Friday, October 31, 2014

Baking by the Book

Yesterday, my 4-year-old and I accomplished our two Halloween goals: finish our costumes and bake cookies to share. Baking cookies was a project two weeks overdue, at least! It was awfully hard to keep walking past the M&Ms everyday.

Now, I'm cleaning off my desktop, and what do I come across? A book baking project! Gladys Goes Out to Lunch by Derek Anderson was recommended to me by a local grandma who came back into the library after she'd returned the book! She said she and her grandson found this recipe at the end of the story, and it was the best banana bread she's had. Now, she needed a copy of it for herself. Coming from a grandmother, I thought that was a stunning recommendation! While we've haven't made this yet, I can only hope that my search for the "best banana bread" will come to an end. That's not too much to expect, is it? Here is the recipe and an author's note by Derek Anderson:

"After first writing Gladys Goes Out to Lunch a few years ago, I sat down one Saturday to work on a sample painting of Gladys. My wife, Cheryl, decided to inspire me by baking a loaf of banana bread. I was painting away in my studio when I heard a a gasp of shock from the kitchen, so of course, I went running. Cheryl was standing wide-eyed, over an open cookbook. "Just look," she said. I looked at the recipe for banana bread and there, beneath the title was the author's name - Gladys. I'm not now, nor have I ever been a cook , so I'd never had a reason to pen this cookbook before. I'd chosen the name 'Gladys' for my gorilla only because I liked the name. And banana bread had always played a key role in the story. I don't know whether life imitates art, or art imitates life, but it seems this story was meant to be."