Diabetes, I has it.

Well this was not fun, I have known that I was pre-diabetic for 5 years or so. I have been taking metformin and having a fasting lab test every 3 months or so for the past few years. This morning I had a Dr's appointment and my ac1 level (glycated hemoglobin test, this shows the average blood sugar over the past 3 months) was over 6; this was not good. This was the highest it has ever been. The problem is that I am on meds and this should be lower.

So I am on a different med, need to excise more, have to check my blood sugar at least 3 times a day and need to change what I eat. Foods high in carbs are not a good idea. Only in very small amounts will they be allowed. Well Tuesday's with Dorie is out, so in Daring Bakers. I need to get this under control. I do not want to have to take insulin. It does not help that there is diabetes on both sides of my family.

Taste from Home Goodie Swap

This was hosted by Megan of Meganscooking and April of Abbysweets. This was fun on both sides. I got to look around for local items that you will most likely not going to find many other places and I got a really cool box of stuff from Sleeping Bear in the Kitchen.

It took a while to find everything in the box. There is some many things to go Wow about. John sent Ice Wine, I am taking it on a quilt retreat that I am going to next month. Mustard from a microbrewery, Mrs Jones all purpose sauce, a very good conserve ( my brother and I have eaten half of it already), a vinaigrette, bistro sauce, pumpkin butter (I love pumpkin butter.), wine jelly that he made and some candy from his store. I am told that the mint fudge that John made was fabulous. It did not last more than 2 days. Thank you Megan and April for hosting this event and a large thanks to John for send this great box.

Tuesday With Dorie: Black and White Banana Loaf

This week Ashlee of A Year in the Kitchen picked Black and White Banana Loaf. I liked the concept of a marbled banana bread but this will not become my banana bread recipe. Problems is not the right work, I have a few complaints:

How much banana is 1 and a half bananas? (I tend to switch out the bananas with pumpkin or apple depending on who I make it for. At work there are a few people that are allergic to bananas.)

Do we really need that much butter? It came out very most but the top was very brown.

How full should I have filled the loaf pans? I was worried about spill over and did not fill them as much as I could have.

I doubled the recipe, I was using frozen bananas and it was easier to use 3 than 1 1/2. This made 2 loafs and 7 muffins. It was fun playing with the marbling. I even made one of the muffins half and half. I think that I use this technique next time I make banana bread, just with one of my other recipes.