Banana (Nut) Bread

A few days ago I saw this post. And as fate would have it, I had four nearly too ripe bananas!! The stars have aligned! So for three days I have been telling Little d we are going to make banana bread. Today we finally got to do it.

Let me give you a little history of me and baking banana stuff. I have screwed up more banana nut muffins than I care to mention. One time not including flour. That was a mess to clean up. Especially since I had run out of paper liners! But today, today, we would have banana bread!

I checked the recipe on the laptop. Double checked. Triple checked. Yes--I have all the ingredients. I decided to make one loaf with chopped pecans added and one plain. I copied the ingredients onto a notepad to have on the island where I was mixing. Little d was helping mash bananas and singing my praises "I'm gonna be a chef like my momma...she bakes the best for everyone...i'm gonna be a che-ef!" I was dancing to her singing. We were having fun. Oh yes today there would be banana bread.

As I am finishing up the final mixing, Little d and my mom are looking over the ingredients. Little d is checking off the ingredients as mom is reading them. They get to the last ingredient. Baking soda. CHECK! Little d says. "What!?! Baking powder?" I stop pouring batter into the loaf pan. "No" mom says, "baking soda"

Yes ladies and gentlemen. I added baking powder not baking soda. And you know what? It is fantastic!! You must try this recipe. It is so good that even I can't screw it up!!

Challege!

Here's the challege (that I stole from another blog). You have to go to your picture storage on your computer and pick the sixth picture in the sixth folder and then post it on your blog and tell the story of the picture. If you want to play along link your page in the comments!



Here's mine...What's funny is I was so sure the picture was going to be of Little d!

According to EasyShare this photo was taken in early May of 2005. I guess it was a storm coming in, but I don't even remember it. It was taken near my parents' home in my hometown. At first I thought it might be bands from a hurricane, but it was the wrong time of year for that, so I guess it was just a storm.

Interesting Nonsense

I was just informed via email that there are more chickens than people in the world.

I knew we should start raising chickens. When they take over the world, we'll have some friends on our side.

Therapy Thursday

Back to Bitchin.... After a brief hiatus of Thursday gripes...I'm baaa--aaack!

Today my husband will find out if he still has a job. That's right. He's unit is being told today who is staying and who is leaving. Wow. What a place to be in. Let's hope for the best, I'll update when I find out the verdict. I will say that if he is cut (with all his training and promotions and accomplishments) the company is in serious trouble.

Woohoo! Just found out D's job is safe for now!

File Under Things That Chap My Ass part two

Stimulus bill spending spree...

$25 million for new ATV trails; $400 million for the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global warming research; $335 million for the Centers for Disease Control to combat sexually-transmitted diseases; and $650 million coupons to subsidize TV viewers for digital television conversion.

Just how much does a box of condoms cost and why do I have to buy it for a stranger? Also, how much will the government pay me to put an ATV trail on our acreage? Cuz I'm totally up for it now that we have all that room where our house was supposed to go...

Butterfly Sympathy Card

A Close To My Heart customer, and co-worker of D's, lost her grandmother so I made this sympathy card. I used white embossing powder on vellum for the butterfly which I cut out and mounted on foam dots. Though it doesn't show in the photo, the white of the butterfly also is shiny. I used clear embossing powder on Outdoor Denim cardstock for the flowers.

I found the inspiration for the card here. Her version is much prettier than mine!

Lots O Photos!

Ready for some pictures?? First up, my mom's birthday dinner. We had fajitas, avocado salad (made with avocado, vine-ripened cherry tomatoes tossed with italian dressing-yummy!), spanish rice, refried beans with dewberry cobbler and apple pie for dessert!


The cobbler is from scratch and the pie is from freezer. They were so delicious!!

Here is a picture of my mom and dad posing on the couch with Little d.

Here's my brother holding Little m while he was working on my mom's computer. Apparently she was 'helping' him.

Want to see some more scrapbooking? Here's a thinking of you card I made for someone going through chemo.

My BFF ordered some of those cookie sheet memo boards for door prizes at her school. I made three of these.

Done for now...

Look Ma, No Rooster!

