On the Table: Blueberry, Chocolate Chip, Banana Bread

Saturday I spent the day in relatively domestic fashion. I did start my day off with a run and spent some time attending to some work-related tasks, but I also did a little bit of cleaning, helped my partner winterize some of our windows, and did some baking. While I watched football and made a ppt for a lecture, my breadmaker kneaded up some tasty pizza dough to be rolled out and topped with a bit of sauce, cheese, and veggies for an easy Saturday evening meal. I also baked some banana bread.

My spouse is not a fan of bananas, but he will eat banana bread so long as the flavor of the bananas is largely masked by chocolate chips. I also had some blueberries from the local co-op that I had frozen and that were taking up space in the freezer. Inspired by the fact that blueberries are the only M-friendly berry and the idea of my local co-op's raspberry chocolate chip cookies, I decided to make blueberry, chocolate chip, banana bread.

Ingredients
2 ripe bananas - mashed
2 eggs - lightly beaten
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar - packed
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil - you could easily substitute apple sauce here
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup blueberries - fresh or thawed frozen berries
1 cup chocolate chips - or to taste

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Mash bananas, add lightly beaten eggs, and whisk them together. Add all other wet ingredients and sugar. Mix to blend. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold in blueberries and chocolate chips. Pour batter into a lightly greased loaf pan or pyrex baking dish. Bake for 60-80 minutes.

Ultimately, the bread turned out more like a coffee cake, and the amount of chocolate chips that I put in for my banana-loathing spouse made this pretty rich and decadent. This is not your standard banana bread. In my opinion, this kitchen creation is seemingly made for accompanying a strong cup of coffee. I'm not a huge fan of sweets for breakfast, but I have plans for a piece with a cup of joe this afternoon.

What did you do this weekend? Any races? Any baking? Any delicious brunches? Any frantic preliminary house cleaning in preparation for hosting Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks?

On the Table: Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

Although I don't tend to read them on a daily basis, every now and then, I'll peruse food blogs for a while and book mark some recipes that I'd like to try out on a lazy Saturday or Sunday.  This recipe for Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes from Annie's Eats was just one such recipe that I'd had bookmarked for a few weeks.  I had a ton of blueberries in my fridge over the holiday weekend, and I decided to put my standing mixer to use.  Please forgive the quality of my food photos.  I don't take them with any consistency, so they still aren't very good.

I didn't have any cake flour on hand so I used 1.5 cups of all purpose flour instead.  This did cause the cupcakes to have a slightly more muffin-like texture.  They were still delicious, though.

My husband is fruit-challenged, and this saddens me to no end.  He will eat cantaloupe, apples and oranges and likes lemon cake and lemon bars, but he is not a fan of berries.  Blueberries are the one exception to this, and, while he doesn't seek them out, he will eat the occasional blueberry pancake or blueberry scone.  Knowing his low fruit ceiling, I dotted my cupcakes with some fresh berries and left his without any garnish.

They tasted gloriously summery and we devoured the batch of 16 in less than a week.  I meant to take some to my neighbor, but I didn't have the will-power.

What are some of your favorite summer-time desserts and treats? Do you have a loved one who is fruit-challenged? How do you cope with it?