Award Time and a Yummy Banana Bread

Before I leave on my extremely short trip to India, I would like to tell you about the award that I received. I’m extremely happy that Sadhana & Muskaan duo, Shanthi & Jisha have passed on Kreativ Blogger Award to me. Thank you guys, you rock.

Here are the rules that come with Kreativ Blogger Award:
1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

I would like to Pass the award to these lovely Bloggers, Congrats guys:
1. Vani @ Mysoorean
2. Priya @ Akshayapaatram
3. Divya Vikram @ Dil-Se
4. DK @ Chef in You
5. Trupti @ The Spice who loved me
6. Vaishali @ Holy Cow
7. Raaga @ Singing Chef

7 Interesting things about me:

1. I’m a textile engineer by profession and work for a children’s apparel retailer in NJ. My husband also a textile engineer and works for a children’s apparel. Some desi jantha find it quite fascinating that both of us are not in software.

2. I hate hypocrisy with passion and I hate politics (especially Indian politics & politicians) with even more passion.

3. I love cooking and trying new foods. I’m open to try any vegetarian dish at least once to see how it tastes.

4. I love grocery shopping, especially in specialty food stores & farmers markets. I tend to stock my pantry on a little heavy side, but I make sure that I use everything before the sell-by date.

5. I love reading fiction novels. I used to read a lot more before I had the baby, but I try to finish at least one novel in a fortnight.

6. I don’t like dirty dishes sitting in my sink, so you can find me cleaning them in between my cooking and I’m not a dish washer user unless it is absolutely necessary.

7. I’m mostly a calm-going person and I can take a lot before getting agitated; but once I reach that limit, then it’s hard for me to calm down.

Enough about me, lets head on to the yummy banana bread that I baked. I bought 2 big bags of bananas to be used for Vara Lakshmi vratam, but unfortunately my DH’s grand mother passed away and I couldn’t perform the pooja. All the bananas ripened in the matter of 2 days and I had to use them ASAP, so I made double batch of this lightly spiced banana bread recipe from King Arthur’s site. I used half AP flour & half white whole wheat flour, subbed raisins for walnuts and used I can’t believe it’s not butter sticks. I was skeptical of how the bread was going to turn out since this is the first time I’m using ICBINB, but the end result was just as tasty.

Ingredients:
AP flour – 1 cup
White whole wheat flour – 1¼ cups
Light brown sugar – 2/3 cup
Butter – ½ cup (1 stick), at room temperature
Baking soda – 1tsp
Baking powder – 1tsp
Ground cinnamon – 1tsp
Ground nutmeg – ¼tsp
Salt – 1tsp
Vanilla extract – 1tsp
Ripe bananas – 3 medium, 1½ cups after mashing
Eggs – 2 large
Honey – ¼cup
Orange Marmalade (optional) – 3tbsp
Raisins – ½ cup

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease 9”x5” loaf pan.
  
• In a large bowl, combine butter, sugar, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon and nutmeg, beating until smooth.
  
• Add the mashed bananas, honey, jam (if using), and eggs, beat again until smooth.
  
• Add flour and raisins, stirring just until smooth.
  
• Spoon the batter into prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top. Let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.
  
• Bake the bread for 45 minutes, then loosely cover the top with aluminum foil to avoid over browning. Bake for an additional 25minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean, some wet clinging crumbs is fine. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, remove from the pan and cool completely on a rack.