Yes We Have No Bananas

Oh how I wish I could say I have no bananas.  Remember this post where I showed my plastic wrap covered Banana Whipped Cream cake I made for DH last week.  What I did not mention was that I kind of forgot to shop for the ingredients the day before so DH picked them up on his way home from work.   Duncan Hines Banana Supreme Cake mix, heavy whipping cream, and 6-8 ripe bananas.  DH came home with everything but he brought more like a dozen bananas and- were they green.  The day I made the cake I ran to the local grocery store, and they had bags, and bags full of over ripe bananas which is what you need to make the cake.  The cake was made, and a loaf of Banana nut bread with hickory nuts too.

Those green bananas they sat in a paper bag for 48 hours, and were still as green as a spring day.  I sat them on the counter and finally they began to turn.  A couple were eaten, and then time accelerated and I have these.

I have lots of these in fact.  So I broke out the banana bread recipe and decided to make it without nuts, since the grandsons are allergic to nuts.  Mixed it, threw it in the oven and......

After one hour it was still raw in the middle.  I put it back into the oven for another 25 minutes.  Still gooey.  I then grabbed the oven thermometer and threw it in there for 20 minutes.  My digital over which is set at and should be showing 350 degree oven is barely registering 325.  So I upped the temp and threw the banana bread back in.  Nice and dark, but I think it is a lost cause, cause either it is going to be rock hard.  Or nicely browned and gooey in the middle.  Grrr.

On a side note:

If you like nuts such as walnuts you have to try Hickory nuts.  They come from the shag bark Hickory tree. 

This is the tree on our property.  Getting the nuts though is a losing proposition with the squirrels. I picked up a few at the park a couple of weeks ago.  I love this tree, and would love to grow more, but they are very slow growers, and DH has a tendency to run over everything with the tractor when he mows, but it may be something to consider. 

Small nuts, hard to break open, very little nut meat, but oh so yummy.  Flavor much like a walnut but without the bitter that sometimes occurs.  Last year for a gift  I bought DH 1 lb of Hickory nut meats and they came dearly.  He hoards them like you would not believe to go into his favorite cookies, etc. 

I digress so while fighting with my banana bread, and oven which seems to not heat correctly, I looked at this barn with silo, and was really dissatisfied with it.

I loved the fabric I made the basket out of, and it turned out so cute, but not really thrilled with what I chose for the barn material to go with it.

Now if you think about it  the barns are all the same, just the door block or in the case of the original barns the wall block are different.  I have the barn instructions all printed out so instead of stressing about finishing up all my barns, I will just get the blocks done, and this one definitely needs to be changed out!   The next barn had a spinning spools block.  I dug through my scraps and looked for fabric to complement the barn above.  I think this turned out much nicer.

Now I just have to pick new fabric for the basket block barn, and life will be good.

Oh and remember how I was fussing about how many things I needed to "quilt"?  I decided I would devote at least 1 hour a day to my machine quilting.  That is a goal I am going to set myself starting next Monday.