Oro World’s Fair First Place Ribbon Banana Bread

In the early 2000’s my Mom entered quite a few items into the Oro World’s Fair baking/craft competition.  She took home a lot of First Place ribbons that year, one of which was for her amazing banana bread.  I follow this recipe anytime I make banana bread, and Mom has let me know I can share the recipe with all of you!

When it comes to bananas, it is often a challenge for me to get through a whole bunch without them over ripening.  The problem is that I don’t actually eat bananas in banana form.  I am a weirdo when it comes to fruit and I don’t like the texture of many of them. I just find most of them icky!  If I transform the fruit, however, I have no problem eating it.  Weird, right?  I normally transform fruit into smoothies (I can eat almost any fruit in smoothie form).  If I have a banana fail and the bunch doesn’t get eaten before they go off, I put them in the freezer until I have enough of them to make my Mom's amazing banana bread.


Oro Fair First Place Banana Bread

1 cup mashed banana (wet)
1 cup brown sugar (wet)
4 tbsp melted butter or margarine (wet)
2 eggs (wet)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
walnuts (1/2 cup or to taste)

Mix all wet ingredients together.  Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl, and add to wet ingredients. Stir until mixed.  Add walnuts and stir.

Grease loaf pan generously.  Fill loaf pan 2/3 full (should be all the batter).

Bake at 350 for 55-65 minutes.

Enjoy!

 Mmmmmm.... Fresh baked banana bread...

Yum!

Spring Cleaning By The Numbers

We did a thorough cleaning of the house this week and though it is pretty tedious to pull out and vacuum behind every shelf, desk, piece of furniture, etc., the results are totally worth the effort.  A little less dust is a good thing. :)

By The Numbers:

Number of pens found under the couch: 3

Number of lip chaps found under the couch: 2

Number of glue sticks found under the couch: 1

Number of USB thumb drives sucked up by the vacuum: 1 (later rescued!)

Number of hair ties/cat toys previously hidden by the cat, that were recovered: 8

Keep Off The Grass

Our indoor cat Gary doesn't get outside too much.  We have a harness and a leash for her, but she hates them, so her outdoor excursions are always twenty minutes or less.  Her activities while outside are few; her main goal is to locate long grass and eat as much of it as possible.  Gary loves grass!

We bought her a pot of cat grass last year for $1.99, and she promptly murdered it.  For a little cat, she doesn't seem to have a limit on how much she can ingest.  She will simply have it all, right now, thank you.

This year we bought cat grass seeds for $1.99, and she is already on her second round.  To give her more surface area for her grass, I re-used a take out container as a planter/greenhouse.  This way the cat grass is both "green" and frugal.  Sounds good to me!  Here's what I did:

Supplies:

1. Planter/greenhouse (this is from Swiss Chalet take-out)

2. Potting Soil

3. Cat grass seeds

Growing cat grass:

 1. Put potting soil into the container

2. Make holes for lots of seeds

3. Plant lots of seeds

4. Water

5. Put lid on container and place in window

Cat grass sprouts.

Cat grass!

Gary after enjoying some cat grass.

Now that this batch is fully grown, I am going to start a new round.  That way, by the time Gary completely destroys this current batch, she'll have a new one she can start on!

Make Your Own Iced Tea

Following some tips from Canadian Living, I made some pretty rocking Lemon-Ginger iced tea.

What you'll need:
16 cups boiled water
1 cup sugar (or to taste)
10 bags green tea
2 tsp powdered ginger (or to taste)
1/4 cup lemon juice (or to taste)
Large jug

To make iced tea:
Pour 16 cups of boiling water over tea bags.  Let steep 15 minutes and then remove tea bags.  Add 1 cup of sugar to the tea while water is still hot.  Stir to mix in.  Allow tea to cool on counter.  Once cooled, refrigerate.

This recipe has about 1 tbs of sugar per cup.  Add more or less to suit your desired sweetness.  Also, though the iced tea was good the day I made it, it tasted even better the next day, so hang in there if it doesn't initially wow you.

Different Styles of Cupcakes

My friend Alison recently had a cupcake tasting party, so we could try some vegan cupcakes she has been experimenting with.  The cupcakes are being made for our friend Sarah's upcoming wedding, and due to her lactose intolerance, a vegan recipe is a good way to ensure the bride can enjoy her wedding cupcakes along with her guests.

Since I have been expanding my double pointed needle skills, I thought I would make a knit cupcake to take to the hostess of the tasting party.  Following a pattern I found through Ravelry (the only place I seem to get my patterns now), I knit this quick and easy cupcake.

The cupcakes we sampled were chocolate-banana and vanilla.  Both were good, but the chocolate-banana were exceptional.  I'm looking forward to eating some more at the wedding! :)