Cool Gift & Yummy Treat

As you know, Luke and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary last month.  Luke's dad is an incredible woodworker, and he gave us the neatest gift!  Check it out...it's a manual coffee grinder!  That little section with the floral embellishment opens - dump some beans in there, close the door, and turn the crank.  The ground coffee drops into a little glass bowl contained in the bottom drawer.  How neat, eh?!

He even engraved it with our names, some hearts, and the date of our anniversary.  This will be a treasure forever - thanks, Jim!

With coffee on the brain, I thought I'd share a delicious coffee-complimenting banana bread recipe I found this summer (I tweaked it a bit to suit my taste...what is with me?  why can't I just follow a recipe?).  Note that the proportions of crumb topping to banana bread are roughly 50/50.  LOVE it.  The crumb topping is one of my Ben's favorite treats.  I always make a little extra so he can just eat some with a spoon :-)

**MAKES TWO LOAVES!**

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup shortening

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 (I often use 2) ripe, mashed banana

(topping):

1/2 cup four

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup chilled butter

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray bread pan with non-stick spray.

2.  Whisk flours, sugar, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.  Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  

3.  In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon.  Add the banana and mix well.  

4.  Fold the flour mixture into the banana mixture until well combined.  Pour into bread pan

5.  Crumb topping:  combine flours, sugar, oats, and cinnamon in large bowl.  Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Spoon the crumb mixture over the batter.

6.  Bake for approximately 30 minutes.  Test with a toothpick inserted in center of the loaf - remove from oven if the toothpick comes out clean.  If not, bake for another 5-10 minutes and check again.  Remove when toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out to a wire rack.