Plantain-a-thon

I watched an episode of Paula Deen where she had Patricia Jinich as a guest. The theme was Mexican food, and what caught my attention were the fried plantains and how easy they were to make. I picked up two plantains from Target (yes, I said Target), and I followed the episode's directions to let them turn black before using them. I have no idea if my plantains were defective or what, but they took forever to ripen. I'm serious when I say that it took weeks! I even tried letting them snuggle up next to our honey crisp apples hoping the ethylene gas released would help speed things up. No luck. After a few days, I let the apples be on top and still, no cigar. Anyway, a couple weeks later, Steve walks out of the kitchen and informs me, "hey, your plantains are black." I reply, "yesssssssss." I waited another day or two because I was too lazy at the time to get my fry on. But yesterday was the big day. We were having leftover meatballs in marinara sauce with a side salad, and y'know, nothing goes better with marinara meatballs than fried plantains! They turned out to be super easy after all.