Banana Bread Recipe

I got this from a fellow mom in my mom group.  What I love, is that she tried several banana bread recipes over the years and has narrowed it down to this one.  And honestly, it's basically amaze-balls! 
Meghan's Banana Bread1 C room temp unsalted butter2 C sugar1 C vanilla yogurt2 C mashed bananas - 3 bananas4 lg eggs, room temp and well beaten2 1/2 C flour2 tsp baking soda1 tsp salt1 tsp nutmegOptional - 1/2 C nuts or chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350.  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add yogurt, bananas, and eggs.  Beat until well mixed.  Mix dry ingredients and blend, do not overmix!  Pour into 2 greased loaf pans or 1 bundt pan.  Bake for 55 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on a rack for 10 minutes and then remove from pan.

Here's my notes: - I use salted butter for everything, still tastes good! - Have made this twice, first time did 1 lg loaf and 2 mini loafs, the mini loafs were done between 25-30 minutes.  Second time I did it in a bundt pan and I had a horrible time getting it fully done and was afraid it'd burn.  So definitely think I'll stick to the loaf pans. - I put in chocolate chips and definitely don't measure it out, just throw in some handfuls.  I like my chocolate. 
If you make this, let me know what you think! 

What a Week - This & THAT

:: This past week has flown by.  The Hubs' had his vasectomy on Monday, so he has been off work all week.  So, that definitely threw a wrench into my normal weekly routine.  He's doing well and recovering well.  - Hubby was a champ and drove himself to the appt - I was surprised when he refused to let me take him. - We went through a jumbo bag of frozen peas. - I'll be glad when the next two months is over and he can send back in his test sample.  - YAY for it being my last month on the pill.  - And I'll leave the discussion of the vasectomy with this one liner I saw:         "I like my men like I like my watermelon - hard and seedless"  <~ Cracks me up! 

:: Also had A's 2 yr check-up and B's 4 month check-up.  Both had perfect check-ups and are healthy and on target for what they are doing.  B is all out of whack from her shots, Friday night she fought me to be laid down in her bed until after 2am, that little stinker would be out and wake up as soon as I'd lay her down.  Saturday night the battle ended around 11pm.  Am shooting for 9-10pm tonight.  
:: Valentine's was a hit around here with some homemade pink pancakes, turkey bacon and pink milk for breakfast.  Older two girls got some Lalaloopsy dolls, B got a book.  E had a great party at school and after going through the cards and separating the tattoos and candy.  We had to keep her crush's card to her, she gets all googly eyes and blushes when we start questioning her about him.  SO not ready for those days.  
:: Hubs took me out to dinner for Vday Friday night.  It was yummy and fun.  While at the restaurant we ran into an old friend of mine from youth group and they have a 1 yr old.  She was saying how she saw the other baby in the waiting area and was thinking how much she missed her little guy.  I just started laughing and was like NOT ME.  It got me to thinking how when it was just E, missed her like crazy when we'd go out just us.  But now with 3, I look forward to dropping them off and just having some adult time.  How funny it changes as they get older and you have more kids. 
:: We didn't get that snow storm they were predicting and today was actually a nice day.  We decided to test out A & B's new double stroller.  Am so in love with it!  We got this one here.  A threw a fit in the store, when we tried to take her out of the one they had out to test.  She just kept saying over and over "MINE!".  It was so cute and funny.  A & B zonked out.  
:: I've been enjoying some fluff reading lately.  And had to share this author, Anna Mara, I got her first book off of the free kindle list back in the fall and have been keeping my eye open for anymore books by her coming out.  This one came out end of 2011, Why Rome Hates Juliet, had me laughing out loud through the majority of it.  If you have a Kindle and want to read it, I believe I can "share/lend" it out.  
:: I made the most AMAZING banana bread this week - recipe to come next week.  
:: Also happening this week, we, aka the Hubs is FINALLY going to finish ripping the carpet off of our stairs ( this has only been on hold for 7 months! ) 

Insta - Friday

This is an assortment of the past two weeks. 

1.  Used a birthday gift card and picked up these super soft and ruffle-y teal blue pillows.  I'm so in love with them!!! 

