Thursday, May 28, 2015

Banana Bread, Take 5 or 6 or Possibly 7!!!

I love good banana bread and banana cake. It's like a thing with me, a flaw in my stars, to be this in love with banana products. Banana cream pie??? Oh be still my heart!

I found a great banana cake recipe online and I share it with anyone who mentions a love for banana cake! You'll find it here, and it's the best I've ever had. We like it with whipped cream frosting, not the cream cheese frosting, and I never have a bad thing to say about cream cheese frosting!

So back to banana bread. Beth had a clutch of Very Old Bananas. She wanted something baked. Now you'd think a mother of three could handle this, but she's expecting baby #4, a little girl to add to THREE BOYS, so we cut her slack. If she wants banana bread, we can make that our kitchen science lesson!  So we start with peeling and smushing the bananas. GREAT FUN! Notice that Elijah is eyeing the black banana with some reluctance!

And then we move to assembly:

Here's the recipe as found on Food.com, and it deserves every one of the 5 stars it's been given!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
4 bananas, smushed completely
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup miniature chocolate chips (we use Ghirardelli Barista chips because they don't sink to the bottom! Well done, Mr. Ghirardelli!) They were cheaper when I bought them last year, so watch for them on Amazon. I got them for under $5/lb. That's a big difference, and they're amazing. We've had our bag for about 10 months, and I store them wrapped at room temperature. Of course that room was a little cold this winter... :)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (my degree symbol isn't working tonight!) Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and bananas. Mix well. Add dry ingredients. Add vanilla. Add chocolate chips, if desired. Or add 3/4 cup chopped walnuts. Or add both!

Mix well and pour into greased and floured large loaf pan. Bake at 350 for about 45-60 minutes, depending on size of pan and your oven. Bread is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out dry with just a few moist crumbs hanging on.

Slice and serve warm or cool. To keep fresh, wrap in plastic wrap.

Cuteness ALERT!!!!! Mary Ruth and Joslyn, bakers extraordinaire!



Chocolate chips. YES!!!!

Xavier wants you to know that he put the chocolate chips in, and then Mary mixed them. Accurate reporting is what we do best!



Must get the pan ready!


One loaf pan and 3 big cupcake/muffins. Waiting is always the hard part! (Yes, that's a new stove. We had an appliance meltdown in the kitchen, the dishwasher and the old stove... Meet Shiny, the new stove. Double oven, Unlimited Potential! Shiny thinks he rules the kitchen, but he's wrong. As much as we love him, Ms. Dish ranks high on my preference list, because after 4 days of washing all the dishes by hand again I realized that I can write books because I now have a dishwasher. It all started with that first dishwasher, twelve years ago! Who knew???


The three amigos. (aka muffins)

And here Beth has arranged the beautiful loaf on one of our new plates. Please know that we can't take the new plates out of their boxes because the cupboards are DIRTY... and I won't put the new plates in there until I have time to scrub them. It would be wrong to do otherwise...



But we unpacked one plate to give us incentive! Not enough incentive, clearly, because the other 11 plates are still boxed up! But one of these days... :)

So that's what we've been up to this week, a little banana recycling! And yes, this is my favorite banana cake recipe so far!


(This is Zee Zee, showing you that he's got the big job of adding the chocolate chips! Stinking cute kid alert!) He's so proud of being a big boy now!


16 comments:

  1. Our appliances always give up the ghost at holidays. The only two left to replace are, whispering here, the stove and the dryer. Yep, dishwashing is fun but you don't realize the amount of time it takes.

    I learned very ripe bananas are called a clutch.

    And I am SO excited to learn about the girl. I pity any boy that has to make it past the older brothers when dating season comes along! How wonderful.

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    1. Julie, we're excited to! The ultrasound shows her to be QUITE BEAUTIFUL, of course! :) They never found out before, but after the boys, they decided this time they'd find out. I believe that's to give grandmothers the time to buy pink/purple/yellow/green!!! So fun!

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    2. And yes, our dryer is still alive. An LG washer came to live with us over the winter. And now the kitchen stuff. I was nursing the stove, but when the dishwasher went... oh, I had to break down!!!!

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  2. Very pretty plate! I love pretty plates. Don't own any, but I like to look at them. LOL And thanks for posting the cute kid alerts...your cute kid alerts always bring a smile to my face. I miss working with kids at the library. Must borrow some for a day.

    I adore banana bread too -- and don't even make it without chocolate chips any more. I always use mini choco chips too...even in cookies. Somehow you can pack more in a recipe so it's more chocolatey. I've never bought food on amazon though. I wonder if the Canadian company sells food stuff as well. I'll have to check that out. Crazy me, I only buy books from Amazon.

    And the new appliances are shiny and nice. I've never had a dishwasher...startling truth but I don't even know how to use a dishwasher! But I know how to fill a sink.

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    1. Kav, my first dishwasher was a gift from Mandy (Mary Ruth's mother) about 13 years ago.... and that was what gave me time to write my first book!!! That gained me 2 hours/day because this house is always filled with people/kids/baking/cooking... so that was an eye-opener! TWO HOURS OF FREE TIME!!!

