More ice cream? Sure!

We had to go out and buy cat food last night, for the aforementioned reason that when the cats are out of food, they start eating the house instead. Oh, and coffee! We ran out of coffee. Nooooooo. Since we were out anyway, I decided to pick up the coffee at Rite Aid, along with some more ice cream. Got four cartons of Edy's, plus one tin of Maxwell House. The total came to $15.46. I paid with $15 in Ups, and 46c in change, and while I was digging out exact change, the cashier was mentally rolling her eyes and inwardly laughing, like, "It is the end of the day and I cannot wait to go home, get off my feet, and not have to deal with these cheap-o customers who are paying me with PENNIES," ha ha. I got back $28 in Ups, 4 $2 Ups for the ice cream and one $20 Up for purchasing $100 worth of qualifying products, so that's a profit of $12.54. I need to have a bunch of parties at which I serve lots and lots of ice cream and pie now.

Other random deals of the day: did the ThredUp deal on Deal Pulp. Since I used my $5 signup credit, it only cost $1. Should be great, since the kid recently went through a big growth spurt and needs plenty of new clothing. Something like 8000 other people have purchased this deal, so I'm wondering what kind of stuff is going to be available on ThredUp for a while! Slim pickin's, or major bounty?

Also finally used my Wild Dill $35 credit, that I bought from Eversave way back in November. (Or was it October? Well, it was a while ago.) I got the green recycling truck, the red dump truck, and the Sprig Toys seaplane, all for the kid's upcoming birthday. I can't believe he's going to be four years old. I hope he likes the toys as much in real life, as he enjoyed watching them in the videos.

Yesterday I baked more banana-filled foods. I did a couple of loaves of banana nut bread, using the recipe from The Family Circle Cookbook. I have no idea if this book is in print anymore; the copy I have is an old, battered hand-me-down from my grandmother, with marked pages and food stains and scraps of paper that fall out whenever you're not looking. The banana nut bread recipe wasn't what I was expecting! It was delicious, of course, but very unlike my mom's recipe, which is moist, dense, and chewy, with lots of banana flavor and lots of black specks of banana sprinkled throughout. This one was lighter and fluffier, more like a pound cake. My husband said it tasted more like a spice cake with a hint of banana. It smelled heavenly, and had an amazing crust! Don't mind the fact that the loaves are totally different sizes. I didn't bother weighing out each pan. The bigger one is more impressive, though, don't you think?

I also made a couple more loaves of banana feather bread, this time using whole wheat instead of white in the sponge. It was too cold in my house, and I think I made the dough a tiny bit too dry (I always forget to add a bit more water when I make it with wheat, oops), so it rose very slowly. By the time the bread was ready to go in the oven, it was after 11 PM and we just wanted to go to sleep. As a result, I wasn't paying very close attention to the baking process, and it was, um, let's say "aggressively browned." Not burnt, exactly, but definitely darker than I would have preferred. Hopefully the bread will have an interesting and complex flavor profile, and not taste like ashy death. I haven't been all that satisfied with my bread baking lately. It's all boring, utilitarian loaves. Sandwich loaves. Pizza dough. Oh, well, I was really pleased with the cloverleaf dinner rolls, I have to say. They were astonishingly good. Anyway, I feel like I need to take a day or two, try some new recipes, some new flavors, some new techniques, and turn out some challenging artisanal loaves.

I've gone through one and a half of the three bags of bananas, but I still have probably seven or eight more pounds of mushy bananas, which are growing mushier with every passing hour. I need to either bake like a crazy woman TODAY, or freeze them now. Any great ideas? I've already done white bread, wheat bread, banana nut bread, and three varieties of banana muffins. And I am down to the last bag of all purpose flour. I knew I didn't buy enough at the last sale! My husband laughed at me then, because while I was saying, "I don't have enough! I don't have enough," I had 40 or 50 pounds of flour in the cart, but I was sure I would run out. And look, I have. Although I still have around 18 pounds of bread flour, I am going to have to pick up some all purpose by the weekend.

Also made a big pot of turkey chili yesterday. I was craving it, and man, it was soooooo good. Started off with two pounds of ground turkey, dropped it in the pan to brown.

 Got to add some spices. What's in there? Salt, pepper, cumin, ground chipotle, chili powder, Mexican oregano, cocoa powder. Added a couple of cloves of garlic (maybe five or six), and two chopped onions. Mmm. Mixed it all up, tasted it, added more of some ingredients, then dropped in a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, plus what was left from another 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, plus a can of tomato paste. I know tomatoes are not traditional in Southwestern chili, but I'm a city slicker, don'tcha know.

I can't stand the taste of raw tomatoes in chili. I am one of those who feels like, the longer it cooks the better. Two hours, at a minimum. Four hours, even better. I cooked it for two, maybe 2.5 hours, until the tomatoes dissolved and the whole mess darkened and it tasted gooooood. We ate the chili with cheese, sour cream, and some of those cloverleaf dinner rolls. I wanted to make corn bread or drop biscuits, but by that point every baking utensil was dirty and I didn't want to wash them, so I just took the easy way out and reheated the rolls which I'd previously stashed in the freezer. We still have a ton left today, so maybe I will turn it into chili mac tonight. Or, I could cook some rice, mix it together, and freeze up another batch of burritos. Hmm, not sure!