Have tea with me, will you? Tea ( although I haven’t even put the kettle on yet) and a slice of cake.
Banana Bread. Using all those bananas that don’t get eaten in time.
We’ll sit and chat and stare at the Spring sun and talk of the months to come. How we’ll give up sweet things for Lent and then scoff slices of Simnel Cake at Easter.
We’ll only take a moment because life is busy, but the moment will be full and rich. We’ll remind ourselves that it’s the people in our lives that count the most but keep an eye out for those we don’t know in case they need us too.
We’ll give thanks to nature in all its pastel pink glory. Brightening our day by giving us such sweetly scented blooms so early on in the year. I’m not kidding, this small Hyacinth’s scent has filled the room and is currently making its way out in to the hall.
We’ll remind ourselves that gratitude is a key to power and give thanks for everything we have. Because we have so much. Come and have tea and cake with me.
Banana Bread recipe -
- 125g Butter
- 175g packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 280g sifted plain flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- 120ml Skimmed Milk
- 3 or 4 Bananas mashed (medium)
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 100g Chopped Walnuts
- Half teaspoon Cinnamon
Pre – heat the oven to 180c. Cream the butter and the sugar together. Whisk both eggs, add to the mixture and mix together. Add the flour, salt, Bicarbonate of soda and the milk and mix well. Add the bananas the Vanilla, the walnuts and the cinnamon and fold together thoroughly.
Place in a well greased loaf tin and bake for one hour.
Serve with tea to friends. Wrap up and keep it airtight to make it last longer and never ever think that taking time out, even if it’s only for a moment, is a waste of time.
Have a lovely day and thank you so much for your thoughts yesterday. I am going to do what one commenter suggested and plant something in my garden for this person. I didn’t think of that but of course it’s perfect. She would like that but not quite believe it was for her and her alone. That is how wonderful she was.
I love you and thank you for ‘you’.
Cherry x
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mmm…. made this yesterday. I used chopped hazelnuts and added dark chocolate chips too (left out the cinnamon cos I don’t like it with chocolate). Perfect
Mmmm…. My favourite way to eat bananas. Does this count as one of your 5 a day do you think? I’m gonna say yes! B.x
Yummy. I have taken the day off today and making this is my list of things to do… xxx
I have some ripe bananas so I will make the bread today! This may sound like a dumb question but is it 3 or 4 bananas or 3 forths of a banana?
Hi Kelly, the banana bread recipe requires 3 or 4 bananas, sorry for the confusion.
Jodie x
Just watched “Human Planet” and now watching “Famous , Rich and In The Slums.” I picked up my laptop and read your post and Yes we really need to give thanks for everything we’ve been entrusted with and look after this wonderful planet.
Cherry, do you have a Cook book out? I have looked on Amazon but cannot find anything. It is a friend birthday and she likes your site a lot. It would be a GREAT surprise for her.
Please advise?
Marcia (CA)
a chat over tea and banana bread sounds like the perfect afternoon.
hx
Hi Cherry! I’ll be right over!
Such a beautiful Post today Cherry. I just had to tell you so. I work in Manhatton and pace of life gets so busy, crazily so out here. Your Post remninded me to give thanks to all that I have and to stop worrying about the things I don’t. I have the things that matter most in the world – my family, my health, my friends and a big slice of Banana cake.
Take care Cherry.
Yours, Tasmin.
Perfect!
k xx
I’ve just put hyacinths on my shopping list, can almost smell them looking at your evocative pics.
Perfect idea to plant something in honor of your friend. I dragged over old pots of mums my mother kept from her parents funeral. They are a bit straggly but I don’t care. When I closed out their home and it was sold, the one stipulation was the tree rose bush would be transplanted to my home and replaced. My children had given it to her for mother’s day when they were young. I brought her pots of azaleas, violas and amaryllis. They give me so much joy still. On my birthday this year, one pink camellia bloomed. As for banana bread, my grandmother and she made it to perfection so I never have. She used to make it for my kids and put chocolate chips in it for them. I think I’ll surprise them this weekend with banana bread. I made Sticky Toffee Pudding for the first time yesterday. So fun!
Cherry, last May, I lost 2 friends. I still struggle to make sense of it everyday. One died suddenly of a blod clot on the brain, the other (completely unrelated) took his life 10 days later.
I couldn’t get over the injustice that one person died when they had everything to live for and the other chose to end their life even though the people around them really cared.
I went around in circles for weeks until I realised that there really is no answer. For me, time doesn’t heal. But what it does do is bring acceptance and in turn, I have learned that being grateful for what I have had, what I do have and what I have to look forward and hope for has sustained me.
Banana Bread with tea and friends is just that type of sustenance!
I love your site, I check in every day. That there are like minded people willing to share their hopes & dreams, to open themselves to the world and what it has to offer, to notice and be filled with joy at the smallest things makes my day. The first daffodil in the garden, the fact that the blue tits are nosing around the bird box again, these are all things I am thankful for and that fill my heart with hope again. Don’t be sad, be glad! x
Tea with you? Yes!!! And, don’t worry about putting the kettle on, it will take a little until I get the plane and reach you! We can do it together then! Just don’t eat all the cake while waiting!…
Cherry, everyday I look forwards to pass by, you have a very special place here and I do admire you!
To plant something in your garden for your friend sounds like a very precious act. It is a wonderful idea!
A friend of mine died very suddenly last Autumn. I can still hardly believe it. I have now planted a dwarf cherry for her in my garden. Only I know the tree was planted for her as she was a special friend for me. Every Spring it will blossom and I will have wonderful thoughts about her. When I eventually get fruit I will eat it and think of her.
I was and still are filled with regrets of what I didn’t say or didn’t do with my friend. I can’t change anything now, but I can always remember the good we had in our friendship and the little things she taught me along the way.
I adore Banana Bread. Thank you for this Post. Inspiring once again.
Love, Jasmine Cohen. x
Hello you,
Yum! I am baking today, banana muffins for the girls at work. Food to lift the soul, and we need it!
I lost a good friend over 10 years ago, she was told she would never reach 30, & it was true. There was an empty space at my wedding & I think of her particually in spring, when all the bulbs are out. I helped her mum plant a cherry blossom tree in the courtyard at the hospital, and over the years I would look out of the ward window, and think of her….
Shes been dead over 10 years now, but her warmth is still with me.
Go plant!
Big hugs to you
Lx
I have been wanting to make banana bread for the longest time, and with this recipe, I’m now gonna
H x
Ooooh, that looks delicious Cherry. Yum!
Hi Cherry
uncanny! I made the same bread last night along with banana scones mmmmm delish!
perfect for today, but with coffee not tea, blurgh (always looks good poured into a dainty teacup but there it ends for me.)
I don’t know about sussex but after a couple of days of glorious springlike weather up north has frost, woke up this morning to glistening white fields and trees.
a wonderful idea to plant something to remember your friend by, I have a border that contains some shrubs and flowers to remember loved ones by,some are from cuttings of plants that they had in their gardens which are even more special and keeps them closer.
scrummy. I’ll take a slice with a brew please
lovely, lovely idea to plant something for your friend. Absolutely perfect.
xx
That’s a beautiful tribute to your friend. Sending some positve light your way x