Banana Panini

Last week, I ventured out to get my Texas car tags and driver’s license.  It’s not fun.  No one wants to do it.  But I have quite a bit of free time, so I decided to knock it off the to-do list.

The car tags part was easy breezy!  I was in and out in less than 30 minutes.  Although the lady said that Texas requires back and front tags.  I looked at the front bumper of my Nissan Sentra.  I swear there is not spot for a front tag!!!  I looked at several other Nissan in my apartment parking lot and they didn’t have front tags either.  So, I’m not worrying about it.

I ventured over to the driver’s license office on Lamar right after that.  I was immediately told that I needed my birth certificate or passport.  No problem…I just came on a whim, so left and came back the next day.

The next day there were approximately 1 billion more people at the DMV.  Yikes!  They made an announcement that the new South Austin DMV office had ZERO people waiting in line, so I left to go there.  Since it’s a new office though, my GPS didn’t recognize the location.  But, I wasn’t paying attention that my stupid dang Garmin picked a different address for me.

And me being new to town, just aimlessly followed my GPS…….to Round Rock!!!  Um hi, Round Rock, TX and South Austin are polar opposites.  Argh!

I finally made it to the South Austin DMV and got in right away.

Then came the dreaded eye test.  (Insert ominous music here.)  I had detached retinas and eye surgery on both my eyes in 5th grade.  I just really can not see well out of my right eye.

I read the left section of numbers right away.  And the middle section of numbers was fine too.  But then when I had to read the right section of numbers….a total blur-fest.  I was basically guessing….and blinking a million times to try to get a millisecond of clarity.

I finally got them all but one number.  3?  8?  6?  I started to panic!  Is she going to fail me?  Will she take away my Kansas license too?

I was all flustered and sweaty by now.  So of course, the lens was all foggy.  I sheepishly asked her for a tissue to clean off the lens.

The DMV lady loudly sighed and said….It’s a 9!!!

Crisis averted.  Texas driver’s license approved.

To celebrate, let’s have a breakfast panini.

Banana Panini

Recipe from Everyday Food magazine, March 2012

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Nutella

8 slices thick bread, such as brioche

3 bananas, thinly sliced

1/2 stick unsalted butter

Serves 4

* I just eyeballed it to make myself one sandwich for breakfast though.

Instructions:

Spread 1 tablespoon Nutella on 4 bread slices.  Layer with bananas and top with remaining bread.

In a grill pan (I used my beloved Griddler), melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat.  Cook 2 sandwiches until bread is toasted and Nutella is melted, about 3-5 minutes.

Repeat for remaining sandwiches.

Serve warm.