Banana Bread

Banana bread and my family go waaayyyy back. Like, back to the Mayflower, back. Actually, I don’t think I had any ancestors on the Mayflower…now that I think about it, I rather doubt there were any bananas either, but you get my point. My family loves banana bread; and, they have come up with many variations of it throughout the years. There has been banana, coconut, and pineapple bread; banana chocolate chip bread; banana butterscotch chip bread; and the old standby, banana nut bread among many others. Banana bread has accompanied most family get togethers in my remembrance.

It must have been a considerable shock to them to discover that I HATE bananas. I can down raw oysters, frog legs, fried ‘gator, and chocolate covered ants (actually, I have yet to try those, but I would), before I can chew and swallow a bite of banana. It literally will not go down. I have tried. My throat stages a major protest before the banana bite gets midway. I’m sorry. I have no control over this.

Since I have this history with bananas, it was with great surprise that I was able to eat fried plantain chips at a now defunct restaurant in Houston, and enjoy them. As a result, I decided to attempt the hallowed banana bread. It took awhile, but I found a recipe I love courtesy of Southern Living. I did modify it a little, though. Speaking of which, I just got notice that my last issue is next month, major problem, I cannot let that magazine lapse….off to renew.

‘K, I’m back, tragedy averted.

I made some banana bread this afternoon and decided to share. Would you like a slice?

Banana-Nut Bread
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans
1/2 cup butter, melted
2-3 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Grease and flour bottom of about 5 mini loaf pans. (My preference.)
Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl.
Stir together melted butter, mashed banana, and remaining ingredients; add to dry ingredients, and stir just until everything is moistened.
Spoon batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the loaves are golden on top.
Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely (if you can wait).
This also makes great muffins. I prefer the mini loaf pans to the regular sized one because I think the bread comes out more evenly baked. Plus, it's easier to snack on, but, if you must be average this will also make a 9"x5" loaf. ;)

By the way, I like mine hot out of the oven and slathered with melting butter. Sooooo, yummy! Yes, I know it sounds weird, but since one of my sisters likes hers the same way I am assuming it’s an odd genetic thing. Try it though….you may like it. :) It's also fantastic sandwiched with cream cheese icing (frosting if you are somewhere other than Texas.)

But, I *still* cannot eat raw banana. It makes me shudder and my throat convulses to even consider it.

Drumroll, please!

Congratulations to Levi and Eunice! This last Sunday was the fifth one in our Spring quarter and these two kids have perfect attendance so far. Not an easy feat when you are having to dodge the flu, cold, and whatever other nasty little bug is lying in wait to sabatoge your Sunday School record.

I found these little compass/whistle things at Academy. I thought that was all they were. Little did I know they were actually mini survival kits. They have a whistle on one end and a compass on the other, a flint on the side, *and* the compass screws off to reveal a small signal mirror and waterproof storage area. Wow. You can tell I was never a boy scout....or girl scout either. Lol! I had no clue....it took 9 and 10 year olds to reveal my ignorance.

I am so proud of you two, keep up the good work and keep that hand sanitizer nearby. Next week there are 3 more possible candidates for the survival kit. I hope to see you there!!!

Also, this last Sunday, we checked out our rock candy progress....

Very nice. A couple kids decided to take theirs home this week. It's so hard to wait for solid sugar.

I am wondering just how long it will take for them to actually get to the size you see in stores. There has to be another process that's faster....this kind of thinking always got me in trouble during science fair days....hmmm, if I put the crystal solution in the microwave will it speed up the evaporation process? How about a stove top try? A blowtorch? *Sigh* My crystals never did grow quite as impressive as they were so supposed to. I think I traumatized them.

Spring

Spring in East Texas can be beautiful.

The leaves are so green.

The wisteria is such a lovely shade of lavendar.

The azaleas....need I say more?

Oh, and then there are the pine trees.

Or perhaps more accurately....the pine pollen. Such a wonderful shade of yellow. It's such a pretty shade of yellow that it wants everything else to be yellow, too.

Literally.

Michael got up yesterday morning, looked outside in the dim early morning light, and for a second thought it had snowed. The truck wasn't brown for some reason....it, it snowed! It snowed! Wait....that's not white....and as the sun climbed higher, he realized it wasn't snow....it was pollen.

Bummer.

But for a little relief to the yellow haze, my eyes and nose are definately red.

Rock Candy Update

Well, here they are last Sunday....

Here's the progress as of this Sunday....

They're comin' along, but we decided to give them another week. After all, if you're gonna eat solid sugar, you might as well make it worth while!

Yes, their parents love me.

Bonus:

My gorgeous girl decided to peek in on Mom's class. Hi, Emalea!

By the way...what would your new name have been this last Sunday had you come to my class?

Mine was Birdo Frisky Bananas. I hate bananas. I preferred the name I had *before* we read the instructions...it was Birdo Clingy Rock. Oh, yeah, much better.

