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The Banana Bread That's Secretly a Chocolate Cake

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The Banana Bread That's Secretly a Chocolate Cake

Plus: Disneyland Eats, Sudi's Nowruz Party, and Grossy Pelosi's Spinach-Artichoke Pasta Bake.

Adam Roberts
Mar 28, 2023
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Hey everyone,

Sorry for the newsletter delay! We went to Disneyland on Sunday (more on that in a sec) and I couldn’t get it together for Monday’s newsletter.

But here I am with a delightful recipe that’ll put a smile on your face the second you make it. It’s a The Ultimate Chocolate Banana Bread from Jessie Sheehan’s wonderful cookbook, Snackable Bakes. Here’s a quick video I made of the process:

@amateurgourmetThe Ultimate Chocolate Banana Bread! Recipe in my bio. #baking #chocolate #foodtok #fyp #foryoupage #food #bananabread #chocolatelover #easyrecipes
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And here’s THE RECIPE ITSELF, fully printable and a cinch to make. I wish I had some leftovers for breakfast, but we ate the whole thing in about three days. It’s that good.

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Now let’s talk Disneyland!

We went with Craig’s whole family (his parents, his brother, his aunt Liz, his sister, sister’s boyfriend, and boyfriend’s kids). Needless to say, it was a lot of work getting ten people on the rides at once, especially using the Genie app which was very confusing and often frustrating. I miss the good old days of just waiting in line.

Let me cut to the chase about the food: it was all totally fine, but the thing that I truly loved was the loaded Dole-Whip with chile-mango, chamoy, and actual pieces of mango (you can see it in the foreground.)

I’m going to make a TikTok about all this, so look out for that on my account.

On Saturday night, we attended two dinners if you can believe it.

The first was at our neighbor Sudi Green’s, where she hosted a Nowruz party celebrating the Persian New Year.

There was so much good food, including stuffed grape leaves, an eggplant dip, and kuku sabzi (frittata with herbs). The tahdig was prepared by one of the Three Busy Debras, Mitra Jouhari:

And topped with Ghormeh Sabzi, Persian herb stew, it was a dinner unto itself. Plus there was dessert:

And that was just dinner number one!

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Dinner number two took place at our friends’ Ryan and Jonathan’s, and Jonathan whipped up Grossy Pelosi’s spinach artichoke pasta bake.

It’s like a trip to Houston’s and your favorite Italian restaurant all wrapped up into one! Everyone went nuts for it. If you’re looking for a crowdpleaser, look no further.

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And now for today’s links:

  • Pemmican: History’s Power Bar (Kottke.org);

  • America’s Test Kitchen lays of 23 employees (Eater);

  • The Man Who Changed the Way L.A. Eats (Ruth Reichl);

  • Compound Ghee Makes Things Interesting (Taste).

That’s all for today, folks….

If you’re not a paid subscriber, you’ve been missing out on my daily diet dispatch, Operation Muffin Stud.

Pin on Cathy

If you’d like to receive that, plus gain access to my full archives, and get my Thursday Amateur Gourmet newsletter too, become a paid subscriber now.

Join the cool kids’ table! Be a full-time, Amateur Gourmet patron. Paid subscribers like you make all of this possible.

Until next time….

Your friend,

Adam

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1 Comment
jerk nugget
Mar 28Liked by Adam Roberts

that persian feast, oh my glob. the sheer amount of food, and every last bit looking beautiful...i would need two days to fully enjoy it all!

also the loaded dole whip...yes please. i keep a big bottle of chamoy in my pantry. just chamoy on good watermelon in the summer is amazing. i could eat a whole watermelon. i also use it to rim margarita glasses (then dip in salt, sugar, tajin, or a mix). one of these days i'll get around to making an actual mangonada with it.

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