2/13 Banana Bread and Botched Haircuts

Not really botched. But just annoying. Backstory: I'm really bad at getting haircuts. Like, I know you're supposed to go every 6 to 8 weeks. My range is usually every 6 to 8 months. That kind of bad. I've also been really bad about staying on top of dying my hair for the last 2 years or so. I put it off and put it off and put it off for months until I find myself wearing a hat every day to hide the 3 inches of new growth that doesn't even kind of match the dyed color. I've been dying it myself for what has to be going on 8 years at this point, and I'm just over it. It's a messy process, I have a LOT of hair so it always takes forever (not to mention mixing and prepping 4 boxes of dye), and it's just not an easy task. I made a very valiant effort to go out and get it taken care of yesterday, and it clearly just wasn't meant to be.

I'm not super picky about where I go to get my hair cut, I've been going to the Great Clips across the street from our house for the last few years now (which really only equates to like 5 hair cuts, but still) and I've never really had a problem before. The girl that checked me in and ultimately ended up cutting my hair was super nice, which was about the only plus. I asked when I checked in if I could have my hair both cut and colored or if I needed to make an appointment for the color and she said that both were fine, she'd cut my hair first though. She sits me down and tells me what they have in their system from the last time I was in, which of course was a solid 8 months ago but I don't really vary my hairstyle so it's the same concept, and gets started. She parts it down the middle, trims off the edges and layers it, then parts it THE WRONG WAY. I politely corrected her, and she KEPT GOING. ON PURPOSE. It's not like she didn't hear me, I was the only one in there and no one was cleaning or making any other noises. I said something again, and she was like "It's okay, it'll sit the same on the other side too." No, no it won't. I'm not experienced in cutting hair except for attempting to trim my own bangs for a few years, and even I know it won't look right if you do it backwards. But she tried to assure me it would be fine, and still kept going. She finishes, smooths some product through my hair, quickly blasts it with a blow dryer, and THEN parts it correctly. It clearly looks like I'm parting my hair the wrong way. Then she says we're all set and walks away to ring me out. I stop her, again, and ask about the color to which she replies "Oh we don't do color services, just cuts and styles." I'm sorry, what? I specifically asked that when I came in and she told me it was fine. And now you're telling me you don't offer a service I asked about that you told me you did have. In her defense, they don't offer color services so that's fine. But when I asked about it up front, she probably should have said something then and not waited until I was done. Now I'm annoyed that I have to go somewhere else at some point this week on top of already being in one salon for an hour today. Sigh.

ANYWAY. Today's domestic adventure is going to involve attempting to make banana bread, but of course because it's me there's a multitude of things that don't work in my favor. I'm using this recipe I found on Pinterest (I've spent a LOT of time on Pinterest while I've been off of work, I'm sorry).

Here's your shopping list:

3 medium bananas (over ripe, you want them to be mushy)
3/4 cup sugar (you can substitute 1/2 cup of honey instead if you'd like)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon (you can use less or just fully omit this if you don't like cinnamon)

Here's your order of operations:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mash your bananas. You want the skin to be almost fully brown so they're mushy, the worst thing in banana bread is having actual chunks of banana. I tossed them in the mixer while I was measuring out the rest of my ingredients.
3. Add your egg, sugar (or honey), and oil to the mashed bananas. The recipe calls for vegetable oil, I subbed canola oil because it's what we had on hand and it's a little healthier for you.
4. Add all of your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and mix until just moistened. I left out the cinnamon since The Boy doesn't like it and I don't think it really makes a difference. You don't want to over mix otherwise your bread will be tough instead of moist.
5. Spray the bottom and sides of your loaf pan with cooking spray, and dump your mix into the pan.
6. Bake for 50-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Remove the pan from the oven and place on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the bread from the pan and transfer directly to the wire rack to finish cooling. The best way to remove from the pan is to lightly run a butter knife around the edges to make sure nothing is stuck, place a plate over the top of the pan and flip it upside down so the loaf slides out and then transfer it to the wire rack.

Here were my issues (not necessarily with the recipe, just with my life). I tried to substitute the honey in place of the sugar, but ended up not having enough honey. I don't know if you've ever tried to dump honey back into the bottle but it doesn't work very well, so I just rolled with it and added an extra 2 tablespoons of sugar trying to balance it out, but I definitely could have used more. Also, because the honey is liquid it definitely changes the consistency of the dough. I don't have anything to compare it to since this is the first time I've made this recipe, but the outer layer of the bread was super tough compared to the inside of the bread and I feel like the honey definitely played a part in that. I like my sweet breads to be a little more dense, and this was definitely lighter and almost fluffy.