Mmmm.....

Oh geez....my house smells divine. Before I put all the baking stuff away from last week's kitchen marathon, I decided to bake a little more. Might as well use up the three bananas that were in the advanced stage of "speckled-ness" this morning.

This recipe is one adapted from an old church cookbook. The original recipe involved sifting and adding baking powder and salt and sifting again. I'm not sure anybody does that anymore. Not often anyway. The recipe was submitted to the church cookbook from our neighbor, Zonie, who passed on years ago. Love those old names. And I love that every time I bake this bread, I think about her.

Banana Nut Bread

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups self-rising flour
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat. Alternately add flour and bananas (start and end with the flour.) Stir in nuts. Pour into greased 9-inch loaf pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour. Remove from pan and cool on a rack. Wrap in foil and let the loaf "ripen" for a day before slicing. (Have no clue why this makes it better, but trust me, it does. It is much more moist.)

This can also be baked in three 5-inch baking pans, to make small gifts. Reduce baking time to about 45-50 minutes.

Busy Little Hands

Last week included several baby sitting days. It is so much fun to watch a very busy Baby Sister as she explores the world. But I noticed that what fascinates her most are not the bright, musical, colorful, educational toys and books that are scattered about the house. All of those carefully selected gifts, chosen just for her, are left behind.

"Blinds make a nice rattly noise when I jiggle them. And I can watch people walking by."

"Plastic bags are all crinkly-sounding."

(Ziploc freezer bag--too big to swallow, too small to put over her head.)

"Cards that fall out of magazines are just for me."

"Boxes! I love boxes."

"I just love these cards."

And then there was a pink paper cup that was carried around for a long time. And she loves cell phones--the real ones, not especially her toy one. And the TV remote. Lamp has been unplugged and the cord coiled up and out of her way. Outlets have been covered. And Granddaddy installed safety latches on the cabinet doors.

I had forgotten how busy these little folks are. And how very, very quick those hands can be. Best not blink! Because I'm sure we've missed something.

Squealin' With Delight

Thought you might like to have one of the recipes I made yesterday. I'm baking things for our church's booth at Squealin' On The Square. That's a huge BBQ festival here that attracts about 30,000 people each year.

I got this recipe years and years ago from a 4H leader when I worked with that program in Pickens County. I had not made it in a long time but saw the recipe when I was looking this week through my recipe collection. I like it because it makes a lot of cookies. Just the ticket when you need a big batch. Coconut makes these bar cookies "chewy" but you really don't taste it. It's mostly a peanut butter/brown sugar flavor. So glad I resurrected this recipe. I had forgotten how very good they are. It won't go back to the bottom of the pile for a long time!

Chewy Peanut Squares

2 cups self-rising flour
2/3 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2-2/3 cups flaked coconut (a 7-oz. can if you find a can--I only found a bag of coconut)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine shortening, peanut butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend thoroughly at low speed. Add flour and coconut. Mix only until blended.

Spread in a greased 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until done. Cool completely. (Cut into 1-1/2 inch squares to yield 5 dozen.)


I did bake other cookies but not as many as I had hoped to, so I packaged up this snack mix instead. If you like a PayDay candy bar, this is for you. Just mix dry roasted salted peanuts and candy corn, about half and half. That's it. I labeled it "Payday Mix."

If you aren't doing this for a sale, it looks cute in a pumpkin-shaped glass candy dish--for about a day and a half. That's as long as it lasted at my house last year.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Look closely. This is not Baby Sister. This is her mommy. If you have been around me during the past year, you've heard me say over and over, "She looks exactly like her mother." I'm standing by my statement. Every time I look at the grandbaby, I see my own little daughter. It's "deja vu all over again" as the famous Yogi Berra once said. Yep, all over again.

Weekend's End

Potluck dinners are called "covered dish" dinners where we live. They are always good. Both the food and the fellowship.

This covered dish dinner was not Baby Sister's first, but it WAS the first time she actually got to eat some of the regular food. She thought the butter peas were the best thing ever. Could be that these were the first ones she tasted that had been cooked with some seasoning!

I needed something easy to fix for my contribution to the dinner. We didn't get home from our anniversary trip until late yesterday so it had to be simple. This roast is about as easy as it comes. The recipe certainly isn't original. If you Google it, you'll find many, many variations. All with only slight differences. I used an eye of round roast for this because it makes nice slices. The last time I made this I used a sirloin tip roast, I think, and it was more tender. But both were good. Depends on whether you want slices or falling-apart tender.

3-Packet Pot Roast

1 packet dry ranch dressing mix

1 packet dry Italian dressing mix

1 packet dry brown gravy mix

1 cup water

1 beef roast (any cut, about 3 pounds)

Place roast in Crockpot. Mix the three packets of dry mixes with 1 cup water and pour over roast. Cover and cook on LOW for about 7-9 hours.

Then after church and the dinner, we drove halfway to Atlanta to meet Jessica at Starbucks. I had a few things I needed to give her. One thing in the bag was the pair of socks I knitted for her. After a Frappaccino and a short chat, we drove right back home. Glad she posted this photo tonight. I think she likes the socks.

Tomorrow I think the car will stay parked in the garage.

Happily Ever After

There was bird seed scattered all over the floors of the hotel. In the lobby. In the hallways. And cages were everywhere. Cages with exotic birds. Colorful birds. Loud birds. We were only staying one night after the wedding at a nearby hotel before we flew out the next morning for a tropical honeymoon. Little did we know that we would be staying with the SC Caged Bird Association. Chirping and squawking was all we heard. 

That was just the first of many surprises that we have encountered in the past 32 years. We have weathered them all--the good ones and the not-so-good ones. Wonder what's coming next? Whatever it is, we can handle it. Together.

Happy 32nd anniversary! 

Cool Weather Morning

Okay, northern friends--don't laugh at me. But it's 66 degrees at noon today. That's enough for me to pretend it's cold. I put on jeans, a turtle neck and my new red socks. (I probably would also be comfortable in shorts and flip flops. It's at that right-in-between temperature.) I made a stew this morning and I'm finishing a pair of thick(er) socks. Fall is almost here. I am so ready. Now if we can just get some rain.

Ground Beef Vegetable Stew

1 medium onion, diced
4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 (15-oz) can green beans, drained
1 (8-oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (28-oz) can diced tomatoes
2 (6-oz) cans Spicy Hot V-8 juice
2 cups water
4 beef bouillon cubes
1 teaspoon sugar (or to taste)
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 lb. extra-lean ground beef, browned and drained

Mix everything but ground beef in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 30-45 minutes until vegetables are tender. Add ground beef and let simmer an additional 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

This is the kind of recipe that you can make to suit what you have on hand and what your family likes. More or less of anything would be okay. The above recipe is how I did it this morning. Might be a little different next time. (I just looked at my empty cans and realized the ounces keep changing--but what I've listed will give you the basic idea.)

Ankle Socks (inspired by threepumpkinslittle)

Indulgence DK yarn

Size 3 needles

Cast on 48 stitches   Cuff--4 rows of K2P2 ribbing

And never fear, we did find time to be the baby sitters this weekend. While Mommy and Big Sister went to a play, Granddaddy and I spent some quality time with Baby Sister. Think she really liked her view from way up here on Granddaddy's shoulder. I can imagine things look very different than her usual view from the floor. Wouldn't you love to know what's going on in their little heads?