The Best Kitchen Help

Last week Thursday the kids were crabby.  Terribly crabby.  They couldn’t seem to do anything with complaining or fighting with each other.  It was obvious they were suffering from a sleep shortage for some reason, and while a good night sleep was in the cards, it was the time before bedtime that we needed to muster through somehow.  It was one of those days where locking them in a closet was getting mighty tempting, so I decided to try something completely different.  I called them both down to the kitchen and put them to work.  I gave them both a cutting board and a knife and told them to make salad.  Zander was so excited to get to try cutting with a real knife, and Abigail got excited when I pulled out the vegetable peeler and handed it to her for the cucumber she was in charge of.

Something happened while they were working.  The crabbiness melted away.  The kids became absorbed in their tasks.  The sampled their work, asked advice from mom, and admired each other’s handiwork.   When the salad was assembled, they both looked at me, eager for more to do.  Sadly, I didn’t have a thing for them, but I did make a date with them to make some banana bread after school the next day.  The rest of the night they behaved like normal children, and the next day they both reminded me of our date to make banana bread.

I started assembling the ingredients so they could do the work when Zander mentioned that he would help make banana bread, but wouldn’t eat it.  He’s in an anti-nut phase and an anti-chocolate chip phase, and I usually put one of those in my banana bread. I have to admit, plain banana bread just didn’t appeal, so I thought about it, and wondered if we could make chocolate banana bread.  When I asked the kids what they thought about that idea, they were all over it, so the cocoa was retrieved.

Zander mashed the banana carefully with a potato masher, while Abigail had egg-cracking duty and mixer duty.  They took turns adding ingredients, and all I did was put the batter into the pans.  Abigail even put them in the oven for me.

The chocolate banana bread was a great success.  Zander keeps going back for more (even two days later) because “it’s just soooo good!”  I love that!  We have a few more bananas ripening away on the counter, and I think we’ll turn those into muffins when they’re ready.

Here’s the recipe we used for the Chocolate Banana Bread.

Chocolate Banana Bread

1 stick  butter- room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3-4 medium bananas)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa, sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts (if desired)- occasionally I will add chocolate chips as well

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Grease bottoms only of two loaf pans

3. Combine butter and sugar, mixing well. Add eggs, mix in thoroughly. Add bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla.

4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda. Stir well to evenly distribute.

5. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until combined. Fold in nuts, if desired. Divide mixture into two loaf pans and bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes. Time will depend on the size of your loaf pans.