A BOY AND HIS BANANA CRESPELLA ON A SUNDAY MORNING

This was such a comfort for a cloudy and cold Sunday morning. What a treat!! The edges were slightly crispy and the crespella itself was airy and tender. You can make your crespella plain, but the banana compliments the flavor so well. Topped with warm nutella sauce...nothing could make this boy happier for the moment. Well, Lego Ninjago was playing on the TV, so this completed it.

Crespella reminds me of a sweet street snack we have from my hometown, Indonesia, calls martabak manis. Martabak manis is somewhat more airy than that of the crespella, but pretty much similar. With the banana and the chocolate...oh, it's calling home to me :).

BANANA OVEN CRESPELLA WITH NUTELLA SAUCE

Ingredients:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons whole milk, divided

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium banana

1/2 cup Nutella

Direction:
Put a 12-inch ovenproof heavy skillet in middle of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.

Cut the banana into two, lengthwise, then diced. Put aside. Whisk together flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, and 1 1/2 cups milk in a bowl.

Add butter to skillet and heat in oven until golden, about 1 minute. Pour batter into skillet and scatter the banana pieces evenly throughout the batter. Bake until puffed, set, and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

 Meanwhile, whisk together Nutella and remaining 3 tablespoons milk until smooth. Thin sauce with additional milk if necessary.

Adapted from epicurious.com's recipe :: Oven Crespella with Nutella Sauce

NATURAL DYEING...1ST TRY

I love love love natural silk cords. They feel so soft and luxurious to wear. You can see my macramé silk cords bracelet on my previous post. However, the colors they come in are very limited. Thus, this girl decided to try her hand on dyeing silk cords. Not being too particular about dyeing with regular dye and all the chemicals in it, I decided to try natural dyeing. My first choice to try as my first dye mix was plum, but with it being winter, it was out of the question. However, I did find some nice looking beets that I thought would make a nice rich dark red...or at least that was what my resources said.

I used one beet for this experiment. As per instructed, I boiled the silk cords in salt water fix (1/2 cup salt to 8 cups water for fruit dye. Isn't beet considered fruit???) for an hour and rinsed. Then, I cut up the beet and put it in two quartz of water. The water turned medium violet-red right away as shown in the photograph. I thought it would certainly turn darker after boiling it for one hour like I supposed to. It did turn somewhat darker. Taking all the beet pieces out, I placed the silk cords back in the pot and boiled them for an hour. I left the cords soaking overnight hoping to reach even darker and richer color. But it didn't happen. I took the cords out of the pot, washed and hung them to dry. Well, I supposed the color did deepen a bit...just not as dark as I would like it to be.

The color did not turn out the way I had envisioned it to be, but it's still lovely. Instead of dark deep red, now I have soft rosy-gray silk cords. Perhaps next time I should use less water or more beets. Or perhaps I should use a vinegar fix that is used for anything else other than fruit. I cannot wait to use my lovely cords!! :)