Maker’s Mark – Fervent Foodie

So what do these have in common? Yesterday’s guesses gave me quite a few chuckles.

Maker’s Mark and bananas happen to be two of the BF’s FAVORITE things. Since we didn’t get to spend VD together, I decided to whip up a batch of Marker’s Mark Banana Bread over the weekend. I had a Cooking Light Recipe for Bananas Foster bread that I’d been DYING to try out, and Makers Mark seemed like a terrific substitute for the Cognac called for in the recipe.

Who drinks Cognac anyway? Emeril Lagasse, that’s who.

Lucky for this banana bread recipe, I’m not dating Emeril Lagasse. I’m dating Mr. Maker’s Mark.

Seriously…

Edible.

Canoodling:

This looks quite natural, actually.

First up: get your hands on some mushy brown bananas. Hopefully you planned ahead for this, because the base of ANY good banana bread recipe is some seriously overripe bananas.

These guys are actually on the under-ripe side, but they got the job done.

Next: preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×5 inch bread loaf pan with cooking spray.

Combine the following in a nonstick skillet:

1.5 cups mashed up ripe bananas
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
5 tbsp melted butter
3 tbsp Maker’s Mark

Can we say yum?

Heat over medium until it starts to bubble and thicken slightly

Then you’ll want to remove this banana goodness from the heat and set aside to cool.

In the meantime, combine the following in a separate bowl:

1.5 cups flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice

Flax!

Alltogethernah:

Once the bananas are cooled off, add in:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup fat free plain yogurt
2 large eggs

Beat everything together until combined, then add in your dries to wets and mix until just blended:

Yes, I licked them.

Next is the easy part — pour batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Then let the bread cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile mix up the icing:

1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp Maker’s Mark

And dr-dr-drizzzzleeee over the warm bread:

Notice that at this point I had ALREADY cut off a small piece for sampling… That’s a key step in successful baking. Frequent and continuous testing.

Mr. Maker’s Mark said this was the best banana bread he had ever tasted because it was “delightfully moist and not overly sweet”

I agreed, it was delicious… and addicting.

Must be the alcohol.

Maker’s Mark Banana Foster Bread Ingredients List (serves 12):

1.5 cups mashed up ripe bananas
1 cup packed brown sugar, divided
6 tablespoons melted butter, divided
1/4 cup Maker’s Mark, divided
1/3 cup fat free plain yogurt
2 large eggs
1.5 cups flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Day 3 in the Big Easy started off with:

Haha, well actually it started off with FREE continental breakfast at the hotel. Thennnnn the Maker’s Mark (for Jarrod anyway… I think that stuff tastes like nail polish remover).

After breakfast and some meandering through the French Quarter

Then we stopped at Primo’s for some snacking:

Primo’s got horrible reviews online, but we were dying for some bruschetta and they happened to have it on the menu so we decided to ignore the reviews.

I love how all the bars and restaurants down here are open to the streets. Most of the buildings have huge windows that you can open up and it makes you feel like your are in a courtyard instead of inside the building.

I should also mention that the whether has been AMAZING the whole time we have been here. 80+ degrees, sunny, and no humidity. GLORIOUS!

I’m so glad we ignored those reviews on Primo’s! Take a look at this beauty:

Jarrod said it was the best bruschetta he ever had. I don’t know about the BEST, but it definitely was REALLY friggin delicious.

We also ordered a small margherita pizza:

This was tasty too—just needed a little hot sauce!

After lunch we had some time to kill, so we popped a squat across the street from Jackson Square to watch some street performers.

These guys were actually REALLY good!

And they drew quite the crowd!

It’s crazy what these guys can do with their bodies. I can’t do a pushup let alone hold my whole body up with one arm and spin it around like a helicopter while simultaneously bouncing up and down:

Me and the BF in Jackson Square:

After lunch, we headed to our French Quarter & Cemetery tour (which I purchased on Groupon a month or so ago). The tour only cost us $10 a piece, and it was a self-guided walking tour that lasted 1.5 hours. SCORE!

While walking around the French Quarter a random man shouted out Jarrod “Man you big as an Avatar! Look at that big ole white boy!” Neither of us have seen the movie (so we’re not quite sure how Jarrod reminded the guy of an Avatar), regardless we both busted out in laughter at the man’s explanation (as did the group of people walking behind us). Only in New Orleans 😀

You may be wondering why the heck we wanted to go on a cemetery tour on our vacation. No, it’s not because we are nearing on Halloween. It’s because New Orleans cemeteries are uniquely interesting:

Since the city is located below sea level, all of the deceased are buried ABOVE the ground.

What’s even more interesting is that family members are added to the tombs over CENTURIES. We passed many tombs where the first family member was buried in the 1800’s and over the years more and more family members were added (even as most recent as 2004)!

Jarrod and the tour guide:

The tour guide told us that this is the tomb Nicholas Cage built for himself:

Even though this tour was REALLY cool, we both felt odd smiling for a picture in front of a tomb (hence the grimace on Jarrod’s face) 😛

After the tour, we headed back to the hotel for our daily afternoon nap (we’re like a bunch of old farts, I swear!).

We were having a lot of debate on where to go for dinner, but settled on Margaritaville. I know, I know… Jimmy Buffet is one of Jarrod’s unstated idols, and neither of us have ever been to Margaritaville, so off we went.

We wanted to push ourselves a little out of our comfort zones, so we opted for the Crab, Shrimp, and Mushroom dip for our appetizer:

It came with delicious garlic bread for dipping. I thought it was actually really good (Jarrod wasn’t quite so keen on it, but he was fully satisfied with the bread).

For dinner we went with the Jambalaya:

Jarrod said this was the best meal he had to date in New Orleans, and I agree it was DELICIOUS. And yes, that is seven (count them) seven pieces of garlic bread that we wolfed down during dinner 🙂

After dinner we strolled over to Bourbon Street and stopped on the backside of Jackson Square to snap a photo of the shadow casted on the backside of the building:

While on Bourbon St this time, we hit up several bars including Club 524, Krazy Korner, and the Bourbon Street Blues Company (again!).

On our walk back to the hotel, we both concurred that our favorite parts of New Orleans were everything we had seen OUTSIDE of Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street is definitely fun and full of crazies, but it is a little too commercialized. We both just prefer the old-world charm of NOLA over the flashing neon lights of Bourbon Street. I do wish we had an extra day in LA to visit the districts outside of the French Quarter, but alas that will have to wait til next time!

Bananas Foster Bread

Taking it easy in the Big Easy – Part 3