Autism fact: There is no known scientific link
currently between vaccines and autism.
I’m honored participate in RJ Scott’s autism blog hop again this year along with 30 authors, each of whom will share an autism fact each day. There are giveaways too, including one from me at the bottom of this post.
Food is the theme this year, and it’s a subject near and dear to so many people including me. I find baking very comforting and love to cook and bake for my family, as well as make and give food as gifts.
Because of my own habits, food frequently creeps into my books. In doing a mental count just now, I’ve realized that three of my most recent projects have included a chef or baker as a main character. Healing Hearts, my holiday novella, and Straight Up, book four in The Speakeasy series I wrote with Brigham Vaughn, each include a chef, and a story I wrote for an upcoming anthology titled Working Stiffs features a baker.
Like so many in the world right now, my family is living in a locked down community. I’m still working my day job and helping my twelve-year-old son through his school-from-home routine, and I look for ways to unwind at the end of each weird day. Baking is just one of those ways and I thought I’d share a really delicious recipe for banana bread that has been a big hit in my house.
Recipe adapted from Garden & Table
Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread
Ingredients
For the bread:
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3 over-ripe bananas, smashed up
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1/3 cup melted butter
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3/4 cup sugar
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1 egg, beaten
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1 Tsp vanilla
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1 Tsp baking soda
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Dash of salt
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1 1/2 cups flour
For the swirl:
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1 and 1/2 Tbs sugar
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1 and 1/2 Tbs brown sugar
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1 Tbs cinnamon
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350. Butter and four a loaf pan. Mine was 9 x 5, but you could use any sort. Just keep a close eye on it in the oven, and adjust the time as needed.
- Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together. Sprinkle baking soda and salt around on top of the banana mixture. Gently stir in flour. Be careful not to over-mix!
- In a small dish, mix together the sugar and brown sugar with the cinnamon.
- Add 1/2 of the batter to the loaf pan and then sprinkle a little more than half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the batter in the pan. Add the rest of the batter to the pan, spreading gently to cover the cinnamon-sugar layer, then sprinkle the last of the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the top of the batter.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes, but remember, if you’re using a different-sized loaf pan, be careful and keep a close eyeball on it!
For my giveaway, I’d love to gift someone a $10 Amazon gift card. Just comment below and tell me about your favorite books that feature food or feel free to leave me a recipe! I’ll choose a name at the end of the blog hop.
Be well, everyone, and make sure you visit all of the blogs on the Hop!
Also, if you’re looking for some new reads, I and a lot of authors at Pride Publishing/Totally Entwined Group are offering books for free or reduced prices (make sure you click on the book you’re interested in because sometimes the reduced price doesn’t show in the preview). Check out my blog post about four free titles from Brigham Vaughn and myself!
K. Evan Coles 
My hubby made this and it was yummy – Raspberry Croissant French Toast Bake
https://damndelicious.net/2019/08/20/raspberry-croissant-french-toast-bake/print/
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That look amazing, oh wow! I’m sort of glad we don’t have any croissant in the house right now 🙂
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My hubby made this and it was really good – Raspberry Croissant French Toast bake
https://damndelicious.net/2019/08/20/raspberry-croissant-french-toast-bake/print/
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just finished forever by kindle alexander and food played a major part
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I’ve been seeing lots of posts about “Forever” — knowing there’s food involved is a draw for me, that’s for sure!
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3 ingredient peanut butter cookies 😋
1c. peanut butter 1c. granulated sugar 1 egg
Instructions
– Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir the ingredients together until smooth. Scoop onto a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet. (Roll into 1″ balls with your hands, if you do not have a scoop.) Press down with the back of a fork and then press again from the opposite direction, to form the criss-cross pattern on top. – These cookies will not spread at all. You can bake the full recipe on a single tray if you would like. Bake for 12 minutes and then let cool on the tray for 1-2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!
Thanks for the chance and healthy vibes to you and yours 💜💜💜
J. Smith
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tasty recipe
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/giant-chocolate-peanut-butter-cookie-cake-4481696
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I have a recipe for zucchini bread that gets raves from other people when I make it. I can’t share it here, though, because it’s from an old-fashioned church cookbook, not a website I can link to.
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This is a recipe for one of the favorite things in my family, cheese biscuits. My mom made some today!
1.5 cups shredded cheese (we usually use medium Gouda)
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons (tsp) baking powder
2 tsp sugar
0.5 tsp salt
3 tablespoons butter/margarine
1 cup of milk
Mix shredded cheese with dry ingredients. Cut solid butter into dry ingredients with pastry blender until mixture is texture of coarse meal. Make well in center and add milk all at once. Stir quickly to form dough. Turn dough onto floured board. Knead 10-12 times or more. Pat dough down and roll lightly with floured rolling pin to about 0.5 inch thickness. Cut with biscuit cutter dipped in flour. Place biscuits on lightly greased baking sheet. Brush with melted butter if you want them to brown more. Bake at 425F for 12-15 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen biscuits of 1.5 inches diameter.
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These sound amazing! Thank you for sharing, especially since I see people struggling to find yeast for bread making ❤
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My most recent favorite read that featured food was Dine With Me by Layla Reyne. It’s a really great book. A.M. Arthur also has a great series about food trucks called Neighborhood Shindig.
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