2.  Miss A's Birthday cake. 

3.  This was on a Sunday, heading to the grocery store around 7am and the sunrise was just so pretty, so drove down to the boat launch, this is looking across the river towards our capital. 

4.  Gorgeous weather, everyone outside to play, this is the Hubs and A. 

5.  Baby B hanging out in the swing for the first time. 

6.  Passed out after some floor time. 

7.  Opened up a bottle of wine that I got for my birthday from the Bestie, it was from Cupcake Vineyards, SO yummy! 

8.  A and me playing around in Photo Booth on the new laptop, this is the chipmunk effect, cracks me up! 

9.  B hanging out. 

10.  Oldest feeding B. 

11.  My gorgeous laptop cover from Gussy Sews came in the mail. 

12.  Hubby mounting our tv on the wall. 

13.  Made a double batch of triple chocolate {used, semi-sweet, milk, & dark chocolate}, one container left with my Uncle. 

14.  Got some snow, about an inch, it was so pretty. 

15.  Hubs taking a nap with B in the afternoon. 

*I'm on Instagram - username Kat7205, let's connect!*

From Pins to Projects

My friend Amber over at Binkertation started this great linky party every Sunday called From Pins to Projects.  I know I have tons of stuff pinned and have done a few of them, but definitely need to take the time and do more of them.  When A's 2nd Birthday was being planned I knew that I wanted to do an owl theme all because of this pin below.

Here's my photo's of the cake I made for A's Birthday Party. Here's after I eyed the photo above and made cuts to copy.  The original post about how to do this, she traced it out on paper and followed it that way.  It was late and I didn't feel like doing that method. 

Next up, I got out my gel food colors to mix up some different colors for the icing.  I pulled the colors from her party plates, purple/pink/orange.  And when I'm putting icing on things, I grab a quart or XL sandwich bag, shove it in a cup with one point at the bottom, scoop in my icing and then snip off the corner for piping.  Here's some pretty purple icing. 

Here's the finished product.  Overall was really pleased with how it turned out and everyone loved it at the party, especially the birthday girl.  

Favorite Things Swap

Mamarazzi is at it again with one of her great swaps.  This swaps theme is Favorite Things, where I get to come up with a package of my favorite things and send it to a new blog friend.  Can't wait to see who I'm paired up with and make a new friend.  Click on the button to see who else is playing along this round.  
*There is a cute button but for some reason I can't get it to work*

Insta-Friday

1. I find the older two like this a lot, and it just melts my heart!
2. First significant snowfall.
3. Battled oldest into a nap – Mommy won!
4. All bundled up and ready to play in the snow!
5. First attempt at Snow – Ice Cream.
6. Hubs set B up with the keyboard and mouse, she looks so excited.
7. Celebrated the Hubs 27th Birthday with a pan of rice krispees.
8. A snuggling on me watching a show.
9. B was fascinated by the Hubs phone the other night.
10. My girls!
11. Taxes are filed – woot woot, looking fwd to the 8th!!!
12. Celebrated A’s 2nd birthday – what’s more fun than a playdough table filled with playdough goodies.

* If you’re on Instagram, come find me @kat7205 *

DIY–Coffee Table

So about a year ago my parents picked up a 5 drawer blue print cabinet for $5 at an auction.  They offered it to the Hubs to re-vamp and sell.  We don’t have a picture of the true before, here’s an in progress shot.

 

At this point in the process, the Hubs had cut the depth in half, re-configured the sides for the new depth, and started sanding.  And we decided instead of 5 small drawers, he should make them into 3.  It looks like five, but drawers 2 & 3 and 4 & 5 were combined to make bigger drawers. 



This is after the piece was sanded, minus the center ovals, those are the original wood color.  Back when the Hubs was with the carpenter’s union he did a job on a cooling tower at Hershey Park.  They were trashing all of this 20+ yr old redwood and said that he could take some.  This is what he made the top and legs out of. 

So, this piece has sat like this in his parents garage for about a year, time got away from him.  I’m so glad he did and he didn’t sell it.  Because one day last week it clicked that we could make this into a coffee table for our living room, especially now that we separated our sectional couches and have room for it (will update on this next week). 

