Saturday, July 23, 2011

Fabulous Banana Nut Bread (Cake really) Recipe!!



Finished bread topped with ICE CREAM!!!!

Supplies Needed:
1 stick softened butter (1/2 c or 8 tbsp)
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 very ripe bananas, thawed if froxen, mashed
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts (more if wanted)
Optional streusal topping:
1/4 c cold butter ( or 4 tbsp, 1/2 stick)
1/4 c brown sugar
3 tbsp flour


Most of my supplies.....


As you can see, my bananas were reallllllly ripe and frozen, thawed in the microwave for 35 second

Bread Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, grease a 9x5 loaf pan. Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg.  Mix in vanilla and banana mash. 
In a seperate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. 
(ok, I did my eggs at the same time, but Ive made this many times and I cheat alot with baking, ALOT)

Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.  Fold in nutsand pour into pan. 
Streusal Topping Directions:
Cut the butter, sugar and flour together with a fork or your hands until crumbly 

 
Top with streusal topping and bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes clean from the center of the loaf.

Remove from pan and let cool or eat it with ice cream while HOT!!!! Super delicious!!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

The love of a YoYo!

So as many of you know or have noticed, I am in love with yoyos. Not the ones you sling around on a string, but the ones our grandmothers used to make blankets and little decorative flowers on things we would now consider smelly antiques. I love how simple they are to make, how cute they are on a hairclip for young and old alike, and how versatile they are when it comes to crafting with them. I have included a few photos of the things I have made with these awesome accessories for our walls, hair and necks :)

This one has a tulle "poof" on the back of it but it would not photograph well.

I have gotten more compliments on this necklace than anything I have ever worn...

This was a housewarming gift I made for my BFF Shayna, needless to say, she loved it!

Another of my yoyo bib necklace

I am now working on one of these for myself then onto making one for everyone for Xmas....
I will be experimenting more and more with the yoyo as well as my embroidery.  If you cannot afford an embroidery machine, one must learn to do it the old fashioned way...and in my opinion, more ecclectic lookin!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

SSSSNAKES R US!!

So when my three year old said that she wanted a SNAKE themed party, I was excited because I love snakes and I was so glad that she was turning into the tomboy that once was myself... Then I saw that theres is NOTHING for snake parties on the internet and NOTHING remotely coordinating with that theme.  I was left to my own imagination on this one... So I found a few sites that had awesome snake cakes but had NO description on how to make it, so I decided to make my own and hope for the best.  Now I have a really supportive husband when it comes to most things; however, he had ABSOLUTELY no faith that I could pull this off, boy did I show him wrong!!!!
I got the best compliments on this cake and I cannot believe that I actually pulled it off and the cool part is, it actually tasted pretty darn good for a day old fondant cake ;)
Tutorial to come soon on how we made it
Here is what it looked like on the inside

HEEHEE it was much fun making this cake, it was cool on ALL sides

Memorial Day Fun (late)


We had a blast celebrating Memorial Dat with our friends Clancy and Debbie at his parent's house!  We played volleyball, (yea I still have it) found some cuddly baby rabbits and got to eat some really good FOOD.  Who could ask for more? Clancy, being the photographer that he is, couldn't resist the chance to take some great shots.  Here is what he got...
Manuel thinks she looks like Farrah Fawcett here


See...Messy hair, red shirt, that's about all...


She loves BUBBLES!


Sheila loving on Doodle, Doodle not loving Sheila so much...


The girls loved the baby bunny...


LOOK AT THIS CUTIE!!!!!!!


She is just like her Mama, always wanting more animals!