My house the last couple of days has resembled a mini bakery – a friend came over today and said our kitchen and dining room looked like an assembly line.  The older kids had three friends over yesterday, and they all independently said the same thing! 

When we recently renovated the kitchen (which still isn’t totally finished), we replaced our freestanding full size stove with a gas cooktop and a double electric oven (24″ wide).  Generally that suits our needs, but at times like this, it would be nice to have the larger capacity for baking to get all the pans baked faster.  We’ve had an early dinner the last two nights, since the table is covered with so many batters and pans during the day that lunch is out.  So between eating breakfast a little later, snacking on all that they’ve been baking, and an early dinner, we manage to keep hunger pains at bay. 

We have many dozens (have no desire to count) of filled cookies in an assortment of flavors (these were labor intensive because they had to be rolled out), about 15 loaves of banana bread, and 75 banana cookies.  Tomorrow we’ll make another big batch of banana breads.  I don’t even want to think about how many dishes I’ve washed. 

The reason for so much banana baking is that I bought a case of ripe bananas for $4 a couple of days ago – so I need to find a way to use them all up!  Bananas can be mashed and frozen for later use in baked goods, but in the past I’ve ended up leaving the mashed frozen banana in the freezer for so long that I eventually just threw it away.  So I’m making a big effort to use them all now.  You can also make chocolate covered banana pops: stick a popsicle stick in the banana, dip it in melted chocolate, and then roll it in shredded coconut or ground walnuts. 

Today I made baked banana oatmeal, and tomorrow I’ll give them banana milkshakes for breakfast.  I know it sounds like bananas are coming out of their ears, but it’s really not like that.  The kids usually have fruit sometime during the day, but they aren’t having bananas as their fruit right now.  The banana breads are for giving to neighbors, and the cookies will be a treat for the weekend.  We made the cookies healthy enough that I feel okay about sending them with my oldest son to have for breakfast (he hasn’t been taking food for the day and comes home famished).  We’re down to about 30 bananas, and I think we’ll finish them tomorrow, at this rate!

Avivah