tinctoria and banana bread

the blog's been pretty quite of late, stemming from a pretty sweet family vacation followed by preparations for a couple of upcoming art installations (more info later on!) but that's not to say things haven't been happening. it's more that things haven't really been coming to completion.

to build and keep momentum, i've been doing a little more cooking lately. today i made some banana bread from my mama's recipe:

for one loaf:

1/2 cup butter

1 c sugar (brown or white) [preferably brown]

2 large eggs

2 c flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking soda

1 1/2 c mashed bananas

1/2 c chopped nuts

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Combine dry ingredients. Stir into creamed mixture alternately with banana. Fold in nuts.

Pour into greased pan. Let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Bake at 350º for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

some tips: use frozen over ripe bananas. they smell sickly sweet as you mash them but the texture is perfect. if you use glass bakeware, plan on the cook time being a solid hour or more. serve for breakfast toasted with butter.

also, i got this in the mail today :

it looks kinda like a jar of powdered midnight but it is, in fact, indigofera tinctoria. more on that later.