Mmmm. Banana Bread.

Have I mentioned that breads of any kind are a particular weakness of mine? No?
The only bread I won't eat much of is the store-bought sandwich bread. Too many preservatives and it either tastes like dough or sawdust.
But give me fresh  bread, sweet or otherwise, and I'm a goner.
One of my favorites is banana bread. The only problem with banana bread is that you have to wait until the bananas are overly ripe before it really tastes good. And sometimes I have the overripe bananas and don't feel like making the bread.
Problem.
But I finally found the solution. . . Freezing the overripe bananas.
Voila! Banana bread anytime!

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 or 4 very ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla.
Add baking soda and salt. Mix.
Add flour. Mix.
Pour mixture into one loaf pan or four mini loaf pans.
Bake for one hour.

The Next Generation

Turns out my love of scrapbooking has officially been passed on! I'm so proud! :D

Our little Hannah had been begging for months for her very own scrapbook and on a recent trip to Michael's we finally got her one... a cute little 8x8 Hello Kitty scrapbook kit because what girl (little or big) doesn't love Hello Kitty. I gave her some photos and she went to town!
One Sunday morning, she woke up before Brian and I did. (She's a morning person, what can I say?) When I got up I found her in the living room, scrapping her cute little heart out. Caught a few pictures of her working on a page about her and my niece Amber. She titled it "My Should-Be Sister." (I call Amber my "should-be daughter")
It's so wonderful to see my little girl catch the scrapping bug.

Easy Peasy French Bread

I really have to get back into my blog :D Life with a husband and a 6-year-old can get super busy sometimes. I don't know how other mothers who have to work outside the home do it.
My parents came for a visit last weekend. I forget how much I miss them. I really wish I could sell my property and get them closer to Brian, Hannah and I.
Meanwhile, our assembly this weekend was sorely needed. It's amazing how we always get the spiritual food we need precisely when we need it.

Today's recipe is the French bread I made for the potato soup Friday night. I never thought I would make homemade bread but guess what? It's actually REALLY easy and only takes about an hour! Like it was just asking for me to make it!

Easy Peasy French Bread

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups warm water
• 2 tablespoons yeast 
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 5 ½ to 6 cups flour

Directions:
Add yeast to the warm water. Sprinkle the sugar over the yeast and water. Let it sit for about five minutes until you see the yeast get all bubbly on top.
Stir in the salt, oil and flour.

Knead the dough for a few minutes until it is smooth and pulls away from the bowl. Like above.

Cover your bowl with a warm wet towel and let the dough sit for about 15 minutes. TIP: turn the microwave on for two minutes and set the bowl of bread dough in the warm microwave for the 15 minutes. This warm environment makes the bread rise a lot faster.
The dough should have almost doubled after the 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into two long loaves and place side by side on a greased cookie sheet. Take a knife and slash the tops of each loaf diagonally.


Allow the loaves to sit for a few minutes while you preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

OPTIONAL: Add herbs to mixture.
OPTIONAL: For an extra crunchy crust, mix together one egg white with 1 tablespoon cold water and brush on cooked bread. Cook for another 3 minutes.



See? Easy Peasy!

When life throws you zucchini make bread!

Every summer most of us who have gardens are faced with the same question...
When did our zucchini start multiplying like rabbits and how do we get rid of it?
Well, make bread of course!

This year was mine and Brian's first garden together. I pretty much have a black thumb when it comes to plants of any kind, but Brian is pretty good at them. Maybe he gives the plants more attention and water. Wow. Maybe that's been my problem all along. Epiphany!
Anyway, we planted zucchini, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos and herbs. It was more of an experiment for us than a real garden since we are truly beginners. Most of our plants did pretty good... especially after the month of 100+ degrees passed. But our zucchini got infected by some kind of bore and it killed both plants. We were very disappointed because we both love zucchini and I was really looking forward to making zucchini bread.
Thank goodness we have wonderful friends and family who kept us supplied with zucchini from their bountiful gardens.

I found this amazing recipe for zucchini bread that uses crushed pineapples. It's so good I could eat the entire recipe at one sitting!

Zucchini Bread with Pineapple

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple (or ½ of a 20 oz. can)
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1 cup raisins or craisins (0ptional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat eggs with a mixer. Add oil, sugar and vanilla.

Continue beating mixture until thick and foamy.

With a spoon, stir in the pineapple

and zucchini.

It will look like this

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

A fourth at a time, add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and gently stir by hand after each addition.

Until it looks like this

Add walnuts, raisins or craisins.
Pour into two prepared loaf pans. (I forgot to take a photo of this step)
Bake for 45 minutes (for mini loaves) to one hour.
Makes two loaves; eight mini loaves; or one loaf and four mini loaves.

I'm Baaaack!... with a five-braid bun

See. This is what happens when life and being sick get in the way. My creative juices just weren't flowing -- not even in the kitchen. My poor family.
I'm usually so organized and have meals planned out but when I get sick, that all goes out the window and it's "Hello, Hamburger Helper." Not that the hubby or the daughter would ever complain about that. I admit that I have a prejudice against Hamburger Helper. To me it's something I cooked when it was just me or I didn't feel like cooking. So when Brian and I were married I NEVER made Hamburger Helper.
We were married about four months when he and Hannah actually asked me to please make Hamburger Helper :D He used to make it a lot when it was just the two of them and they actually missed it!
So now, I make it about once a month. Gives me a night off every once in a while and it makes them happy. And that's what being a wife, mom and friend is all about -- making people happy. And when making a boxed meal makes someone happy, I'm all for it.

With that in mind, today was the first "Fancy Friday" for Hannah's first grade class. The kids get to dress up if they want, learn "fancy" words and do "fancy" things. Hannah was so very excited and begged to wear a dress and a special style for her hair.
In case you didn't know, I love doing new styles with her hair. I comb the Internet, ok, I comb Pinterest, and find some really cute styles which I then modify for Hannah's hair.
Today, though, I wanted to do her hair in an updo, because it's supposed to be hot and she gets overheated at recess when her hair is down. So I chose to do a bun.
However, being me, I just couldn't leave it at a simple bun. So I created what I call a "five-braid bun." And she LOVED it.
See? Something simple to make her happy.

So here's the five-braid bun...

First I pulled her hair into a smooth pony tail in the center of her head. 

Then I took a small section of the pony tail and wrapped around the elastic holder, using bobby pins to secure the hair.

Next, I loosely braided the pony tail in five small braids.

Then, using bobby pins, I pinned the braids in loose loops above the pony tail.

Finally, I finished with little flowers to give it a little oomph.

Because it is a looser style, it starts out just a little "messy" so it doesn't matter that it will get a little looser as the day goes on.

Here are a couple more photos of the bun.