I'm the next food network star!!!

I don't hide my addiction to food network.  I love many of their shows. My favorite being "The Next Food Network Star."

For the past two years, I've cheered for the winner since the beginning.

One thing the mentors of NFNS really push, is having a story to go with your recipe, and a tip to throw in to help out all the busy cooks.  So, ready for my camera spot?  Here it goes:

My family LOVES fresh baked quick and sweet breads for Sunday morning breakfasts.  And I love baking them.  But what I don't love, is the clean-up.  Especially since I don't have a dishwasher.
Saturday I made delicious, from scratch, banana bread.  I don't think I've ever made banana bread from scratch.... bananas just don't last that long in our house.  But I had a friend who had some get over-ripe and she donated them to my cause.  Thanks, Mrs. Kleeman!

And of course, my kitchen was a disaster when I wanted to cook, so the first thing I did was clean up.  Since I don't have a dishwasher, wiping down the counters and the stove happen every day, right after doing the dishes.  It's a nice way to keep the kitchen cook ready at a moment's notice.
But here's my tip:
If you want to do a lot of baking - hand wash your dishes first - then leave the sink full of dish water.  As you beat your eggs, cream together your butter and sugar, mix your batter, throw the dirty dishes into the sink.
Pop your bread into the oven, spend a few more minutes doing dishes and voila!  You now have a clean kitchen, clean dishes, and a house smelling like warm banana bread.  An hour later, all you have to worry about when the banana bread is cooling on the counter, is keeping your kids out of it until Sunday morning!

Couldn't you totally see me doing that TV spot?  It would be spectacular.  I have the perfect skirt and apron for it too!
And really, Saturday night, it was awesome to have all the dishes that get dirty when baking already clean by the time the bread was done cooking.  And even nicer on Sunday morning that I didn't wake up to a sink full of dirty dishes.  Especially since I don't wash dishes on Sundays.