Banana Bread

I slept in until 10 o'clock this morning.  When I awoke Kathleen was gone.  So I started in on a couple of baking projects.  The first was a berry pie.  I used strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries. And I put a top crust on it.  This bight sound silly, but I think that the crust is the best part of most pies.  When the pie was in the oven I set to work making banana bread.  It was the first time I had made banana bread since I helped my Mother make it when I was just 15 or 16 years old.

My recipe (adapted from someone else's)

2 cups of flour (I could find my measuring cup so I used a pint jar)
1/4 pound butter (softened)

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas
2 AA large eggs
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 tsp salt

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 F.   butter a 5" X 9"  baking pan.  Cream the brown sugar and butter together.  Add the eggs and mix them into the butter and brown sugar.  Next stir in the mashed bananas.   in another bowl mix the salt, flour, and baking soda.  Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture.  Stir it thoroughly, until you can not see any white flour.  Pour in the chopped walnuts and stir until evenly distributed.  Pour the batter into the baking pan, put it in the oven for 65 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool before slicing it.

Kathleen came home just as I was putting the bread in the oven.  So we had just enough time to run to the nursery.  We bought a bunch of plants.  Tomato varieties include Big Boy, Cherokee Purple, Early Girl, Sungold Cherry, and Husky Cherry Red.  We also got some cucumber and rosemaries.

We got home just as the bread was coming out of the oven.  Kathleen's niece is staying with us right now so she was keeping an eye on it while we were at the nursery.  I turned the banana bread out to cool and then went out to the garden. 

We harvested all the garlic, planted all the tomatoes, cucumbers,

Holding up some garlic

 and rosemaries ( I use a lot of rosemary in the kitchen so we really needed more than the one plant we already had.)  we bought today. Kathleen also transplanted the onions I started indoors a few weeks ago. 

I am a bit worried about the squash seeds I planted in the ground last week.  I don't yet see any sprouts.  I think I might need mix in some better soil and reseed.  The parsnips are looking really good.

Some of the tomato plants

I wasn't feeling well in my stomach so, though I cooked dinner for Kathleen, her niece, and her kids, I didn't eat.  After dinner some neighbor kids came over to play games.  They ate the berry pie.  I had a little slice, too.  It was good.  The banana bread is still resting on the counter top.  Kathleen said something about taking it to her dad's house tomorrow.