Strawberry Banana Bread

As per my last post, its strawberry season! Yum! With some of the last strawberries that I hadn't done anything with yet, I thought I'd bake something. This recipe caught my eye as I also had some ripe bananas that needed to be used up. I just pulled the loaves out of the oven and they smell delicious!

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped and tossed in 1 tbsp flour

Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Spray 2 loaf pans and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs to the sugar mixture and beat until combined. Add the mashed bananas and mix until combined.

Sift all dry ingredients together and then slowly add into the banana mixture. Mix just until combined. Do not over mix. Fold in floured strawberries.

Pour batter into the two prepared loaf pans and bake at 375F for 15 minutes. Then turn oven down to 350F and bake another 25-30 minutes until edges are brown or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool before removing from pans.

*From http://therecipecritic.com/2015/07/strawberry-banana-bread/

Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

It's strawberry season! Yesterday morning I went strawberry picking with my family and went home with four ice cream pails of strawberries. I love fresh strawberries! So far I have made 10 half pint jars of strawberry jam and frozen several bags for future smoothies. I also discovered this recipe. I happened to have some frozen rhubarb in my freezer, so this seemed like a good way to use it up. I was right, its delicious! So easy to make and makes a great topping for ice cream, yogurt, waffles, etc. The options are endless. Enjoy!

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
5 tsps cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups sliced strawberries
1 cup sliced rhubarb

Combine sugar, orange juice, cornstarch and vanilla extract in a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Add strawberries and rhubarb; reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and blend with immersion blender or manually mash if you don't have an immersion blender. I like to leave some fruit chunks, but you can blend to smooth if you wish. Enjoy warm or cold. Makes 2 large pasta sauce sized jars.

*Adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/200454/strawberry-rhubarb-sauce/