Time Sure Does Fly...........

I can't believe how quickly this summer has been flying by!

In two weeks, Caitie and Sean will be gone, off to college.  I really enjoy having everyone under one roof, so my focus this summer has been on enjoying every moment and trying not to think about how lonely it's going to be when they're gone.

I've  secretly been making lists of things I want to pack into their care packages.  Shhhh, don't tell.  It will be Sean's first year at school, he has no idea what a care package is.  His care packages will involve lots of home-baked treats.  He especially likes cookies.

Too bad he doesn't like banana bread--but Caitie does.  I've been baking lots of banana bread this summer. The summer heat has been ripening the bananas so quickly, I've had lots of overripe bananas to bake with.

    I put chocolate chips and raspberries in this loaf.

 In less than 24 hours, it was gone.

I added chocolate chips and raspberries to this loaf as well, and then made it chocolaty by switching out 1/2 cup of flour for cocoa powder instead.

You can find my recipe for banana bread by clicking here .  To make the chocolate chip-raspberry banana bread, just add a cup of chocolate chips and a cup of halved fresh raspberries (tossed with a tablespoon of flour to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of your loaf) to the basic recipe.   Because of the extra moisture that the raspberries add, you will need to increase the cooking time, at least ten minutes more than the original recipe calls for.   I baked mine for an hour and 10 minutes.

It's been extra-hot around here this summer.  I can't keep up with the water demands of my container plants,   and most of them are very sad-looking.  I won't even show you a picture, that's how bad they look!

But the flowers in my garden are holding on, especially the zinnias and dahlias.

I've been filling vases with them (and an occasional late-blooming gladiolus), hoping that these bright blooms will make the dead flowers in the deck boxes less noticeable!