water bath canning. A pressure cooker is necessary because they have virtually no acidity.

Chunked
The University of Minnesota recommends cubing and canning just like you would pumpkin. This is due to their belief that straight pureed banana is too thick to insure the center of the jar has reached the appropriate temperature. So you cut it into one inch chunks, boil it in water for 2 minutes and place into cans covered in the cooking liquid. Provide 1 inch of head space and process for 55 minutes at 11 PSI.

Puree
I went with the Univeristy of Georgia's recommendations for fruit puree. Fruit puree was chosen mainly because I am only canning the bananas to use in banana bread. This way, if the processing isn't 100 percent effective I am then going to recook the bananas in the bread at 350 degrees for quite some time. Also if the bananas are already pureed it saves a step later. Due to the amount of discrepancy I wouldn't use this canned banana in baby food or another product you would eat raw right out of the can like, say, applesauce.

Lastly, there are some things that this version of fruit puree won't work for. As stated on the UGA canning website:

Important: These recommendations should not be used with figs, tomatoes, cantaloupe and other melons, papaya, ripe mango or coconut. There are no home canning recommendations available for purees of these products.

After all that, I was feeling fairly confident of the process necessary to can the bananas. Now I just needed to acquire them. Though we don't get a lot of our groceries from Save-A-Lot, they consistently have the lowest price on certain items. Bananas at .33 cents a pound is one of those things. Even more amazing, they sell their bruised or over-ripe bananas for .19 cents a pound! Twenty pounds of bananas later, I was headed home for a day of pureeing.

To make fruit puree for canning, you don't just mash up the fruit. That makes a substance which is way too gooey and dense. Secondly, you cannot water bath can bananas, so you have to have a pressure canner. Lastly, it also helps if you have a compost bin. After peeling that many bananas, I had quite a mound of waste which gladly filled up the compost bin with much helpful potassium!
Now that they were peeled, I broke the bananas into pieces and placed them in a medium sized stock pot along with the designated amount of water. This water is used to not only help in softening the fruit, but also to keep the sugar within it from burning to the bottom. For each quart of fruit, add 1 cup of water. I overshot this when I guesstimated and added eight cups (it should have been 6). It worked out fine, only I had quite a bit of runny banana glop left over when I strained the bananas out. Place the bananas on the stove and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently. I will warn you, the smell of cooking bananas is kinda nauseating. I don't know what there is about it, but definitely not a cozy, warm banana bread smell that I was hoping for. I decided to open up all the windows and doors hoping to flush it out as fast as possible. When the fruit starts to soften up and get all smudgy you can start to chop up any of the larger peices with a slotted spoon to speed the process or just wait another five minutes or so for it to all fall apart by itself. Using a slotted spoon I scooped the mushy banana goo out and into pint jars. Some people may opt to processe the goo in a blender, food mill, or food processer to make it nice and smooth. Twenty pounds (actually, I think it was 21 pounds) filled a dozen pint jars almost exactly. After filling I used a butter knife to remove bubbles, wiped the rims and placed them into the canner. Process for eight minutes at six PSI.

One odd thing I will let you know is that bananas turn pink when they are canned. I have no idea why, but almost thirty pints of bananas later, they are all pink. The first batch were canned in apple juice instead of water and I figured that was why. Um...no. The second round were canned in just plain old tap water and they are just as pink. It honestly kinda creeps me out! But, when I think back to The Spicy Barracudas baby food, most all the banana items were an odd sort of off-pink color. So many canned banana questions, so little time!

In reality it took much, much longer just to find out how I was supposed to can the bananas than it did to actually do the canning. I find this rather ironic, and a little silly. By the end of the whole research process it was no longer about just canning bananas for me. It became necessary for my stubborn self to know just why on earth this had to be so complicated! The results were well worth it, however, when there is chocolate banana bread on the line. With the thirty pints we now have an entire years worth of bananas and all for under 15 dollars!

Chocolate Banana Bread
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
2 large (3 medium) eggs
1 pint mashed banana (2 cups)
2/3 cup Dutch process unsweetened cocoa
1 Tblspoon baking powder
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions
Grease muffin tins and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, eggs, and banana till combined. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and cocoa. Add the flour mixture to the banana goo in thirds, mixing thoroughly in between each addition. Fold in pecans. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. To make as bread, bake in 9x5 loaf pan for 60-75 minutes.

