along the way

A picture of Autumns last burst of color

I think there must be two kinds of cold - one that makes you want to bake and create wonderful things in the kitchen, and the other one makes you want to cuddle under a blanket, read a book and really do nothing.  yesterday was a cuddle up under a blanket and do nothing sort of cold - lets just say I was not terribly productive.

Nathaniel was so kind as to eat left overs from the night before so I didn't have to make dinner but I still needed to make something for the guys.  I was planning on making an cinnamon type roll with an orange flair - a recipe I tore out of a magazine years ago and never got around to making. 
Due to my 'do nothing' state I didn't get around to starting my baking till 6.30 - not enough time to make a yeast dough unless I was planning on staying up till 11, which I was not.  Instead I flipped to a banana bread recipe in my recipe binder...the title on the recipe: Real Simple Banana Bread.
real simple thats what I needed...and it really was really simple. nice - I hardly had to think while putting this together.
So I guess most of you out there already have a really simple go to banana recipe but for those of you who don't tuck this one away it may just come in handy.

1 stick of butter melted
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
3 mashed ripe bananas
*and I added 1/2 tsp of salt and left out the 1/2 cup nuts*

mix in order given
pour into a large greased loaf pan
bake at 350 F for 50 minutes until golden brown
cool on wire rack 10 minutes then turn out onto rack to cool completely

I did over cook mine - we were having issues with our heater, you understand how one can get distracted by heaters right?  See, because it was so cold in our house we turned the heater on in the afternoon - but then it wouldn't shut off so that it was 84 degrees in our house and climbing at 7.30 last night.
I told Nathaniel that this was the only time in my life we would have our home so warm in the winter and I wasn't even being able to enjoy it because I was stressing out as to whether the heater would ever shut off.  Anyway I was a little distracted and the bread over cooked. but here is the thing - it was still delicious, it just needed a little...ok fine, a lot of butter.
Also - I think this recipe is courtesy of Gab, at least it looks like her hand writing...thanks for passing along this great recipe I have been looking for something like this for ages and silly me, I had it all along.