Bananas, Bananas

Pin It My weekly grocery shopping day is Monday.  I like to hit the supermarkets when the weekly flyers first come out so I can grab the deals and coupon items before they are all gone!

While shopping on Monday, one of our supermarkets had organic bananas wrapped in cellophane at a greatly reduced price since they were past their prime.  Great price....a little over 3 pounds for $1.34.  I grabbed some, thinking of fresh, hot, homemade banana bread.  Yummy!

Wanting to use them all up at once, I had enough bananas for four loaves.  I didn't have a bowl big enough so I had to use my stock pot to mix all the batter!

I have a standard banana bread recipe that I have used for the last 20 years and love it.  It produces a rich, dark banana bread with lots of flecks that I can switch up a bit if I so desire.

Banana Bread



Butter or margarine                                  1/2 cup
Granulated sugar                                      1 cup
Eggs                                                          2
Mashed very ripe bananas (3 medium)    1 cup

All purpose flour                                        1 3/4 cups
Baking soda                                              1 tsp
Baking powder                                          1/2 tsp
Salt                                                            1/2 tsp
Chopped walnuts (optional)
or Mini chocolate chips                             1 cup

Cream butter and sugar together.  Beat in eggs one at a time, beating until smooth.  Add mashed bananas and blend in.

In second bowl, stir flour with baking soda, baking powder, salt and nuts/chocolate chips.  Add to banana mixture stirring only to moisten.  Transfer to greased 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.  Bake in 350F oven for about 1 hour until inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and place on cake rack to cool.  Wrap to store. 

Yield: 1 loaf

I have also added pecans sprinkled on top or 3/4 cup of raisins to the recipe.  Almost anything! 

To mix these up a bit, two had chocolate chips added and two had almonds sprinkled on top....yummy!  Once baked, I threw one of each into the freezer and will take them to my son Lucas when I visit him at the end of the month.  He will love that.  It will be great for our picnic in his first apartment, right Mom?!

Remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Tuesday's Tip

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This might not be a household tip .... but I think a great tip nonetheless! 

If you have to ride in an elevator and are in a big rush ... I wouldn't do this all the time but if I needed to get the correct floor in a hospital to see a loved one, then, YES I would use the trick.  Make sure you are in the elevator alone (unless you are with friends or family) when you try this ..... or you might get some funny looks!  LOL

HOW TO USE AN ELEVATOR WITHOUT STOPPING

1.  Hold 'close door' button until the door closes and keep holding.

2.  Select floor and do not let go of number and close door button until the elevator moves.

3.  This will allow you to go straight to that floor without stops .... even if someone has pushed the button on a floor and are waiting.

*This is used by the police to get to the floors quicker.

* Works on every elevator.

Remember to give your loved ones a hug!

It Arrived!

Pin It It arrived!  My apron arrived from Allison who was my partner in the apron swap over at Rhonda's blog . Allison lives in AUSTRALIA!!!  How neat is that?! 

I am absolutely in LOVE with it!  Pretty pink with little blue flowers and look at the vintage hankies she added as pockets!  There is even an extra hankie to wipe the sweat off my brow as I bake.  Very 1920ish ..... don't you think?

As part of the swap, we also had to include a family favorite recipe and a postcard of where we lived.  Allison sent two recipes that I definitely be trying.  One is Pure Fruit Cookies and the other is Apple Parsnip Soup.....which sounds delicous!  The postcard she sent is of Sydney. 

In this post , I gave a sneak peak of the fabric I was going to use for the apron I was making for my swap buddy.  Now that it has been mailed off and she received it, here is the final product.  I also included 3 knitted dishcloths as I could NOT find a postcard ANYWHERE in town!!!  I guess the suppliers of postcards don't think there will be any tourists in April in Minnesota! LOL  I found cotton yarn that matched the colors that were in the apron ... very 'spring-like', I thought.

Allison seems to love her apron as much as I love mine.  This was a fun swap and I have made a new friend in the land down under and have a beautiful apron to wear when I'm baking up a storm!

Remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Sunday's Blessings

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This week I loved the..

Smell of: fresh baked bread
Sound of: the birds singing happily
Taste of: Hershey's milk chocolate Easter eggs
Sight of: pussy willows
Feel of: relaxing on the couch

my grandmother's statue

Things I am thankful for this week:

- my family
- my pets
- modern medicine

Saturday's Snaps

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