Let me set the stage for you.  It’s a beautiful one.  It’s a Friday, happiest day of the work week, and I’ve been plodding away at my desk for well over an hour, when I get up and my friend points out to me that I have a hole in my pants.  Not just a little hole either, a whole the size of my pocket, which at some point in the morning has decided to detach itself from the rest of my pants.  Embarrassing? Yes.  But it gets better.  I don’t have house keys with me so I can go home and change.  Why you ask?  Because I’ve given them to Joey, whose key broke the night before, so he can get a key cut when he’s done work.  So what do I do?  I go down to the mall to buy new pants.  I know, I know, you’re thinking, why are you complaining about having to go shopping?  Well, I’m complaining because the mall didn’t open for another half an hour after I got there (keep in mind, I’m supposed to be working, and it’s Friday).  So I sat in the car and waited.  When the mall finally opened, it was less of a shopping trip and more of a “how can I hide my ass while trying to get pants” trip.  So I bought an outfit.  All the while holding my emergency sweater down over the GIANT hole in the back of my pants.  Adding to my heaps of embarrassment, I had to ask the clerk if I could change into the outfit at the store.  And I think she saw my underwear.

This long embarrassing story has a point.  If I can come out of a thoroughly embarrassing situation with a pretty new outfit to show for it, than I can make sure that I take time out from planning my move and saving for my move and stressing about every little detail of my move to get back to blogging, which is something I enjoy.

In that spirit (the enjoyment of blogging, not embarrassing pants malfunction) I will be bringing you five recipes adapted from some of my favourite food bloggers.

The first of these recipes is from the one and only, Joy the Baker.  She just seems like such a lovely person with so much personality, I thought one of her recipes would be an excellent way to set the tone.

Almost Joy the Baker’s Mommom’s Banana Bread

Adapted from the Joy the Baker Cookbook (mommom’s chocolate bourbon-spiked banana bread).

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

`1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup fine grain cane sugar

2 eggs

3 mashed bananas

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

3 Tbsp rum, white or dark

1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Grease & flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan.  Preheat the oven to 350°.

Using an electric mixer, beat together the sugar and flour until it’s pale and fluffy – about 3 minutes.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir in the chocolate chips.

Beat the eggs into the butter/sugar mixture, one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each egg.

Add the bananas, lemon juice, vanilla and rum into the wet mixture, beating until it’s well incorporated, about 1 minute.

Add the flour/chocolate mixture to the banana mixture all at once, beating until it’s just incorporated.

Spread the batter into loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes.  Let it cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes and then invert it onto a wire rack and cool completely.

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