Curious George Monkey Treats

Curious George, the curious little monkey!  For any of you who might be unfamiliar with this awesome monkey, he is he creation of husband-and-wife team Hans Augusto and Margaret Rey, and comes all the way from the jungles of Africa, where The Man With The Yellow Hat caught him and took him home.  (As a side note, the Reys have a very interesting history - read about it on Houghton Mifflin's website, here.)

George is a nice little monkey, but a very curious one and he - like many children - doesn't ever mean to cause trouble.  It just sort-of follows him.  Like the time he saw the Man With The Yellow Hat using the telephone?  He had to push the buttons, too!  Wouldn't you?  He didn't know that he'd be calling the fire department and setting off an alarm. 

He starred in seven original adventures (though the original Curious George is still my favorite).  George has always appealed to my sense of what I wanted to do but I couldn't because I'd get in trouble - and I love that it's not always a happy conclusion.  Sometimes George is good at what he tries to do, but sometimes it's harder than it looks and something bad happens.  It's somehow more realistic that way.

So, in honor of Curious George and the Reys, and for the curious little monkeys in your life, I give you:
Curious George Monkey Treats
bananas
peanut butter (I like chunky, but creamy is lovely, too)
chocolate chips

1. Peel a banana, and cut or break it in half (not longways, as that would be slimy).
2. Spread peanut butter over the top of the banana.
3. Press chocolate chips into the peanut butter.
4. Eat.

This treat is alternately called Bugs On A Bed, and is a variation of Ants On A Log, which has celery instead of banana and raisins instead of chocolate chips.  I remember when I learned to make this 20+ years ago.  Good times.  Just look how tasty these are!

You have no idea how long it took me to choose a good Curious George food.  I've been debating on it off and on for months, and looking at recipes for two solid weeks now.  "And this is what you came up with?" you say.

Well...I knew I wanted to do something banana, because Curious George is a most-excellent monkey.  I thought about: banana bread, banana pudding, bananas foster, banana cookies, chocolate-dipped bananas, banana ice cream (a la Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey), banana cream pie, and banana smoothies.  Some ideas were okay, others were boring and predictable, and the one I really wanted to do - bananas foster over ice cream - was probably not to the taste of my target demographic - the little ones who relate more to the monkey than to the Man With The Yellow Hat.  This is a recipe that they can enjoy making as well as eating.  So, I guess this was my wake-up that I can't just make things that I want to eat.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome, and please feel free to email me at KatCooksTheBooks@gmail.com.