Hey there Florida Foodie friends,
It is I, the distant memory of your wasted youth, Thomas Mates.
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This week, I am really feeling the passage of time.
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For starters, my birthday was just a few days ago — as I mentioned in my last newsletter. I hit the ripe old age of 37. Now, I’m sure many of you are thinking “This handsome young man has no right to complain about his age.”
To that I say, I had red sauce at lunch the other day and had to live with hours of heartburn after that. So, yeah, I’m feeling my age a bit.
That being said, my wonderful wife made sure I had a really great birthday. She took me to JuJu, which you may recognize from a previous Florida Foodie. It was delicious. We also checked out Orlando’s Beer Spa, which I highly recommend.
Aside from my personal reminder of my mortality, we are heading full-steam into the New Year with just a few weeks to go. Thanksgiving is next week and I feel wholly unprepared. Fortunately, my closest family is thousands of miles away, so I don’t have to prep for guests, but I still plan to make a big feast and I have no idea what that looks like at the moment.
OK, that’s enough kvetching about the forward march of time. Let’s get into it.
Something big is brewing🍺
Andy Sheeter helped to transform Winter Garden with his brewery, Crooked Can Brewing Company.
He got the idea to start the business when he went on a trip to Colorado and decided Central Florida was ripe for a craft brewery. The brewery opened in 2015. Now, nearly 10 years later, he is getting ready to expand his operations with a giant new brewery. This time he is setting up shop in Minneola.
Sheeter had a really great conversation about his business’ growth with Lisa Bell and Candace Campos on the latest episode of Florida Foodie.
>You can watch the episode here<
And you can also find every episode of Florida Foodie on YouTube, as well.
Small Bites🥦
More Tex-Mex🌮: The founder of Tijuana Flats and his son just opened a brand new Tex-Mex restaurant called Big Taco. Check out the details here.
New home🟥🐼: Popular food trailer Red Panda Noodle is finally moving into a brick-and-mortar location. It will be sharing the space with another restaurant, Cupid’s Hot Dogs. Click here to find out when it will be opening.
No thanks🍗: I love Thanksgiving and all of the food that comes with it. That being said, some people are a little more picky about their holiday feast. Here’s a ranking of the foods people like the least at Thanksgiving.
Something to try at home 🍽️
So, recently I found myself inundated with overripe bananas. What else can you do with overripe bananas but make banana bread? I don’t have the answer to that question, so I just made banana bread.
That being said, I am not a natural baker. So, I needed a really stupid simple recipe. This is that recipe and it turned out great for me. I hope it turns out great for you too.
This recipe is adapted slightly from Tasty.
Ingredients:
- 3 ripe bananas
- ⅓ cup butter, melted
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- salt, to taste
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup chocolate chunks
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then, in a bowl, mash your bananas together until smooth and then add your melted butter until it is completely combined.
Step 2: Add the sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda, salt and flour to the bowl and stir until smooth.
Step 3: Fold in your chocolate chunks and make sure they are evenly distributed. Pour your mixture into a greased loaf pan.
Step 4: Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Step 5: Cool completely and serve.
As I said, this is a stupid simple recipe. It only uses one bowl and the result is delicious and moist. If I can do it, so can you. I enjoyed having mine with a generous dollop of peanut butter spread over the top.
That’s it for today.
Please, send me your recipes so I can share them with everyone. My email is tmates@wkmg.com.
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