The Jones Bakery

I love to cook.... specially...I love to bake. I love to experiment and try new things and from what I have been told, I am pretty good at it to. I can cook pretty average, I can do basic things like pot roast, whole chickens and basic sides like casseroles. But baking....that is my best.

I feel a sense of pride when I bring something to someone or serve people food that I made from scratch with my own two hands and time. Not that anyone who does not is any less than I, but its simply something I feel joy in doing.

I bake cookies, pies, cakes, breads, granola, basically anything. Not only do I bake...but I bake from scratch. No box mixes, no bread machines, and no counter top kitchen aid mixer (as much as I would love one!) When I bake the only things I measure are yeast, flours, and sugars. I just eyeball everything else. So if you ever eat something I bake twice, it may not taste the same because I could have added something or less of something. I even wear and apron because things get messy!

 I am kind of old fashioned when it comes to baking and cooking. I have always loved reading about the early 1900s when people lived off the land their homes were on. When they needed vegetables for dinner they went in the garden and picked them, when they canned for the winter, and baked bread every other day. Don't get me wrong, I love modern technologies and I love modern medicine. But to me there is something simple and desirable about this lifestyle. Since I love this time period and I cook using methods of the first half of the 1900s, I try and use recipes/cookbooks from this time.

Published in the 1950

Published in 1960, this was my Grandma Jane's cookbook, she went to be with the Lord in 2011.

This is my Hamilton Beach handheld mixer. It weighs 8 pounds! I love this because it was also my Grandma Janes.

Anyway, today was no different at our home. I was baking. I made my staple banana bread and something new, summer coffee cake. My banana bread I don't even use the recipe anymore because I make it so often. I found this recipe in the top set of cook books and I have tweaked it to make it my own. I have been told by many people, its the best banana bread they have eaten. :)

This is what things look like when I bake...

Oh another thing to...I don't use cooking spray. Why you ask...because I think using good ole fashion butter and even sometimes flour work better.

Here is the banana bread right before it goes in the oven...I added a little brown sugar on top this time...

And the banana bread after...

Summer coffee cake before...

Summer coffee cake after...

Now don't you wish you were coming to our house for small group tomorrow morning :)

Love, 

Patty