The Hubs picked up the piece and brought it home so he could put some polyurethane coats on it and 4 wheels for the bottom instead of the legs.  Here’s how it looks now.







We all are loving the new addition to the living room and the start of our living room transformation planned for this year.  And I can already picture this in the future, when we move, with the original legs the Hubs planned and it being a great entryway piece.

I'm linking up to HoH, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Craft Envy,

Happy 4 Months Brynlee!

B -

Whew – time is flying by.  Wanted to do this monthly letter last month but the days just slipped by and before I knew it, it was the 20th again and your 4 months.  You are growing rapidly now a days.  New bigger sized clothes you just got for Christmas are already starting to get too small on you.  You had a check-up this week and your stats are as follow – 16lbs 15ozs & 25 1/2” – high 80%, low 90% on the charts, just like your older two sisters. 

You have definitely established a nap and eating schedule, which makes me one happy mama!   You are very particular with how you like to be held, we hold you sideways and you bury your head in the crook of our elbow and against our body and then we pat your bottom.  The past couple weeks you’ve started mostly sleeping through the night.  I say mostly, because some nights you wake up, but if we put your nunny back in your mouth you go right back to sleep.  You did have a couple nights (2 weeks ago) of randomly waking back up for a bottle.  You wake up happy in the mornings and are content to play with your mirror/light-up fish.

The past week you’ve really started to do some new things.  You roll from your tummy to your back.  Have great head control.  You prefer to sit in your walker or bumbo.  You grab the toys on your walker and have started grabbing some rattles and other little toys and bringing them to your mouth.  You also love nomming on your fingers and hands – you are such a little drool bucket.  It’s fun seeing you hit all of these milestones.  I can’t believe you are already reaching them, which makes them even more bittersweet since you are our last baby. 

Can’t wait to see what’s coming in the next month.

Love you so much baby girl -
the Mama

1st Snow

Over the weekend we had our first snowfall and it was so much fun watching the older 2 enjoy themselves in it.  Now for just some of the many many photo’s I took, these are my favorite of the day!

Insta - Friday

I haven’t done this in a while, decided to dump the photos from my phone and create a collage of the weeks happenings.



Left to Right:

1. B trying on her new winter hat from the Bestie.
2. Older two playing dress-up.
3. B loves this little bunny from my LSB group on BBC, she was having so much fun anytime the bunny would get close to her mouth!
4. Date night with the Hubs – Texas Roadhouse enjoying a Jamaican Cowboy followed by seeing Contraband at the theater.
5. My Mom and me created mini 5x7 cookbooks for the family, of my Gramma’s regular/favorite recipes for each of us to have.  I decided to make her Marble Brownie cake for my Mom’s birthday celebration.
6. There they are straight from the oven.
7. E & A going around the house on E’s scooter.
8. On Sunday my Mom gave me 2 of my Gramma’s rings, this 1st one was her mother’s ring – which just so happens to be the exact months of my 3 babies, my Gramma and me have so many connections, we shared a birthday and our 3 kids were born in the same months, I hope as I get older I will be more like her.
9.  The bottom band with the round diamonds was hers as well.
10. I decided 1/2 a year was plenty of time and I needed to finish B’s quilt and got’er done this week.
11. Getting a picture of B on her finished quilt.
12. Yummy dinner last night – tried the Supreme version of pancakes on the Bisquik box with blueberry syrup, they were a MEGA hit!

Valentine’s Mantel

This year for Christmas, my parents bought the Hubs and I an electrical corner fireplace.  I was so excited to have this addition, not only to cut down on our oil bill, but for also having a new thing to decorate. 

The Hubs figured out a way to hang up my $5 yard sale Pottery Barn mirror, since corners are sort-of hard to decorate, but with our floor plan this was our only option. 

I didn’t buy anything new this year, shopped around my house and Valentine’s décor I got last year from the Dollar Tree and the Dollar spot at Target.  (Please excuse the wonky colors)



Have you gotten out your Valentine’s Décor yet?  Do you even decorate for Valentine’s?