How about this one:

Go Levi!!!

Farm Fun on Spring Break

We went down to Nacogdoches for a couple days. This is "the farm".

There are no animals anymore...except for the neighbors horses, no crops anymore, either; but, it has been "the farm" for something like 100 years and I have a feeling that is what it will be for the next 100. :) (Seriously....100 years. Wow.)

Michael "playing" on the tractor.

Yes, he's really working, but it looks fun to me!

My girls playing in the sandbox that occupies hours of their time here. See their little green headbands?

Had to wear them...it was St. Pattie's day. Love the way it goes with their little chocolate striped sweaters....and the sparkly bright skirts. Oh, the fashion trends of the 3 year old. Lol!

The horses.

They belong to the neighbor but provide an excellent excuse for a ride on the "mule".

Emma *adores* horses, so this ranks somewhere close to heaven for her!

I love the old barn. It will probably come down later this summer, and I will probably cry, which is really dumb since I have no history with it except for a love of old stuff. *sniff*

Speaking of old stuff. Cool.

It is so peaceful and relaxing here. Especially, in the early morning.

A good break.

Rock Candy

One of the projects my Sunday School class is doing this quarter is growing rock candy.

We started last Sunday by boiling the sugar and water together to make a hyper-saturated simple syrup. Then we mixed in a little food coloring. We didn’t add flavoring this time. We want to see what we get and then next time around we will do the additional flavors.

The day before I had taken some 1/8” dowel rods and cut them into 6” lengths. After that I hot glued a bead to the end to create a handle of sorts. Once the syrup was divided into glasses, each child dipped their stick into the syrup and then we set them on waxed paper to dry. This provides “seed” crystals for the next step. We also covered each glass of syrup with waxed paper.

This Sunday, we punched a small hole in the waxed paper covering on the glasses and inserted our sticks.

We are all looking forward to next Sunday when we get to seeing what has happened during the week, so, stay tuned for more.

Want to make a little rock candy of your own? You don’t even need fancy stick thing-a-ma-bobs, just go to www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/recipe-rockcandy.html . They have all the instructions right there just waiting for you. Have fun!

About 'Rita

Okay, I have gotten a couple of questions regarding my (nick)name.

My name is Tamara. When I was in Houston, however, I had a Hispanic supervisor who called me Tamarita -or- "little Tamara". Michael heard it and liked it, but decided to shorten it to 'Rita.

It stuck. Soooo...if you are family in Washington: my name is Tami. If you are almost anyone else: my name is Tamara. Or 'Rita. ;D

The Bugs

Due to popular demand, I am showing the world how much my Sunday School class enjoyed the BUGS I fed them this last Sunday.

The Eeew factor was much enjoyed. Here you can see the "guts" oozing out of a half eaten bug.

Would you like one?

Note the blue lips.

And the, ummm...nice underside.

So, yummy! How *did* John the Baptist do it?

My Class

Here are some of my Sunday School class. Hi, guys! I love being your teacher!!!

This quarter our theme is Exploring God's Word and we are comparing the delving into the Bible with spelunking (essentially cave exploration.) I wanted a cave in my room, soooo....I transformed the center third of the room into a cavern. We sit in it for the lesson portion of the class. We turn out all the lights, shut the blinds on the window, and learn by lantern light. So cool!

The back wall is a backdrop I painted several years ago. See the stalactites and stalagmites? I really love this backdrop. Then, I used black and brown craft paper to form the dark recesses and additional rock formations. The small gray stalagmite is made out of some kind of insulation foam and spray paint.

So, have you every heard the little saying about how the way to keep stalactites and stalagmites straight is that stalactites have to hold on "tight" to the ceiling, while stalagmites "might" one day reach the top? Well, I had one today to add to that. You remember that stalactites have a "c" in the spelling because they are attached to the ceiling and stalagmites have a "g" in the spelling because they are on the ground. Pretty cool, huh?

Okay, lesson over, moving right along...

The back wall and ceiling is all in craft paper. See the lanterns? They are going to be attendance prizes. If a child attends every Sunday this quarter they get one. 5-9 Sundays gets a compass/whistle combo thingy. 10-13 Sundays gets a mini-flashlight.

See my bats? I need to make more. Bats are great. They get a horrible rap for being nocturnal, but they are really kind of cute. Think a squirrel with wings. Plus, they eat lots of bugs. I don't like bugs. Bug eating bats = awesome.

Here's my store. The kids get play money each week for various things. Once a month they get to shop. I try to stock candy, toys, and things like body wash, lotion, perfume, and cologne. Kids at this age (8-11) are really starting to get into all that smelly good stuff and they love picking their own. I have to do a major re-stock once a quarter and then just pick up a couple things here and there before each shopping day.

