See Jane Bake {Banana Bread}

If you like to bake, chances are you've tried your hand at making banana bread at least once. Growing up in my house, the red and white checkered Better Homes and Gardens loose-leaf cookbook was considered food gospel. I'm pretty sure all of our meals were either TV dinners or products of this culinary scripture. We had no internet with recipe sites or Food Network programs teaching us creative ways to prepare foods. Banana bread recipes consisted of the basic ingredients of a sweet bread plus mashed, over-ripe bananas.

Recently, we attended my daughters first regatta. Each family is responsible for bringing food to share in the crew food tent. This is the most genius idea. It's like tailgating breakfast, lunch and dinner {sans the keg}. It was here that I discovered the most delicious banana bread.

After tracking down the responsible party, I was pleased to discover the recipe came from one of my favorite websites. I'm sharing so you can make your own. It's called Janet's Rich Banana Bread. Whoever Janet is, she's a revolutionary, slicing the bananas instead of mashing and adding sour cream to the mix. Simply divine. 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/17066/janets-rich-banana-bread/

This is my finished product. You can see the thick slices of warm gooey banana through the glass pan and the sour cream makes it super moist!

Try this recipe and let me know how it turns out. I'm planning on making Janet's Rich Banana Bread again and perhaps adding crushed pineapple and toasted coconut!

You Can Do It!

A Spoonful Of Sugar...

One of my favorite movies of all times is Mary Poppins. Her can-do attitude, strong will and ability to solve any problem with show tunes and a spoonful of sugar makes her my role model. So when I got the news that a young family friend was having an emergency appendectomy, I thought, she needs a spoonful of sugar to help that medicine go down. 

I don't like to send flowers, they're so expensive and only last a week. Instead I prefer to put together a personalized gift and include something sweet so I set off to the local bakery and Home Goods for provisions. Admittedly, I have a sweet tooth and I get a little sugar rush just walking through the bakery doors, practically breaking into song in true Mary Poppins form. I was thrilled to discover they offered 4 flavors of mini whoopee pies! I grabbed a box with 3 of each flavor and headed out for more supplies.

Donning a bakery box of yummy goodness, I made a bee-line for the stationary section at Home Goods and selected a fun storage container making sure the whoopee pie box would fit inside. 

Once I found one that was pretty and matched our little friend's personality, I searched for some treasures to place inside.  Note cards come in handy, there's a lot of downtime after surgery and thank you's to write {for all those flowers people send}.  I think Tweens like journals and I love this sassy little white leather number. A pretty pen just finishes it off.

Placing a sheet of pink tissue paper over all the goodies, keeps the suspense a little longer once she opens it. 

On goes the lid and a simple bow tied from a length of tulle.

So, the next time someone special in your life needs a little pick-me-up, think outside of the boring cardboard box. Pick up a pretty one and fill it with treasures that lets them know you made it special for them. And of course, include something sweet!

You Can Do It!