I know I said I would blog about self-publishing today, but I’m tired and currently don’t have the energy to do my blog post about self-publishing. I’ll be posting blog entries about the following later this week: self-publishing, my writers meeting yesterday(Saturday), and The Winter Pearl by Molly Noble Bull.

It snowed today, but it only left a dusting on the ground. When it’s cold, as it has been over the last week, I love to bake! Yesterday, we baked a Mrs. Smith’s Apple Pie and it was great! Almost tasted like homemade. Since I forgot to take my daily banana to work last week, we had a bunch of over-ripe bananas left over this weekend. I decided to make a loaf of banana bread. Here’s the recipe that I used:

Tropical Banana Bread

1/2 cup CRISCO all-vegetable shortening or 1/2 CRISCO Stick (I didn’t have any edible Crisco since I rarely use it. I found an old can of it in the back of my cupboard, but the shortening was old and cracked, and was not fit for use so I threw it away. Instead, I used a stick of fresh butter! The bread still turned out yummy!)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup mashed bananas (2 to 3 medium)
1/2 cup dairy sour cream (I didn’t have a half a cup of sour cream. I only had about 1/3 or 1/4 of a cup of sour cream left in my refrigerator. I just used what I had and kept going!)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I didn’t have any nuts so I omitted them.)

Heat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 2-1/2 inch loaf pan.
Combine Crisco and sugar in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until creamed.
Add eggs, bananas and sour cream. Beat until well blended.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Mix at low speed of electric mixer until blended. Stir in nuts. Spread in pan.
Bake at 350ºF for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool conpletely before slicing.

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com