Happy Birthday, Sandra!!!

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Mmm, I have a loaf of banana bread in the oven baking
theoretically only, since it's a day later you're reading this and the baked loaf is now at Laura's for Annie Hale's wedding shower and a little banana bread batter in smaller loaf pan that I just snatched out of the oven after one minute because... !!! ....
Well, here's the first part: I love my mother's friend Sister Poole's banana bread recipe and make it when I'm in possession of black bananas, which never happens at our house because Kent eats ours way before they can even get freckly brownish, but does happen sometimes after I've been at mom and dad's 'cause dad brings them to the apartment from breakfast or the Cafe downstairs and is so-so about enjoying them. After cleaning their kitchen counter top and sink I heard dad say
those bananas need a place to go. 'Th'out missing a beat I picked up the bunch of three and lay them in my purse. DON'T
EWWW me! They were safe, and so was my purse, though it was redolent of banana when I got home.
Dad bought this for mom and Sarah helped her put it together last year.


Laura said yes when I texted her
could you use banana bread ↑ at the brunch Saturday today? So I hunted for mom's cookbook with recipes in her own handwriting which I love to linger over, and this recipe (above) in particular. The last time I used it (well, the first) I learned a thing about quick breads: They need to cook at a med-high temperature a little while, medium a while longer, and low a little while to be crusty
and tenderly good on the inside. An hour at 350 degrees is too hot for too long - usually breads are in there just scorching away, rendering the outside of the bread a brick while the inside is puddly. Who knew?
Sister Poole. Then mom. Now me.
And I mixed up the most delicate, already-puffing-up-because-of-the-baking-powder delicious banana bread batter! All the ingredients lumped in the bowl together and give it a stir, which gives the loaf (after it's cooked) a smidge of raw banana in spots,
mm, though I did beat it well with the stand mixer. Still...
And scooped out the right amount for the large loaf pan and had some left over in the bowl, which I
scraped out with a spatula and ate; did not! put into a greased smaller pan I love for mini-loaves. Then, voilà , this thing I've been thinking off and on for awhile:
What if I baked something other than waffle batter in my waffle iron!
Ahh, today was the very day. (Yesterday.)
I'd put the loaf pans side by side in the oven but snatched out the little one and spooned some of the batter onto my hot waffle iron and shut the lid and shut my eyes and prayed a little prayer (wishful thinking) over my experiment.
Well heck, yah!
↓ Really?
I warmed my maple syrup (go online to find all kinds of yummy toppings)
and tucked in. Oops, here's all that's left before I thought to take a picture.
You know there really
is such a thing as
Banana Bread Waffles. I Googled and found recipes on a dozen blogs. But I came back here and've decided to use my mom's friend's trusty one whenever I make these (once in a while when I get black bananas in my purse),
even though there's now a pinhole in my balloon. Nuts, I didn't invent them.