Hmmm…what am I looking at you might be asking? Lovely, isn’t it? This is the two holes that were punched in the roof by a large branch at some point while the house was empty over the last 6 years. There was a large maple tree growing next to our bedroom, hanging over the roof with dangling widow makers. We decided to remove the tree along with the grandmother oak because of this, not wanting a repeat of this on the new roof. When the bank took possession of the house, they put new shingles on it. As you can see by this quality work, they put the rubber skin down along with a nice piece of left over flashing rather than actually patching the holes the way they should have been done. Shoddy work for sure, and if it was not being paid for by a bank, but would have actually been inspected, I’m sure it would not look like this. But, at least it’s watertight for now, and we are thankful for that. Though shoddy, it kept a lot of water damage being done to the entire room and foundation under it.
And, this is the branch that Michael pulled out of the attic space that punched the larger of the two holes you see above. They hadn’t bothered to remove this, either. We are going to keep it for a souvenir, it’s currently in the garage awaiting some place of honor mounting. Michael’s a bit funny like that, he likes to keep the odd things.
We also got the contractor to come back to install the microwave and cabinet over the stove for us that had done our cabinet install. Because, of course, nothing comes easily in old home renovations, we ran into some complications. The beam above is not straight nor the same thickness all the way through, being hand hewn. The contractor needed to shim the cabinet well to get it to set right, and when trying to install the exterior venting, ran into the little “dog house” for the bulkhead stairs for the basement. So, it’s a two-part install process, he’ll be back on Monday to finish it up.
Today is a cool day here in southern New Hampshire. That being the case, and I having bananas browning on the counter, I decided to make a banana cake with cream cheese frosting. It’s in the oven now and promises to be yummy gauging by the heavenly scent wafting through the house! I’m going to give you guys the recipe in case you have some bananas needing their place in a cake, too. Enjoy!
Banana Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting
2 cups ripe mashed banana (about 4)
2 tsp lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cups softened butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Frosting:
1/2 cup softened butter
1 8oz brick cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Mini chocolate chips for garnish
- Preheat over to 275 degrees. Grease and flour 9 X 13 inch pan.
- In small bowl combine mashed bananas and lemon juice.
- In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients (flour, soda, cinnamon, salt).
- In large bowl (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer), cream 3/4 butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs one at a time, then add vanilla.
- Beat in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk.
- Stir in bananas.
- Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake in preheated oven for about an hour and a half, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Depending on your oven, may take and hour 20 minutes to and hour 50 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool completely on rack.
- For the frosting, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Beat in 1 tsp vanilla
- Add confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high until smooth. If too thick, add a few drops of milk until it’s the right consistency for spreading.
- Spread on cooled cake and garnish with mini chips.
Until next time, be well, and blessings to you all.
Grace Note Homestead 