Tasty Treats: Banana Bread Three Ways.

Basic Banana Bread Recipe:

2 medium bananas mashed

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1/4 milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 medium eggs, beaten

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

• Combine the liquid ingredients.
• Sift the dry in a separate bowl.
• Mix together but don't over mix.
• Pour batter into 2 large loaf pans or 3 medium pans (greased).
• Bake at 350F for 30 to 40 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Orange Banana Bread~

Replace milk with 1/4 cup orange juice and add 2 tablespoons of orange zest.  Plus, add 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips to your batter. Baking Tip: toss the chips in a tiny bit of flour before stirring them into the batter, this will help keep them from sinking to the bottom of your pan while baking.

Chocolate Chip Orange Banana Bread.

Spiced Rum Crumble Coffee Cake~

Add 1 tablespoon of cinnamon to your dry ingredients. Omit vanilla and add 1 teaspoon of rum flavoured extract (or real rum) into the liquid mixture.  Sprinkle top with a Oatmeal Crumble Topping before baking. 

Crumble Topping: 1/2 cup oats, 2 tablespoons of butter, 1/4 brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour. Mix the dry ingredients together and fork the butter in until the mixture is crumbley.

Spiced Crumble Cake. The pan on the left is a 1.5 lb take-away
container. The one on the right is a 2 lb loaf pan.

Every year I get a sense of anticipation that builds throughout November.  I make notes about decorating, gift ideas, and plan my Holiday recipes for weeks before December arrives.  This year was no different other than the fact that I now have two blogs to pour my creativity into and share my love of EVERYTHING Christmas.  My scribbled lists have been sorted and will now help me as life gets more hectic each week leading up to the big day.  The first things on my list are usually the same every year.  We are heading into to the last week of November and I have crossed a few items off my  To-Do list.

Christmas Cards: Book photo studio session-Order Christmas Cards- Address and Mail Cards.  I bought a box of Christmas cards after Boxing Day last year and only paid $2 for them.  
My princess had her pictures taken on Monday and the Christmas cards are ordered-expected to be here December 6th.  I will be addressing the envelopes while waiting for the Christmas photos to arrive.

Start Christmas baking: Decide what I want to bake for treats and shop for ingredients.  That way, I have everything on hand when I have time to bake.  I just did 2 batches of banana bread which scored me 5 loaves, 4 to give away and one to eat.  With 3 kinds of cake/bread on my list and about 8 kinds of cookies, I still have a long way to go. I'm glad I invested in a chest freezer last year!