Somedays life is breezy...

and fun and lived like a page out of your own childhood.

Nothing spectacular has happened, but I've enjoyed every minute of its simplicity. Addison and I made a banana cake together, and went for a little walk while it baked.



I love being a mother to a toddler, because it reminds me that every little thing we see is amazing. There are adventures to be had a half-block away from our house.

A slug crawling by




A buzzing bumblebee


Soon, our cake was baked, cooled, and frosted--Not a moment too soon.


Here's the recipe, from a great vegetarian cookbook my grandma gave me when I was 16.

Banana Cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
3/4 cup mashed banana
1/2 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the shortening with both sugars. BEat in the egg whites, vanilla, and lemon rind. Stir in the banana.
Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk to the banana mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Stir in the walnuts. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 40 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center come out clean. Cool, cut and frost, if desired.



Now, you should know that I don't usually follow the rules in cooking. I doubled the recipe to make two cake rounds for a layer cake. I also omitted the white sugar, used two whole eggs instead of the 4 egg whites, grated a tiny bit of lemon rind and then just squeezed the juice from the lemon into the batter, used a combination of milk and half & half instead of buttermilk, omitted the walnuts, and took it out of the oven at 35 minutes. But I must say, it is some mighty tasty cake. I think Addison thought so too.