City Porch Pics in the Rain

This obviously is not food related but it was such a great moment I had to share. I woke up Saturday morning to a downpour. So I sat on the porch and watched the rain and listened. Is was so serene and beautiful. It rained for over an hour. After I enjoyed it a bit I took some pictures.




Also, don't forget to vote in the new poll!

Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

So I haven't blogged in FOREVER. Well at least it seems. The reason why is that I just really haven't baked much in the past few weeks. It's been hot, it's summer, it's HOT...did I mention the heat? I love summer but I just haven't been motivated to bake. The BF makes comments everyday like, "When are you gonna bake something?", "You really need to bake something!" and "I remember when you used to bake for me." Aaaawwww. So, I shall bake! Banana bread with chocolate chips. This was his idea. I used my banana bread recipe but added mini chocolate chips.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter or margarine (room temperature)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups very ripe bananas mashed up
2/3 cup of mini semi sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add bananas and stir. Slowly combine with dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Line a 9 x 5 non-stick bread pan with parchment paper. Use enough parchment paper so that it hangs over the outside of the bread pan. See photo here. This makes it really easy to remove the loaf and saves you from having to grease the pan. Fill pan with batter and bake for 50 minutes.

And then you will have this:



Also, the winning recipe in the latest poll was for the lovely Lemon Blueberry Tarts. Look for them soon!