New Year + Birthday

One week ago today, I celebrated my 27th birthday.  Here in Pennsylvania, we have this thing called the Farm Show, approx. 400,000 people attend every year.  Normally, this is not our thing, but Oldest child came home from school the previous week (– begging us to go), and this is part what they learned about, along with farm animals.  So, since my birthday landed on one of the Hubs days off, we decided to take advantage and take the girls’ that morning.  Came home for a couple hours before I headed to a pedicure.  That evening the Hubs made a yummy dinner.  We all snuggled watching a movie together and had some homemade cinnamon sugar pretzel bites for dessert (thank you Pinterest).  It was a great day!  Here’s a couple pictures from the day.


On our way to the Farm Show.


My beautiful 3 girls and I – am SO blessed.


Shot of the yummy pretzel bites! Thank you Hubby!!!

As each year comes along I look forward to the New Year and my birthday being close together.  I get to reflect on the previous year and make new goals for myself. 

Here are the things I want to focus on this year -
1. My Marriage – I feel like I tend to lose myself in the daily things and the girls’.  This is becoming a top priority.  I want to bring more romance back into our lives, regular date nights, intimacy.  Make sure the Hubs knows he’s appreciated for all of his hard work, the amazing father he is, and a wonderful hubby. 

2. Parenting – I’ve been shifting the way I parent the girls’ and so far much better results, aka my sanity has somewhat returned! ;o)

3. Hobbies – I really want to work more on my sewing.  Learn to crochet.  Learn more about using my camera in Manual mode.

4. Savings – This past year I’ve had to really get good at making $1 stretch beyond $1.  I’ve taken up couponing and want to continue the great savings I’ve been able to give my family.

5. Myself – I tend to put myself last/forgotten on many aspects and this year I’m making myself a priority – top of the list is my health.

I look forward to seeing where the journey of my 27th year leads me & sharing it with each of you.

2012 Punch List

2011 was full of some major basic room re-do's.  This year I want to focus on the little things that make our house a home and more us.  I'm so excited to tackle everything on this list - here it goes.

- Finish re-finishing our staircase.
- Get lamps for the living room, play area, kids' rooms.
- Re-organize basement - PURGE, PURGE, PURGE!
- Paint ceiling in dining room.
- Fix ceiling in kitchen.
- Replace window pane in kitchen window.
- Find a dresser and re-do it for living room.
- Wall mount tv.
- Create canvas art for living room.
- Revamp living room curtains or sew new ones.
- Paint bookcase for B's room.
- Create gallery wall in B's room.
- Hang blackout curtains in B's room.
- Make custom headboard for our room.
- Make embroidery family tree for our room.
- Make new throw pillows for the couch and our bed.
- Make/thrift new accessories to decorate tabletops and shelving.
- Update photos in living room gallery wall.
- Re-paint shutters.
- Fix roof over addition.
- Paint the exterior of the house.
- Make our first vegetable/herb garden.
- Create storage area outside for kids' toys.

I will of course be updating as we check things off of this wonderful semi-long list! :o)  What do you have planned for around your casa this year?

Christmas 2011

Have been wanting to get this post up all week.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday week between Christmas & New Year’s.  We’ve been busy playing with all of the girls’ new toys and getting all of the Christmas décor packed up and put away until next year.  *Warning – Picture Heavy Post AHEAD*


The Girls’ opening their presents to one another on Christmas Eve.


Santa always leaves new PJ’s for the girls’ Christmas Eve, while we had company their was a knock at our door from one of his elves dropping them off. 


Santa & our presents to the girls’ have arrived.


Girls’ partaking in another tradition, they each have their own tree in their rooms and Santa leaves a wrapped ornament hanging on them, they were opening them up to see what they got this year.


Their “big” presents from Santa.


SO excited she got Start the Party like she asked for.


Brynlee checking out one of her new toys on her new blanket (we made each of the girls a new sew fleece blanket) – AND right after this, Little Miss rolled 3x’s from her belly to her back, what a great Christmas present for us!


Older two playing with their new outdoor toys from GG & Gramps.


My Sister-in-Law put Miss B to sleep.


This is the Hubs Dad’s side of the family – 4 generations!


And to keep it real, this is what my house looked like morning of the 26th.  Spent the whole day getting things organized.


Everyone’s new clothes that I had to de-tag.


