More Fall Colors, Plus a New Recipe

Went for another walk this afternoon during half-time of THE Ohio State University and Michigan State game. It was a snoozer of a game and Ohio State won pretty handily.

Also tried out another new recipe from beckyhiggins.com. She has quite a few, easy-to-make recipes on her blog. This is a good recipe for using up old bananas, and it contains chocolate!

(P.S. I make photocopies or print off copies of recipes and then slide them into a page protector. I then store them in a three-ring binder, which I find pretty handy for organizing. The page protectors also keep the recipes from getting dirty during the frenzy of cooking.
I also use page protectors at school- I keep my original copies and answer keys in binders as well. By using the page protectors, I don't have to punch holes in any of my papers.)


Black-Bottom Banana Bars
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. baking cocoa

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla; beat until thoroughly combined. Blend in the bananas. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Divide batter in half. Add cocoa to half; spread into a greased 9" x 13" baking pan. Spoon remaining batter on top and swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until the bars test done. Cool.
(Note: I decided it would be easier to put the chocolate part on top, so my picture shows the layers reversed.)