Disappearing Banana Bread

I have to apologize for the fact that it seems to take me a while to post.  I sometimes will start a post and my computer will have a little...issue, I guess.  Then I get frustrated because it's late, so then I just go to bed.  And, yes, I will get busy and forget about my blog.  But the good news is that I return to you.  Don't worry, I can't forget about you.

We suddenly collected this increasing pile of old bananas in our kitchen.  So, what else am I gonna do but make banana bread, right?!

For a banana bread recipe where else can I turn, but the good old trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

I had to double the recipe with all the bananas I had.

After heating up the oven, I grease the pan and I am super lazy,so it gets sprayed with canola oil :)

Mix all the dry ingredients and make a nice little well in the middle of the mix.  Another recipe that makes you use two different bowls.

Pile of nanners LOL

The potato masher was quite handy for this part.

Mix all the wet ingredients with the bananas and the sugar.

Pour the wet ingredients into the middle of your dry ingredient well.

Give everything a good stir.  And a note to Better Homes and Gardens: When you make someone who just had surgery a couple weeks ago stir by hand it kind of hurts a little, well mostly the muscles I haven't used in a LONG time.

Pour the batter into your loaf pans.  Yes, one is the Mama and one is the Baby LOL

Now, it's streusel time.  Mix flour, brown suga, and butta (sorry couldn't help the southern twang comin' out)

Mash the sugar, flour, and butter together in a small bowl.

Then cover the top of your pre-baked bread with the struesel.  I had a lot so every inch was covered and I still had some left over.

Look at that!  Now, your kitchen smells like bananas.  Trust me this loaf will not last long.  Hence the name of this post.  The smaller pan I showed in the pictures above, The Chad took to work and the guys ate just about the whole pan.  Then the larger one stayed at home and lasted about two days.  It was amazing.  Especially, the struesel.  We all agreed that made the bread much better.

Don't forget I had to double the recipe.  So, when you make it according to the Better Homes and Gardens recipe it will probably make one large loaf.

Make some...and invite me over.  I'll help you finish it off without any problem.

Side note:  Check out the Facebook page I just created!  Here!

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins

The other night Jessie and I were supposed to go with The Chad to the midnight release of "Halo Reach," but The Chad fell asleep.  Jessie and I were still going to go so we decided to make muffins to keep ourselves awake.  I wanted to make something with apples, or applesauce.  So, I found a recipe and tweeked it a little to come up with something DELICIOUS!

All the ingredients laid out here, no not nice and neat because Jessica wasn't paying attention enough when I started to take that picture.  (I love you, Jessie :)

First, let me say I let Jessica take all the pictures (I guess since she's a photographer she should be the one to take them), but she wasn't paying attention the whole time so there aren't pictures of every step.

But first throw all the wet ingredients and the sugar into a bowl.

Now add the flour.

Then add the rest of your dry ingredients.

And...let your measuring spoons and cups stack up nicely.

Now everything's mixed up so nicely.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin.  I used three tablespoons in each cup, but if you want more of a top to them I'd use four.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and oatmeal.

Sprinkle the muffin batter with brown sugar and oatmeal mix.  Then pop them in the oven.

Then after 50 excruciating minutes of smelling the amazing-ness and waiting impatiently, they come out like this and are AMAZING!

Jessica and I shared this one then...a few minutes later I ate my own.

The Chad ate two of these for breakfast the next day and took the rest to the guys at work and they didn't last very long.

I have to add a little tip for all you bakers out there.

I needed cake flour for a recipe we were going to make this muffin night, but we didn't have something else so we couldn't make it.  We also didn't have cake flour, but I found a substitution for it.  So, moral of the story is- if you need cake flour for a recipe, but have none here's what you do:

1 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour + 1/4 cup of cornstarch = 2 cups of cake flour  I can do math!  Aren't you proud?!

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins

1 1/4 cup plain applesauce

2 apples (Fuji or Gala are probably best), cored, peeled, and cut up into small pieces.

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

3 tbsp milk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup oatmeal

1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350.  Line a muffin tin with papers.

Combine the first six ingredients in a bowl, and mix thoroughly.  Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  Then add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.  Use a tablespoon measuring spoon, and spoon 4 tablespoons into each muffin cup.  Combine in a small bowl then oatmeal and brown sugar.  Sprinkle the mixture on the top of each cup of batter.  Bake for 50 minutes.