      But if I was on my own, I wouldn't bother because there aren't enough dishes to worry about! I'd just wash/wipe and get back to writing! :)

      I'm in full agreement on the chocolate chips, too. They make everything better!

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  3. Love the kids!
    Love the oven!
    Love the bread (minus the chocolate chips). :) :)

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    1. My reply disappeared. Blogger is SO WEIRD!!!!

      Missy, I'll make you one with no chocolate chips! Promise!!!

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  4. Oh, my. So many things to talk about in this post!

    First of all, I LOVE the baby girl news!!!! Yay!!!! New babies always bring a smile to my face. And what can be sweeter than the mix of new babies and little children to love on them?

    And the oven - a double oven was a perfect choice for you, Ruthy! I see batches and batches of banana bread in the future....

    Now to the dishwasher. Yes, yes. A definite yes. Anything that gives you more time for writing is a necessity in my book!

    Finally, the chocolate chips. As much as I love chocolate (it's my favorite food group), and in spite of the fact that my daughter LOVES chocolate chips in banana bread, I'd rather have my banana bread au natural. Or maybe with a bit of butter. Or spreadable cream cheese.

    Definitely the cream cheese. :)

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    1. Note to self: Make Jan's and Missy's bread WITHOUT CHOCOLATE.

      Done!

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  5. Replies
    1. Oh, me too! You need to include a picture of the plate without the banana bread topper!

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    2. They're so pretty! I've always done red/green/gold/ivory in the kitchen, and this is a BOLD STEP!!!! They're so pretty and springlike and I ordered them when it was C-O-L-D and I was jonesing for spring. I love them. But I have to be able to scrub the cupboards first. And kill some more black ants.

      The pest control guys are coming back on Tuesday because while I was in Alaska getting story ideas, the carpenter ants CAME BACK.

      The stinkin' brats.

      I can't have them walking on my plates!!! EEEK!

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  6. ooh I want the red/white checkered plates if you're replacing them LOL! I need a good banana bread recipe - I'm a fan of moist with nanners and nuts - never tried chocolate in a banana recipe...hmm...can't go wrong with chocolate don't think. I have some pans from my mom that would be good to use- little ones. and another that I'm not sure if she used or not but looks like several little pans connected together.

    y'all I've had HELP getting my house in order- still not there but my gosh these college kids are God-sent - FINALLY my house looks habitable after 15 yrs of existing in this place- though it got really bad about the time my parents got sick-after my mom passed I didn't mess with it at all :-( now I have a master bedroom that's no longer a bedroom (also again messy as I'm low on closet space and am sorting..) but the king bed is gone and I have most of my sewing machine cabinets and sewing machines in the there and the closets, fabric too (which is why I'm outta space HA!) and plan to use the middle open area of the room for exercise. the downstairs they have stuff piled to one side after they cleaned the floor so that will need going through. I think the guy is gonna come back next week some by himself- his fiance is going on a mission trip to India that she's super excited about so put her in your prayers please. :-) but they'e been such a blessing. I should be able to do the rest myself but I think I'm gonna just budget in the money and pay him to take care of the rest or at least help me with it. I don't do well self-directing esp with stuff I'm not wild about to begin with. this sounds really weird but I've gotten so used to being messy but as I got back into church and got finances in order with the dave ramsey class at church then the first place 4 health with my weight/eating choices/exercise/scripture - well my tolerance went downhill fast for living this way - just couldn't take it any more and then the perfect help was there when I was ready. just not used to this- its like inside myself feels more straightened out and now the stuff in the house is getting straightened out...just needs to extend to the car LOL my rolling trash can on wheels! oops...

    hard to come on here and see all the desserts though but mainly because I have I think one computer that lets me post! the one at work not at all.

    Susanna

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    1. SUSANNA!!!!! I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!! Look at the beautiful, positive steps you've made, and you're doing it just the right way: One step at a time.

      You are such an inspiration! You rock!!!! Happy dancing for you!!!!!

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    2. And here's a tip for ignoring desserts or carbs or whatever you're doing to live healthy.... I picture the "me" I want to be, like in a cute dress or shorts or high heels or whatever image it is that makes you feel beautiful.... and then I think "Is it worth it?" And it's not so I ignore the temptation! And then once in a while (parties, although there have been too many of them lately!!!) I let myself eat whatever I want, and then I go right back to the healthy choices. After a while (honestly!) it gets to be a habit and not so hard. Just like juggling finances and clearing space. I think it's a very Godly thing to do when we clear the clutter from our lives. Like that song "Come and Find the Quiet Center" where it talks about "clear the chaos and the clutter, clear our eyes that we might see..." Be at peace and simply be. :) Come and Find the Quiet Center on You Tube

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    3. I'm planning on dessert next weekend or that following week because I want to go to an antique sewing shop and there's a tea room in the same old town area and they have the real deal stuff :-) so I"m telling myself to stick with fruit until then so I can relax and enjoy myself. the weight loss has slowed but is still there and good enough for me. I've gone down sizes from the exercise and still feel better overall. last night and today I had abit of a funk but have been relaxing today. may do a litle quilting later. will check out that song!
      Susanna

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