One Of Life's Detours

Life can turn on a dime, can't it? If you noticed that nothing has happened here on the blog lately, it's because lots was happening in real life. Baby Girl has been very sick (she's better now) and spent a week in the hospital. I grabbed a few clothes and zipped down the interstate to help out with the other ones. This is my second week here.

It has been frightening, exhausting and challenging. Things are beginning to get back to normal. I am still here for a few more days, so I likely will not post again until I'm home.

But I did want you to know why I disappeared. And I wanted to share one recipe that Little Sister and I made while the baby was in the hospital. Little Sister was such a helper—as in I had LOTS of help. This recipe is a good one, because it survived many non-standard mixing techniques. And it was still delicious. I am pretty convinced after making it this time that you cannot mess this recipe up.

I couldn't find the beaters to the hand mixer in Mommy's kitchen, so I used the wire whisks. (I know better. I was tired.) Little Sister asked me, "Mimi, why is stuff flying through the air?" That would have been my butter and sugar. You cannot cream butter and sugar with the wire whisk beaters. Mistake #1.

Then the recipe says to alternately add flour and mashed bananas. My little helper dumped all the flour in at once. Mistake #2.

All of these mistakes and the bread was still yummy. It was even the first food Baby Girl ate when she got home from the hospital. Little Sister was sad this morning to discover there was none left for her breakfast. There was none left because I polished it off last night.

BANANA BREAD

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups self-rising flour
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat. Alternately add flour and bananas (start and end with the flour.) Stir in nuts. Pour into greased 9-inch loaf pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour. Remove from pan and cool on a rack. Wrap in foil and let the loaf "ripen" for a day before slicing. (Have no clue why this makes it better, but trust me, it does. It is much more moist.)

This can also be baked in three 5-inch baking pans, to make small gifts. Reduce baking time to about 45-50 minutes.


I should be back home next week, posting more regularly, when I am on my own computer.  Say a prayer that the rest of winter is a healthy one.