Today’s post is by Melissa K. Norris, author of Pioneering Today: Faith and Home the Old-Fashioned Way. Melissa is sharing her favorite banana bread recipe with us today. I love banana bread! After her post, she is giving away a copy of Pioneering Today! Without further ado, here is Melissa….
How often do you spend time with your close friends? I mean quality time where you linger over the conversation just as long as you the do the food or coffee.
If you’re anything like me, it’s not often enough. My best friend lives about an hour away, but we sometimes go a full year without seeing one another in person. I have neighbors whom I’m lucky if we do more than wave in passing once a season.
A co-worker gave me some Amish bread starter a couple of weeks ago. It’s a sweet sourdough that you bake into more of pound cake than bread. You’re supposed to divide up the remaining starter into four pieces and give three away to your friends, hence the name.
We delivered a loaf to one of our widowed neighbors. I’ve meant to take him some home baked goodies for close to a year now, but never quite got around it.
While I can’t ship you the Amish bread starter, I can share my favorite banana bread recipe. I invite you to bake a loaf and deliver it to a friend. Don’t just deliver the bread, but take the time to visit with them. Cultivate your friendship over a few slices.
Because like our relationship with Jesus, we can’t make a real impact in people’s lives by an occasional drop by text or phone call. We should spend daily time with Jesus, and while we can’t spend daily time with our friends, we can set a goal to speak with them on the phone every few weeks and get together face to face once a month.
I hope you’ll use this recipe as a way to enrich your friendships.
Banana Friendship Bread:
3 Tablespoons melted butter
3 Tablespoons melted coconut oil
3 ripe bananas
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ cups flour (I grind my own flour at home now and used spelt, but pastry whole wheat or organic all-purpose would work, too)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a full sized bread pan. Mash up ripe bananas. Add sugar, melted butter, oil, egg and vanilla and cream together. Mix in flour and baking soda. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour or until a tooth pick comes out clean from the center.
Remove from oven. Allow to cool for about ten minutes in loaf pan. Then remove bread, careful it will still be hot, and wrap up. Wrapping the bread while hot traps in the moisture and makes an incredibly moist loaf. Eat with a friend.
Melissa K. Norris is a Christian novelist, newspaper columnist, and non-fiction writer. Her stories inspire people to draw closer to God and their pioneer roots. She’s a skilled artisan crafter, creating new traditions from old-time customs for her readers. She found her own little house in the big woods, where she lives with her husband and two children in the Cascade Mountains. Her book, Pioneering Today-Faith and Home the Old Fashioned Way, explains practical and easy methods to cook from scratch, garden, preserve your own food, and see God’s fingerprint in your everyday busy life.
To purchase this book, visit Melissa’s site: http://melissaknorris.com/books/
Or to buy the Kindle version from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Pioneering-Today-Melissa-K-Norris-ebook/dp/B009LOO7YG/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395018091&sr=1-3&keywords=melissa+k.+norris
Book Giveaway:
Congratulations to Roxie, who won an autographed set of all four Amish Vines and Orchards books. Roxie, please check your email and reply with your mailing address as soon as possible.
For today’s giveaway, Melissa is giving away a copy of her book, Pioneering Today! To enter to win, simply comment at the end of this post.
Only comments left on my website will be entered into the giveaway.
The deadline for this contest is Wednesday, April 2nd, at noon Eastern Time. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be contacted privately, as well as announced on next week’s post.
As always, please remember that all of my giveaways are limited to US residents only. For a complete explanation of the terms and conditions of this giveaway, please go to https://www.cindywoodsmall.com/giveaway-rules/
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