Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Banana Bread Baking

This week is another unusual one, with unexpected schedule changes.  So far, every week this semester has had unexpected schedule changes, so by now, I just expect changes, even though I'm not sure what will trigger the changes.

Today's change is a funeral at Faith Lutheran in Bristol, TN.  A beloved parishioner died, so we will go up for the 1:00 funeral.  Happily, before I realized we would have this disruption, I had scheduled library orientations and research in the library days for my English 102 classes.  I don't really need to be there, although I realize my students might take it more seriously if I'm there.  

Last night I looked at the bananas on the counter.  On Saturday, I bought a paper bag of bananas that were on sale; periodically, the produce dep't of the grocery store bags up bananas that are past their prime, and it's a heck of a deal.  On Saturday, I got over 20 bananas for $1.99, and I bought the bag because the bananas in the bag looked better than the ones that were at regular price.

Of course, that left me with a lot of bananas.   So last night, I decided to bake banana bread and take some loaves with me today.  Instead of flowers, I'll bring banana bread!  This recipe from the King Arthur baking site is remarkably easy.

I really enjoyed the process--I knew that I would make the recipe numerous times, so I had stations:  banana blending, wet ingredients, dry ingredients, loading the pans.  It worked really well.  I still can't imagine doing it on a larger scale, a bakery scale.

I had a lot of bananas, so now I have a lot of banana bread.  So I'm glad that I could taste the bread.  It's tasty, not overwhelmingly banana-y.  I didn't put any of the add-ins, like walnuts, that would make it even better.  Since I'm making it for other people, I wanted to make it appealing to as many people as possible.  I realize that people with gluten sensitivity will need to avoid my bread, but people with nut allergies can enjoy it if I don't put nuts in it.

Let me turn my attention to my homily for today's sermon.  It's a different kind of sermon, but I have an idea which I think will work.  Let me get it into manageable shape.

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