Breakfast and Bananas

It's only 12:22 pm, and Day 5 of recipe making is already complete.  Phew...huge relief to have it out of the way since I have to work tonight starting at 4 pm.  I should aim for completing most of my recipes in the morning so I don't freak out at 10:00 at night with 2 recipes left to cook, with Dan and  me still waiting to eat dinner. 

Before I write about today's recipes, I want to talk "butter."  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, "butter."  Since I started this project 5 days ago, I have used almost 5 lbs. of it.  In case you're a little slow with calculations this afternoon, that's one pound of butter a day.  I now know that it is the secret ingredient to all truly delicious recipes.  I'm only going to use Cabot Natural Creamery unsalted butter for this project solely for sentimental reasons; I used to drive thru Cabot, Vermont during my travels to and from Vermont and Maine when I attended Saint Michael's College.  If anyone works for or knows someone who works for Cabot, holla at your girl! 

I began the day by making campfired potatoes, which are homefries.  It took almost an hour to cook them so it wasn't a quick recipe you could just whip up in the morning; I'm learning that Martha really loves to take the long way around making recipes.  I also made a simple omelet with mozzarella cheese filling.  I followed the recipe word-for-word, and it was the first time I made an omelet that was both beautiful to look at and delicious.  Usually they're just delicious and look like something went very wrong in the cooking process.

Omelet and Campfired potatoes

My last recipe of the day was for banana pillows, and in the words of one of my fave Bravo-tv personalities, Rachel Zoe, "I die!"  These bad-boys were scrumptious, and they're easy to make - a fabulous combo!  Martha allowed me to use pre-made puff pastry sheets so that made it easy, and the filling was carmelized bananas which I made by melting together light-brown sugar, vanilla extract, salt, butter (of course) and banana slices.  It reminded me of when Dan and I lived in South Carolina, and we used to go to this restaurant just to get the Bananas Fosters Bread Pudding.  Anyway, they were divine, for the lack of a better word.

Banana pillows

I'm still trying to decide what to make for tomorrow, and I think I'm getting less freaked out by the constant mess in the kitchen.  I'll learn to keep up with it.  Thank you, Mom, for the pots and pans that you bought me for my birthday because without those I would be in big trouble. 

MELISSA