Banana boats

Do you remember these? Maybe from a Girl Scout camping trip, or at home sitting around a backyard campfire?

We made banana boats a lot when I was growing up. It was a reasonably "healthy" dessert, for this sweets-lover.

Banana, marshmallow and chocolate. There was always more banana than anything else. But that was a good thing. Cooking the banana brought out its sweetness.

Last week, my son brought several bananas home from work (they provide snacks at his office -- I mentioned this on my facebook page). Anyway, I baked banana bread, we made banana splits, and then on Thursday, I made banana boats for the family. This is one of those banana items that does well with older bananas.

I just used half a banana, each. I slit the halves and stuffed with a marshmallow (cut in half), and a chocolate candy (cut into bits).  Then baked these in the toaster oven, just after while we ate dinner. My mom used to wrap these in foil and cook over a campfire, in the coals.

My son tells me that a new batch of bananas will be brought in early this week . . .which means, those older bananas will be given away, again. Don't know if we'll be the lucky recipients, but more banana boats would be fun!

I sometimes wonder what life is like in other people's homes

And I know that you sometimes wonder how I do things, just out of curiosity, even if you have no intention of doing some of the things that I do in my home. I think that is just normal curiosity.

So, I thought I'd share one of the "hows" to what I do in the kitchen.

In the comments section, one day, someone asked how I decant mayonnaise from the large jars.

I've only bought 1-gallon jars of mayonnaise three times now. But these large jars are often the most economical-per-unit size of mayonnaise. A 1-gallon jar will last our family about 5 to 6 months. The quality remains good for us, for that entire time.

But the large size could be prone to spoilage and/or bacterial contamination, if not handled properly. For these three jars, this is how I've made it work for us.

So, commercial mayonnaise is fairly high in acid (vinegar and lemon juice). This combined with the salt content, makes an unfavorable environment for bacterial growth (http://www.wvagriculture.org/images/Literature/Mayo%20brochure.pdf).

Age-related spoilage of the product is not my primary concern. According to several sites, commercial mayonnaise can keep for up to 6 months, refrigerated, once opened. With this in mind, my aim is to reduce the chance of premature spoilage.

The biggest enemy to commercial mayonnaise is contamination from other sources, such as unclean hands or utensils. I avoid cross-contamination through some common sense practices, such as washing hands when cooking, and always dipping a clean utensil into the mayo jar.

So, to minimize any food-borne illness risk, I decant 1 cup of mayo at a time, from my 1-gallon jar. I use a freshly-sanitized *, 1/2-pint jar and large spoon, each time I decant another portion. 1/2 pint of mayo lasts our family not quite 2 weeks. By using such a small jar at a time, we reduce the risk of losing product due to spoilage, from contamination. (*I sanitize jars either in the dishwasher on the high-temp setting, or in a pot of water on the stove, as I'm sterilizing jars for homemade yogurt or preserves.)

To keep the 1-gallon jar in its best condition possible after opening, we store it in the kitchen refrigerator (as opposed to the garage one) where the temperature control is digital and very accurate.

And I use a sheet of plastic wrap, over the top of the jar, under the cap, to minimize air infiltration, from a poor-fitting lid. After decanting a portion, I scrape down the insides, then lay the piece of plastic wrap over the jar opening, before screwing the cap back on.

We do commercial mustard in a similar fashion. I buy it in 1-gallon jars, and decant small amounts at a time. Because mustard is very high in acid (vinegar), I decant into newly sanitized, 1-pint jars (instead of 1/2 pints), 3 jars at a time, so that it's easy for someone to grab a fresh jar as needed.

So, that's how I deal with those 1-gallon jars of condiments, that you read about in my grocery spending journal from time to time.