One of the bulletin boards and kids. Hi, Andrew!

They're Here!

The bugs are here! And I have to say a big thank you to the really nice guy from Fed Ex that tracked my packages down and then personally delivered them to my house yesterday afternoon. THANKS!!!

Aren't they really kinda cute?

They really are...until....

You turn them over. Then the cuteness starts to diminish. The molded gummy underside looks very much like the real thing. (Okay, so in a pic it looks not, too bad...IRL it looks worse, maybe because you get the whole gelatinous effect. Eeewww!)

And then you bend the body just a bit at the neck and suddenly the two hard crunchy shell pieces kind of pop apart and underneath there is this gooey marshmallow filling that looks suspiciously like, ummm.....guts.

Would you like to know how hard it is to get past the mental issues this brings up? You KNOW it is all candy, but at the same time...

The kids had no such issues. They loved them. Which was the whole point anyhow.

If you are interested in adding these to your next bug themed event, just go to http://www.orientaltrading.com/ and enter "candy bugs" in the search box. Viola!

Oh, and these things are really much bigger than I anticipated. I was thinking an inch or so...they are more like 1.5" by 2.5". Very cool.

Check out the slightly crunched head. Yummy!

Or not.

I don't exist....

Fed Ex does not like me. I promise. That *has* to be the problem! UPS, USPS, etc, etc never have this problem.

Well, okay, UPS had this problem once...but we talked and they fixed it and we haven't had this problem again.

Fed Ex has this problem ALL the time and while I am prone to exaggerate from time to time this is NO exaggeration.

I don't exist. Fed Ex cannot find me. My bugs...remember the ones from yesterday...never arrived. Why? Because my addy doesn't exist. At least it doesn't according to Fed Ex. *sigh*

I talked to these really nice customer service people last night and they referred me to a really nice guy that works in the distribution center in charge of my package. Pretty much all that I can be told is that since my directions are on file with them, once my package is undeliverable they will check the card on file and get my directions and follow those. The next day.

I don't understand why they can't just make those directions mandatory. This happenes every single time we get a package via Fed Ex.

Sooo....if you need to send me something, send it via UPS or USPS or carrier pigeon, or message in a bottle tossed into the ocean...just don't send it Fed Ex 'cause according to them I don't exist...until tomorrow.

Bugs, bugs, bugs....

Bugs. I am so excited over a bunch of bugs. Yes, you heard right: bugs.

But, not just any bugs. These are realistic crunchy candy bugs with marshmallow guts. Lol! They actually look kind of like cockroaches, but, that just adds to their awesomeness factor. At least I am hoping it does for 9 and 10 year old boys and girls.

They are scheduled for delivery sometime today. Hooray!

So, why am I so excited over bugs? Well, you see, I have a lesson for Sunday School this Sunday on a guy who ate bugs. I have always thought it would be so much fun to have "bugs" for the kids to eat when I teach this lesson. The last time I had a lesson over this guy (John the Baptist, btw) I forgot to order the bugs in time. :(

I remembered this time. :)

I'll post pics as soon as I get the goodies!

Cake Pops

Have I mentioned that I love Bakerella? http://bakerella.blogspot.com/

I haven't? Well, not really surprising since this is just the 6th post I've blogged.

Well, Bakerella is awesome! I love her cakes and stuff. It is all just too cute. A few days ago, maybe more like a couple weeks ago, or week and a half ago, anyhow, she posted these adorable cake pops on her site in the shape of Hello Kitty! My twins *LOVE* Hello Kitty! I decided that these pops would make adorable treats for their birthday. (Yes, I know their bday isn't for another 7 months, but I have to get prepared.)

Here is one of my practice pops. I haven't put any eyes on, and the whiskars are in blue, not black, but I haven't gotten to Hobby Lobby for a black one, so just pretend they're black, okay?

It isn't too bad though. Especially for a first timer.

If you want to see some really gorgeous ones go to Bakerella's site. Be carefull though, I'm warning you, you may find yourself licking your computer screen. Just don't say I didn't warn you!

What to do for breakfast on a cold, rainy day?

This is my new theme for blogging...."What to do?"

Just kidding.

But, really, the question begs an answer....what to do? Especially, when there are 5 hungry children to be fed.

Hmmm....Homemade strawberry jam. A cold morning. 5 hungry, clamouring children...biscuits. A match made in heaven.

Okay, so maybe just a match made somewhere in E. Texas...but it could be heaven. Especially now that the temperature has dropped back down to where it belongs in March. Not where it has been, which belongs somewhere in May or June. But, I digress...

Biscuits...

Even better, though....

My cowgirl agrees.

So does the Princess Pirate.

Mmmm...what to do with jam?

So...back in February I made a bunch of strawberry jam...and Crangelo Berry Jam...and Strawberry Marmalade.

That last one is my personal favorite.

What to do with it all?