For My Mom

OK, this post is for my Mom – although y’all can read it. My Mom said she’s never been to a blog before (I hope she’s impressed – no picking on my typing or grammatical abilities)…Hi Mom!  (If y’all want to say hello to my Mom – feel free to leave her a comment). I just got off the phone with her from getting Mom advice. I told her my new "Mommy Motto" that I read in a magazine today.

The days are long, but the years are short.

Don’t you just love that? Also, She really wants MY recipe for banana bread. Hee hee….actually it came from someone named Candace on Allrecipes.com – but I’ve made a few "tweaks" so it’s my recipe now. I’ve sent this to work with my hubby and all the guys love it. So I thought I’d share it with everyone! Now this is a "spicy" recipe – very ‘fall flavored’, but easily adjustable with the amount of nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon…..

Special Banana Bread

• 1 cup shortening (I use applesauce)
• 2 cups white sugar (I used 1 cup white, 1 cup brown sugar)
• 6 very ripe bananas, mashed (I add 1 small box vanilla or banana pudding to this)
• 4 eggs
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray two 9×5 inch loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Cream the shortening and sugar until light. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Add to the shortening mixture and mix to combine.
4. Thoroughly mash the bananas. Stir bananas into the batter then stir in the walnuts. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a wooden skewer inserted near the center comes out clean. Check with a wooden skewer every 15 minutes after 45 minutes of baking. It can take up to 65 to 70 minutes to cook.

Let me know if you try it and like it. Also, I’ve actually been stamping so I have something to show you! I made this card yesterday for the color and sketch challenges on Splitcoast. This is the second time I’ve reached for ladybuds for a challenge, although I tend to forget about it every other time. The colors used are Sage Shadow, Real Red and Basic Black. I used Confetti Cream cardstock as my neutral. You can’t really see well, but I stamped the little swirly circle thingy in real red on the real red cs. I also used my aqua painter to "blur" some of my stamping. The lady bug is colored in using the watercolor wonder crayons. Oh yeah, the ribbon is just from Walmart…..

Don’t forget to comment on the blog candy pre-entry post!!!!