strawberry bread {neighbor gift}

I recently shared this recipe on my friend Barbara's blog Chase the Star.  I thought I would share it here in cased you missed it! 

 I live next door to the cutest elderly couple, we are fairly close, we pick up each others mail when we're out of town, she always yells hello in the sweetest southern voice when we see each other outside.  During one of our recent hello's she told me that her husband had become ill and was going to have to undergo some treatments.  I was sad to hear this and began to think of something I could do to brighten their day. I remembered when I had my little boy, I loved it when people brought us food, it took a load off just having something already there to munch on.  So I figured I could make them my favorite strawberry bread.  

This bread is very moist, and sweet, but not too sweet. And best of all it is super easy to make! 

Strawberry Bread 

2 cups of strawberries, sliced

3 cups of flour

1 cup of sugar

1 tablespoon of cinnamon 

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 1/4 cups of vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

4 eggs

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and butter 2 loaf pans.

Sprinkle sliced strawberries with a little sugar and set aside.  Mix all dry ingredients together in large bowl.  In a separate bowl combine vegetable oil, vanilla, eggs, and strawberries.  Add strawberry mixture to dry ingredients.  Stir until combined.  Add mixture to two buttered loaf pans, bake for 40-45 minutes.

The butter from the loaf pans makes the outside kind of chewy, while the inside is super soft and sweet.  SO good, especially while it's still warm!  My whole house smelled like strawberries.  It was hard for me not to eat a whole loaf, luckily this recipe makes 2 loaves. ;) 

I also wanted to add a little more fun to plain wax paper to jazz it up a bit.  After doing crafts with my little boy of ironing crayons between wax paper, I realized that I could just iron anything between two pieces of wax paper to create a fun design! Confetti always makes me smile, so I thought it would do the same for my friends next door. 

1. First I punched holes into paper scraps I had in different colors to make confetti *tissue paper would work great too.

2. Sprinkle confetti onto one piece of wax paper  *be careful not to bust out a laugh or breath too hard through your nose during this part.. just trust me ;)

3. Lay second piece of wax paper on top of the confetti.

4. Iron two pieces together, using a very low setting

That't it!  The pieces stick together and the design shows through.  There are so many variations you could do with this as well, holiday colors, or different shapes even. 

Once I had the loaf wrapped I tied it with a colorful string, and since my neighbors are going through a rough time I added a bible verse to give them some encouragement as a tag.  

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

Philippians 4:6-7

Another idea would be to add a recipe to the tag, or any kind of note to make it more personalized.  I printed mine off of Word, but even a hand written note would be cute.

I was so happy when my neighbor gave me a big hug when I gave it too her, I am lucky to have such great neighbors and loved giving them something special to brighten their day!


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