Homemade Banana Bread

Today, I made Homemade Banana Bread. It was very easy! I found a very simple recipe on the internet and decided to give it a go. I've actually never baked anything that wasn't pre-made in a box, so I was very excited to try this. I have been known to mess up a cake in the past and was only around to lick the bowl. This is a great recipe for beginners. I found that smashing the bananas with my hands instead of a fork worked a lot faster. Of course, my hands were completely clean while doing so. I used organic bananas in my bread and it tasted heavenly. This banana bread will make the house smell like Thanksgiving morning at grandma's house. 

Ingredients:

2-3 ripe bananas 
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of flour

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 350 F and butter a 4x8 inch loaf pan
In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until smooth. Stir the melted butter into the bananas.

Mix the baking soda and salt. Stir in the sugar, beaten egg, flour, and vanilla extract.

Pour the batter in the loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

Close up of the cooked banana bread. 

Life as a Prison Guard's Wife

It's usually nearly 7 PM when my husband comes home from work. He is usually dragging tail looking exhausted as ever while throwing his uniform by the washer. He is a happy camper after he eats, showers, and has been home for a little bit to wind down. The conversations are a lot different from the average joe when I ask my husband how his day went at work. I hear a lot of things like, "I almost got stabbed."or "An inmate hung himself today."

My husband has one of the hardest jobs out there. Prison guards should be paid a lot more than what they receive. He works 13 hours on his feet. He faces the scum of the earth daily. My job is to be there for him and help take care of him when he gets home after getting gassed or in a fight. He sometimes will come home wearing someone else's blood because of a fight. There is almost always a bad riot that happens that puts the prison on lock-down for a while. Prisoners make shanks all the time and are always attempting to stab a prison guard. My husband says he feels all kinds of negative vibes walking throughout the prison. It's an uneasy feeling knowing how dangerous and terrifying his job is and what all goes on there daily. Sometimes, I feel the need to throw some olive oil on him and rebuke anything just in case when he walks in the door.

How can somebody walk among a hundred and fifty convicted felons unarmed and feel completely normal? It's hard enough for me to sit in front of the TV while watching Breaking Bad. I couldn't even imagine doing anything close to what he does because my job is a nanny. We both are babysitters, except he babysits grown men that have murdered citizens. How does one person control that many inmates on a normal daily basis? The answer is firm, fair, and consistent. Installing fear in them is also another way. It takes a lot of mental strength out of my husband. One thing that prison guards have to do is leave work at work because if not, it will affect the home life. 

As a wife, when he walks in the door, I always make sure to greet him with a kiss, smile, and food on the table because most likely he went all day with eating next to nothing. At the end of the day, I always thank my husband for everything he does for me. Also, I count my blessings that he comes home safe and not attacked or severely injured by an inmate.  

Homemade Laundry Detergent

My husband and I made homemade laundry detergent. The recipe is very simple and easy to make. It smells better than laundry detergent one would buy from the grocery store and it's completely natural. This recipe is very inexpensive to make. All one must need is a blender and

A cheese grater. It takes less than five minutes to make.

The recipe calls for: 

1 cup of borax

1 cup of washing soda

1 cup of powder oxy clean

1/2 a bar of zote laundry soap.