This is my mom's birthday card. Her favorite colors are orange and yellow, so when I saw the Boom Di Ada that I had out yesterday, I decided it would be perfect. And I even managed to forgo stamping a rooster on it!!

More Rooster Cards

Okay here I go again with the rooster stamp. On this one I used black embossing powder. And then I wanted to put brads in the corner, but I didn't have four small black brads, so I used a dot stamp and black embossing powder to make faux brads.

And here's a (poorly photographed) detail of the embossing powder to show how shiny it looks.

I stamped Happy Birthday to you on the inside of this one.

Next up, I paired the rooster with Boom Di Ada papers from CTMH (you can't make that up, that's what they call it.) The color is atrocious in these photos. My desk lamp gives off a funky blue light--sorry!

Here's a close up of the embellishment. I attached a clear button with Liquid Glass (that stuff rocks) onto a flower cut from the background paper.

Okay everyone who's tired of the rooster raise your hand! I promise to take the stamp off my desk so I won't use it for a while!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today my mom turns the big 6-0. She is going to love that I put that out there. I hope she has a wonderful year and I wanted to wish her a very Happy Birthday!!


In honor of ticking her off I have uploaded for your viewing pleasure a picture of her that is sure to make her happy. She never allows us to take pictures of her so I didn't have a lot to choose from!

Love you Mimi!

My Farm Cards

Here are a couple of cards I made today. These are pretty simple. I wanted to do a masculine card with the tractor. (Excuse the picture, it's horrid. The card is sitting in a groove on my cutting tool and it looks like the bottom is cut off!) I stamped Happy Birthday on the inside.

This rooster card is not my favorite. I can't decide what sentiment to put on the inside. So for now it's blank. I've had this gingam button in my stash for years. I love it so much that I never could think of a project that I wanted to waste it on. Hehehe. Not sure this was the perfect project, but in the spirit of cleaning out the stuff I forced myself to part with it. (Oh and I have two more left...)

It feels really good to be creating just for myself again and not just for CTMH workshops. I actually get to use all the pretty paper I've bought over the years. Yea me!

The stamps are My Farm, CTMH.

Something Happy

Okay I'm done having a pity party for me. Back to fun stuff. I am thinking about getting a table at Market Days this year to sell scrapbooking stuff...cards, layouts, and altered items. In the spirit of trying to create stuff to sell, here's a card I made today:

Here's a close up of how the key is raised off of the base:


Definitely puts me in a better mood to be creative! Need to do that more often. Also Top Chef is on tonight!! Woohoo! (This card was made using the Key to My Heart Promotion from CTMH. I LOVE this set!!)

The Big Day

Well it's here. The big change-over day. I've been watching the inauguration since this morning. I love all the history and pomp and circumstance of it. And as all the news anchors said, other countries must sit in awe of how we can have such a peaceful transition of power every time. It brings tears to my eyes that I live in such a great country where the outgoing President has such grace and dignity to embrace the new President and wish him genuine well.

Of course, you know me, still not a fan of Obama. I judged his speech harshly, but that's just me. I've seen him give better speeches. I thought his acceptance speech was much more grandiose with better catch phrases.

I wait to see what the future holds and hope for all the best.

I am in love with a sneaky man...

I was coveting this wreath from my sister in law. I told my husband that I really wanted it. He went sneaking behind my back and bought it. Then my sneaky sister in law posted that post on her blog and I was so sad that I missed out on it.

Then this evening he came in the front door with it.

Smile. I love that man!

File Under Things That Chap My Ass

Now was not the best time for me to read this...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/01/18/pricetag-inaugural-festivities-reach-m/

If I could just get $200,000 of that, we could build the ol' dream home. Sweet. Be sure to read how dems bashed Bush during his festivities in '05. Also note that '(The inauguration committee) is also hiring garbage and recycling services and renting thousands of portable toilets for what one supplier called "the largest temporary restroom event in the history of the United States."' Come on. Let me laugh a little at that one. Largest restroom event in history. You can't coach that. Okay. I'll leave it alone for now.

Though in light of our recent news it still chaps my ass!