Toys more organized under the tree.  And it only stayed like that for another day, because by Tuesday night I had all of the decorations their toy area, pulled old toys for storage and put away all of the new stuff. 

Christmas Photo Session

Normally, I spend an hour on the phone just trying to get through to Portrait Innovations, make our appt, and then we sit there forever waiting as they are always running behind.  This year a fellow mom friend, used a local photographer who comes to our house and highly recommended her, so for 1/2 the price I figured we’d give it a try as well!!!

Hmm…let’s just say it was an EPIC FAIL where Middle Child was concerned.  She wanted nothing to do with photo’s and would just cry and run away.  3 shots is what we got of her, and my favorite is actually without her looking, lols. 

Now for some overload of my perhaps biased opinion be-a-ut-i-ful girls!!! 

Thanks for looking at my cuties!!  Do you go somewhere for your photos, hire a photographer on location or take them yourself? 

2 New Recipes

With all of the “pinning” I do on Pinterest, I’ve actually been trying out a couple things.  2 of them were new recipes to add to my normal holiday baking.  Both were absolutely delish and I highly recommend!!

First up, Apple Cider Caramels – seriously, heaven are in these little bites of sweetness! 




Apple Cider Caramels
Recipe from Our Best Bites
2 cup high-quality apple cider
1 cup heavy cream or whipping cream, divided
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup real butter, cubed

- Pour cider into a medium saucepan and boil on high for about 20 minutes or until the cider is reduced to 1/3 c. Keep an eye on it...it might try to run away. Set aside to cool.
- Line an 8" square pan with parchment paper, making sure to leave about 1" hanging over the edges for easy removal. Coat with a bit of vegetable oil and set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine 2/3 c. cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and reduced apple cider. Set aside.
- In a large, heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, 1/3 c. whipping cream + enough water to reach the 1/2 c. line on the measuring cup, and corn syrup. Cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Insert the candy thermometer and simmer until the syrup reaches 234 degrees.
- Remove from heat and slowly whisk in the cream mixture. Add the cubed butter and stir until the cream and butter are fully incorporated. Return the pan to heat and re-insert the candy thermometer. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until the temperature reaches 248 degrees.
- Remove from heat and pour the caramel into the prepared pan. Let the mixture cool completely at room temperature or in the refrigerator. I covered the top of the pan loosely with saran wrap and left it out overnight. You could cut the caramels into 1/2" squares and wrap each caramel in wax paper, but I'm lazy so I cut the caramel into 1/2" logs, which meant that I had exponentially fewer pieces to individually wrap. Store in an airtight container or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, but I can guarantee that they won't last that long. These things are delicious!


Next recipe is for Cream Cheese filled Snickerdoodles by Cookies & Cups.  These are big cookies and so yummy, they were gone pretty quickly! Sorry I don’t have a picture of these.

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
  
• 1 cup room temp butter
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
  
• 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
  
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
  
• 1 tsp baking soda
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• 2 tsp cinnamon
  
• Filling
  
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• 2 tsp vanilla

1. Make the cream cheese filling by mixing the cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp vanilla. I used my hand mixer for this.
   
2. Cover the cream cheese mixture and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
   
3. Preheat oven to 400°
   
4. Cream butter and 1 1/2 cup sugar until fluffy.
   
5. Add eggs and 1 tsp vanilla. Mix until combined.
   
6. On low speed mix in your flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Set dough to the side.
   
7. In a small bowl combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon, set that aside as well.
   
8. Remove the cream cheese mixture from the refrigerator.
   
9. For each cookie you will need 2 flattened balls of dough, 1 Tbsp each. (The flattened disk will be approx 2″ in diameter)
   
10. Place 1 tsp of the cream cheese mixture on top of one of the flattened dough disks. Then place the other flattened dough on top of the cream cheese. Pinch the edges together to seal.
    
11. Carefully form into a ball and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place on a plate as you finish making each and refrigerate. Before baking the cookies they should chill for 15 minutes.
    
12. When the dough is chilled bake on a parchment lined baking sheet 2″ apart for 8 minutes.
    
13. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Makes approx 24 cookies Adapted from
Food.com

 
If you are already finished with your baking for the season, definitely file these away to try next year – I promise you won’t be sorry!!!