How time flies! It's already week 4 of National Craft Month. It seems like just last week we were rounding up all the amazing swag for our weekly giveaways.

Well, before we announce the grand prize package for National Craft Month we should give away the last of our weekly prizes to one lucky person... What's in this final weekly package? Let's take a look and see.

Have you or anyone you know every looked at a menu after a big meal and said to the waiter, “Is your banana bread a large slice? I just couldn’t eat a large slice.”  {insert massive eye roll here}

Yea, same with us. Banana CAKE is a totally different thing, very much a dessert. Banana bread by it’s very nature defies classification. Is it a breakfast item? A snack food? A dessert? Maybe some kid of category all its own... Banana Bread is a snack you eat when it is there in front of you. We eat ours for afternoon and after dinner snacks, as well as the occasional breakfast (a thick slice fresh from the toaster with dab of butter... mmmmmm).

Anyway, Banana Bread is one of the easier, if not the easiest, quick breads to learn. It is hard to make a mistake with this very forgiving bread, and, even if you do make a mistake, the end result usually still makes a tasty finished product.

It costs only pennies a slice to make at home compared to $3.50 for a slab of Sahara Desert dry “bread like product” sold at corner coffeeshops and 24 hour marts across the globe. Take some time this week to make one yourself and get the foundation to move on to bigger things like lemon-poppy seed or zuchinni.

What Ya Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees
2. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. 
3. Add Vanilla and Eggs one at a time and beat to fully incorporate.
4. Add bananas and slowly increase speed to mix on high for 1-2 minutes until mixture is mostly smooth.  There will be some banana lumps, that’s fine.
5. Add the buttermilk... mix on low... it will splatter, you have been warned!
6. In a separate bowl sift together Flour, Baking Powder, Soda, Nutmeg and Salt
7. With mixer on low, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the banana mixture. Mix on low until just incorporated.
8. Repeat until all flour is mixed in and moist.  Do not overbeat.  You want this to be a very loose batter.  The more you run the mixer the tougher the bread will be.
9. Mix your Nuts (or Chocolate Chips) in by hand with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon
10. Split the batter between two greased loaf pans
11. Bake for 45 min to 55 minutes.  Bread will be done when the house smells like banana heaven and a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean (or with a few crumbs on it). 

Attempts should be made to allow to cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before slathering with butter and eating. Our record for being able to wait is just over 4 minutes… oh well…

Tip: Few things are harder to eat than dry quickbreads. To ensure you have a moist banana bread; watch your bread carefully the last 10 minutes and remove from the oven immediately when it is just done.

This week we are wrapping up our series of tutorials about cleaning up those first stitches of your crochet rows. We all know what happens when we use those instructions that say "chain 3, count as first stitch of row." Yeah… the result is a wonky edge that looks like it's been gnawed on by a rabid wombat… or two. Not a good look… just sayin'…

This week is all about Standing First-Stitches. Standing stitches are appropriately named because they can stand on their own without being attached to a chain-up at the beginning of a row or to a previous stitch in the middle of a row of stitches. Because of the unique way they are constructed, standing stitches are invaluable when used as first stitches when you are starting a new ball of yarn, a new color, or when you are starting a new section of a garment that is not attached to the section next to it. Anywhere you need to start a new stitch that isn’t attached to your current yarn or work, use a standing stitch!
 
The key to making a successful standing stitch is the way you wrap the yarn around your hook to make the head of the stitch… so let's start there.