I must confess I have not read this cook book from cover to cover, yet. Primarly a recipe book about baking, the authors have traversed the globe in search of the tastiest things made from flour.  We have tried 2 recipes so far and from what I see their will be many more to come. The authors approach to baking is 'simplicity and fun'

"In the city, we have floors that are level and walls that meet at right angles, but at the farm everything is less than percise, including, sometimes, what we bake. We had never used a woodfired cast-iron cookstove before. When we'd try to stabilize our oven temperature, we couldn't always do it. And if we were an ingredient short, we'd think twice about going five miles into town. Perhaps we could do without. And, of course, sometimes things didin't turn out perfectly, but then they still tasted good.  The farm has been a reminder of how skills and expectations are relative....There are times to be precise, and times to deliberately work against the impulse to be precise. Flavor and taste are relative."

If your thinking of doing some baking this is a great place to start.

My kids love banana's as long as they are unblemeshed. This translates to an abundance of extra/over ripe banana's in our freezer. I was tempted to throw a lot of them out as they seem to be copulating and multiplying in the icebox to the point of severe annoyance. Luckly I found this banana bread recipe in our new baking cookbook. Very easy to make and uses 8 banana's at a time. It's also super delicious as my kids will attest to. The first loaf was consumed within hours of removal from the oven. The brownsugar on top and the coconut add a texture that sets this B-bread apart from all the others.

8 medium-to-large frozen bananas, defrosted or very overripe bananas

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½  teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

½ pound unsalted butter, softened

2 cups of sugar

¼ teaspoon white or rice vinegar

3 tablespoons dark rum

1 cup dried shredded unsweetened coconut

about 2 tablespoons demerara or dark brown sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350 F, butter two 9-by-5 inch bread pans.

Puree the bananas in a blender set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and nutmeg, set aside

Using a mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vinegar and rum and beat briefly.

Add the banana puree and the flour mixture alternately, about a cup at a time, starting with the bananas. Beat until smooth after each addition.

Stir in coconut.

Spoon the batter into the buttered pans. Sprinkle the top of each loaf with about 1 tablespoon of brown sugar or demerara.  Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until golden brown.

Cool 20 minutes in pan. Then remove to wire rack and cool for another 20 minutes until loaves firm up. Enjoy…