Baking a Thank-You

After Tuesday's episode with getting the mail, I knew I owed my neighbors a big, big thank you.  Banana bread is a good way to say thanks.

So are peanut butter cookies.

Both of these recipes are from Katie Lee's fabulous cookbook The Comfort Table.  I'm in love with the Nutty Banana Bread (which can be found on her website, here).   Banana bread is always a winner, and this is one delicious loaf.

The thing with banana bread is that the bananas have to be really ripe, so they give your bread a deep, sweet flavor.  And yesterday afternoon, ours were just this side of green.  But I did a little research and learned an wonderful little tip that makes banana bread accessible even if you don't plan ahead with the bananas:

Preheat your oven to a standard temperature.  I used 325 and it worked just fine, but you could also go up to 350.  Place your bananas on a baking sheet and place in the oven.

After 15 minutes, take the bananas out of the oven.  They will look like this:

and be perfect for mashing and adding to your batter.

Have a lovely Thursday! We're almost to the weekend.   And may I suggest you make a batch of your favorite peanut butter cookies today to celebrate National Peanut Butter Lover's Day? :)

Love,
Rosie