The last batch of granola bars weren't exactly delicious. In fact they were disturbingly sweet, far too gooey to form bars, and got your hands sticky and gross. It appears I was distracted when counting 1/2 cups of honey and added one too many. Bleck! Needless to say, they sat in the pantry for quite a bit and weren't going to be eaten any time soon. If this happens at your house as well, do not fret. The entire process of creating your own family recipes is a learning curve with many detours into food that is less than edible. This does not mean it needs to be thrown away. It can be recreated into something quite tasty and no one has to know that it was orignially an utter disaster. I won't tell if you don't.

In our household when life gives you icky granola bars, you make applesauce granola muffins.

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup vegetable oil of choice
1 egg
1 1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 batch of failed granola bars

(There is no sugar in this recipe as the issues we seem to have always involve them being too sweet, you may have to add 1/2 cup of sugar and subtract something else to meet your individual needs)

Directions
Cream oil, egg, and applesauce together. Whisk together all dry ingredients. Combine oil, sugar, egg and applesauce in another and mix well. Break granola bars into quarter sized chunks of granola. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until combined. Fold in the granola in until all combined into batter. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Remember to grease your muffin tins or your loaf pan. If you are making bread, you will need to bake for about 50-60 minutes. Yields 1 dozen large muffins.

These work really well as a snack and also as a quick breakfast on the go. Since I've started sending Jules to work with breakfast, he feels significantly more awake and hopefully will be less likely to crave tobacco (he's trying to quit) on the way to work. They also make great give aways. My father and his "lady friend", as he calls her, devoured quite a few!

Today we celebrated the Spring Equinox in our family by making chocolate pumpkin brownies out of the last of our cans of pumpkin. In planting a substantially larger garden this year, I'm attempting to stay in season with the fruits and veggies we eat. Pumpkins are definitely august and winter fruits so baking up the last pumpkin brownie muffins seemed an appropriate way to usher in the spring.

We are lucky in that our house was previously owned by someone who loved flowers. Bulbs of all different types began sprouting up this last month and are beginning to bloom. They are a wonderful splash of color to move around our yard by transplanting and separating the bulbs. The front and side of our house are now covered in Narcissus so that passers by can see our cheerful flowers. They are also beginning to grace the spots between larger trees and bushes in the backyard as they continue to multiply. I cannot help but try to save them because they are so beautiful. Flowers are something I never would have appreciated or spent money on had it not just occurred without our intention. The flowers have been great additions inside as the rains are starting to come more frequently now. Just another reminder to me to stop and start observing the things around me rather than rushing through the day from one chore to another.

With the coming months our backyard of fruits will begin to come into season meaning an end to the heavy dense desserts the winter months lend themselves so well to. Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies are a great closure to the chilly temperatures, but more importantly they are a wonderful way to enjoy a glass of milk and an hour or so with the Barracuda.

Spicy Barracuda loves to bake things together. He enjoys everything from cracking the eggs to adjusting the levers on the mixer. We get to talk about all sorts things and it is a good way for us to have conversation around a subject that isn't intimidating. Lately we have also been working on fractions since he has noticed all the numbers on the measuring cups and spoons. He never ceases to amaze me with the things he notices and is curious about. More than anything it is a way to slow down the hectic pace of our days and fit in some one-on-one time where we solely focus on creating something together. I get to laugh at the amount of batter he can get all over his face, in his hair, up his nose, covering his ears and Lord only knows where else when he licks off the mixer attachment. He gets a great sense of accomplishment in being able to help and watch the ingredients come together turning into a delicious snack. To me he is not only learning the valuable skills of cooking and seasons, but also how to enjoy conversation and time with someone without the television on. Perhaps I'm just old fashioned, but I like the idea that my child likes to just sit and talk with people for stimulus instead of plugging in to an electronic gadget.

Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies

Ingredients
1 stick of butter
2 cups of sugar
2/3 cup of apple sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1 can pumpkin (1 home quart or 1 large Libbys)
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp all spice
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together eggs, sugar, applesauce, and butter. Blend in pumpkin and sour cream. In a separate bowl sift together cocoa, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, baking powder and soda. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing completely before adding more. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into greased muffin tins and bake for 15-25 minutes. This recipe makes two dozen, if you can keep them around that long.

Exactly what our family is undertaking is a bit blurry for lack of a common mission when we began. Long before I started reading books and acquiring resources from Powells, this whole process started as more of a realization that our food bill was too high, the family was getting stressed, and the result was that what little time we had for each other was caught up in being sick or grumpy. When I had experienced the same dissatisfaction with my own life, I started making cookies. My son and I had lots of fun, a few flour fights, many dirty, sticky fingers and faces, and the end result were a couple dozen treats to either share with others.

Our wonderful neighbors had given us some zucchini they had grown in their backyard garden and I had a recipie for chocolate zucchini bread. I figured why not? Barracuda and I spent the afternoon making chocolate zucchini bread and later that evening gave one of the loaves back to our gracious nieghbors. They loved it, Barracuda loved it, and I was once again smiling.

Jules was a hard sell on this concept at first. He grew up in a household of fried ham, cheese, and mayonnaise sandwiches (I kid you not, I've eaten them!). Name brands not vegetables were the norm and his mom was admittedly "not a great cook." The idea of making food wasn't a bad one, it just couldn't match up to Keebler.

Keebler was inherently great also because it did not contain vegetables. Veggies are good for you, not good tasting. Needless to say, Jules was not informed there was zucchini in the bread until after he ate it, loved it, and wanted more. The zucchini was mentioned only when I expressed a desire to take the extra loaf back over to the neighbor since they were the reason we had such yummy chocolate bread. Grudgingly, Jules agreed with the promise more dessert was on its way to replace the gift. The vegetable turning point had occurred. Jules explained excitedly to the neighbors how the bread contained zucchini but actually tasted good!

From that point on, when we ran out of a prepackaged snack I wouldn't run to the grocery store to acquire more. Barracuda and I would make it for the family to enjoy. However, it took a while before we stopped purchasing all snacks at the store when we went grocery shopping. With the help of the internet, recipes for everything from Nutrigrain bars to Granola bars to more dessert cookies and breads than I could ever have come up with on my own filled our void in sweet tasty munchies. Soon after, I began making dinner every night and planning for Jules and Barracuda to have meals ready when I was at work. With readily available food which was good (and ridden with hidden veggies) there was no need for take out. As our homemaking progressed the grocery trips became further and further apart and the veggies more and more visible.

At this point we are not yet producing our own dairy products (though I'm considering starting to make butter next month), pasta, tortillas, or sandwich bread (another endeavor for next month). Mainly because I haven't found an effective way to do it. I've heard that pasta making is just plain arduous and I don't have any of the proper equipment. As much as I'd like to get there, it will be sometime in the future. Tortillas fall into this category too. Our household doesn't have a tortilla press (though this may be like a rice cooker - completely unnecessary!) and I haven't yet found a effective way to start producing them at home. However, I've acquired a simple butter recipe as well as a great bread website!

As for the dairy, well, this just plain freaks Jules out. That coupled with my knowledge of how difficult hard cheese is to create, we don't have the aging or packaging capabilities in our little house (900 sq ft), and local cheese is nationally renowned. So, we will buy it locally, support locally, and are just as happy about that. Ice cream is also a local treasure around here and we don't eat enough to go through the purchase of a crank, supplies, and time. I have worked at a dessert shop which handmade ice cream....it takes quite a while to produce hard ice cream and our freezer isn't cold enough. Cottage cheese, yogurt, cream cheese, and the like are on the horizon. But first, I'll figure out butter.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

I always make it with raw sugar and whole wheat flour. With the moisture of the oil, eggs, and zucchini it doesn't come out hard and dry at all. The cocoa powder also helps a ton here with taste. Jules had no idea and other probably won't either. I love the chocolate chips; Jules doesn't. They appear to be hit and miss with people.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9x5 loaf pans. Combine eggs, sugar, oil, grated zucchini, vanilla and chocolate; beat well. Stir in the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into loaf pans. Bake 60-70 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.