Keeping Warm By Baking

Today we are under a windchill advisory.

Don't let the bright sunshine fool you. It is COLD. {backyard}

That means it is so cold they have to warn us about the dangers of being outside too long.

{front yard}

Preschool was cancelled because of the flu going making its rounds (yuck). Instead of going out, we are staying in! And to make sure we stay extra warm and cozy...we've been baking today. I have 2 batches of cookie dough in the fridge and just pulled 4 loaves of whole wheat artisan bread out of the oven.

The big project today, though, was the banana bread!

We have held onto some black bananas in our freezer for awhile. Every time Trevor sees them he says "what do you have planned for those bananas?" and I always say "I'll make banana bread with them..."

So today, I found this recipe online for using frozen bananas (hint: take them out of the freezer a few hours before you want to bake your bread...they still have to thaw)


I had two little bakers by my side:

 They were eager to measure, pour, crack, & mix.

The brothers & I made two batches of banana bread--4 little loaves for us (one left now) and 1 big loaf for our neighbor.


Here is what our neighbor spent much of yesterday doing:

Our neighbor snow blowing the sidewalk (after he did his driveway x 2, then he came to do ours too)

I packaged up the loaf a fresh-out-of-the-oven thank you gift:

And now...our bellies are full, our baked thank you has been accepted, and our upstairs is cozy. More baking tomorrow, I'm sure...the high temperature is in the single digits (who knows what the windchill will be..right now? windchill -12°).

Stay warm, friends!