Cuppa tea & chocolate chip banana bread

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their well wishes for my sister. It means a lot to me. She's been released from the hospital and is sounding chipper. She still has headaches and is very weak, but she is well and truly on the mend. Given this, I feel I can now enjoy my mum's visit... and what a busy couple of weeks I have ahead of me!!

The girls birthdays' are weeks away (days for the youngest), and so, birthday preparations are underway... namely, my mum teaching me to use a sewing machine, so that I can knock up a few pinnies (aprons) for the little party goers... I'm hoping to give these as favors, as I've planned a little baking treat for them! (The last time I was near a sewing machine, I was 13 years of age and in a Home Economics class... I think I'm going to be on a pretty steep learning curve, but who says you can't learn and old dog new tricks??)

Anyhoo, during my mum's visit, there will be a lot of tea supped... the hubby says that he can tell when we have visitors from Blighty, as the sink and/or dishwasher is full of mugs at all times... for me, it's how it should be... one of life's little pleasures is to share tea and have a chin-wag with good company... I'm always disappointed when my offer of a cup of tea is turned down... guests probably expect me to go on to offer coffee, but, honestly, I'm doing them a favour by not making them one...

Apologies for the quality of the photo's today... the hubby took my camera to work!

So, today, after drinking my umpteenth cup of tea, I decided to bake... just because I wanted to fill the house with that, 'I've been baking all day' smell... and so,  I whipped up a banana bread to munch upon with said cups of tea... and, because I didn't get my fill of chocolate on Halloween, I decided to add some chocolate chips in for good measure (you can never have too much chocolate)... it turned out to be the perfect accompaniment for a hot cuppa on a cold autumn day.

I hope you're all having a lovely week... it's starting to turn pretty chilly here... so, I'll be eating all the yummy English food my mum brought over... you know, just to add some winter insulation ;-)

Take care.
Lx

P.S. I popped the recipe on especially for my mum... she enjoyed it so much, she's going to make it when she gets home...

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Ingredients

2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

3 ripe bananas (mashed)

¼ cup of milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup of butter or margarine (1 stick)

1 cup of sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 350F . Grease a metal loaf pan. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a bowl.

In another bowl combine the bananas, milk and vanilla extract.

In a large bowl, with the mixer on a medium setting, beat the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.

Reduce the mixer to a low setting and add the flour and banana mixture, a little at a time alternating between the two (scrape the bowl with a spatula to make sure it all gets incorporated).

Once the mixture is just blended, fold in the chocolate chips.  Pour the mixture into your prepared loaf pan. Bake for approximately 1 hour 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the loaf comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove and cool completely on a rack.

Taste tested, and confirmed, delicious with a cup of tea!