Best Banana Bread

There are a great many recipes for banana bread out there, and I have not tried them all. I have had great difficulty moving beyond this particular recipe since it always turns out for me. I always add maraschino cherries and chocolate chips and occasionally pineapple chunks. Today's batch is a little light on the chips as I am mysteriously out of them. Don't know how that happened since I buy the big box from Costco.........but I guess it's time to buy another. I just added more cherries to compensate. As well as being practical for using up otherwise inedible bananas, it makes two loaves and they freeze very well if you should find yourself in the position of not being able to eat two loaves within 3-4 days. Sometimes it happens....
If you'd like a slice, come over....I'll save you one. Or you could make your own. Here's the recipe just in case you like to try it.

Banana Bread

6 tbsp butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 cups flour

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup maraschino cherries, halved

1 small tin of pineapple chunks

Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease 2 loaf pans and dust with a sprinkle of cinnamon and pinch sugar. In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, bananas, sour cream, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda and mix in. Mix in flour, then chocolate chips and cherries. Divide batter equally between two loaf pans. Bake for about 40 minutes and remove when a cake toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Or bake until the top springs back when lightly pressed. Baking time will vary depending on your oven. I usually set the timer for 35 minutes and then check it every 5-10 minutes depending on how things look.

How Many is Too Many???

After grumbling to myself about the clutter on my kitchen counter tops, I had a huge epiphany. I decided that there was really no need to have 68 cups and saucers in my display cupboard. So, I proceeded to pull them all out and sort them. I concluded that 28 of my favourites was an ample number to have quick access to just in case company stops in for tea, or for personal family use. The rest will be boxed up in the basement where they can stay until I need them. You just never know when you might them all, and I figure once a year I can change out the selection in the cupboard to rotate through them all. Problem solved! Now I have extra room to store all the teapots and serving dishes that were cluttering up my counter tops. Now........If only I had a big rough tote or two to store these extras in, I can use my table again.

An Easy Scarf Pattern

Another Swap-bot project out of the way! This one was a scarf for winter. I changed my mind a few times before starting due to nervousness over how my intended project would turn out, and if it was going to turn into the project from hell. In the end I scrapped my initial idea (which I will share with you if I get around to making it some day) and also my second idea (which was to make a sewn chenille scarf, like the one below), and went with a knitted pattern from here called the Meandering Rib Scarf instead. You need to sign in with Lion Brand to view and print the pattern, but it is free.

Over all, I liked the pattern but found it to be a little narrow for my liking. It was around 5 inches wide, and over 6 feet long which used about 1 1/2 balls. When I do it again, I would add 12 stitches to the cast on to make it a little wider. My partner had stated a preference for red non acrylic yarn, and I had a nice stash of red wool set aside to compete the project. On my search for the yarn I happened upon some other yarn I had set aside for a felting project, and it is the one I ended up using. It was a Patton's Classic Wool in a variegated cherry red/pink/brown/orange colourway. I think, that over all it still looks red??? I was very torn on whether to go with my plain red or this variegated yarn, and in the end I thought that the blended colours might add something extra to the scarf. In retrospect, I think maybe a red tweed or heather yarn might be nice to try for comparison as the variegated yarn competes with the wavy pattern of the rib by adding a perpendicular element. Although it appears to be more so in the photo.......when you see it in person, the wavy patten of the rib is very apparent.

The pattern turned out to be easy and straight forward to knit. Once however, I did zig where I should have zagged, and only discovered my error after knitting another 30 or so rows. There was a bit of panic for a while, while I decided whether to just continue on or rip out the last 30 rows and hope for the best picking up all the dropped stitches. In the end, I had to rip out the stitches.........and I'll say it was a good learning experience trying to figure out where in the 24 row repeat I was when I started to knit again. The pattern made a lot more sense after all that thought!

Anyway, it finally got finished (all 6+ feet of it) and mailed, and one of these days I'll make another. For now, I've got it in my head that I need to make another chenille scarf. I see I have enough fabric put aside to make four more, and I really need to start using up some of my crafting stash. But with Halloween costume work coming up, there is just never enough time:(