Banana-licious!

I am not a fan of most banana breads.  I like bananas a lot, but not most things banana-flavored.  However, my husband got this recipe from a co-worker and I have to admit, it is REALLY good!  So here is my now favorite recipe for banana bread.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon  baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups mashed bananas
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup macadamia nuts, pecans or walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, mix butter and sugar until creamy.

It ends up looking like this.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.

Blend the dry ingredients with creamed butter/sugar mixture,

which should look like this.

Add mashed bananas, eggs and nuts (optional).  My family doesn't care to have nuts in anything, so I left them out of this recipe.

Grease and flour a loaf pan.  Pour batter into pan.  Bake for 1 hour or until a knife comes out clean.  Mine bread was not done after one hour so I reduced the heat to 325 degrees and left it in the oven for 10 more minutes and it was completely done.  I was afraid if I left it at 350 degrees it would burn the outside.

Let cool on a cooling rack and enjoy moist, delicious banana bread!  Doesn't it just look scrumptious!?   Add a little butter to a hot slice and you just might think you are in heaven!  Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Star Card

Here are a couple of star cards that I made.  I got the instructions from http://cliona-at-night-owl.blogspot.com/2011/10/star-card-tutorial.html.  I made a file to cut them out on my Black Cat Lynx, but decided it was just easier to do it by hand!  They are very easy and a lot of fun to make!  The blue one I made for our neighbor's birthday Sunday.  He just turned 85!  Woo Hoo for him!  The second one I don't know what it will be for.  You can't see the inside verse in my picture.  Have I ever told you what a terrible photographer I am?  Well, here is proof!  Anyway, inside it says "Beauty in Bloom".  I can use this for any number of occasions.  I hope you enjoy these photos.  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Yummy!

This is a recipe that I repinned from Ronda Christenson on Pinterest that she got from www.stylishcuisine.com.  It is Peanut Butter Cup Bars.  Oh man!  If you like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, you are gonna love, love, love these!  They are phenomenal!  I dream peanut butter because I like it so much!  This is an answer to my dreams!  Actually, I think I like it BETTER than Reese's.  Here's the recipe as seen on www.stylishcuisine.com.  Hope you enjoy them!

Peanut Butter Cup Bars
Recipe from Michelle at One Ordinary Day

1/2 cup butter
1 3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

(Line a 8×8, 9×9, or 7×11 pan with foil for easy removal of bars later.)

Melt 1/2 c. butter of low heat. Remove from heat and stir in confectioner’s sugar. Add peanut butter and graham cracker crumbs, stirring until creamy. Spread mixture into pan, patting down evenly.

In same pot, on low heat, melt butter. Add chocolate chips and stir until chips are nearly melted and very soft. Remove from heat and continue stirring until chocolate is smooth and shiny. Spread over peanut butter layer. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut into bars.

Store peanut butter cup bars in refrigerator.

Yield:  16 or more bars (depending upon how big you cut them).

Jackpot!

Yesterday I stopped by Deseret Industries to see if there was anything I couldn't live without.  I bought these two beautiful plates.

I looked a little further and found these two vases.  I thought the blue one was beautiful, and I really liked the other because it reminded me of a beehive, which in my state of Utah is very important because it shows up EVERYWHERE on buildings and monuments, etc.  (Oops!  I forgot to take a picture of them before gluing to the plates!)

Finally, I used E6000 to glue them  (Well, actually my husband did because I wouldn't have gotten them in the center!)  and now I have two VERY BEAUTIFUL cake/serving plates!

Aren't they wonderful?!  And they only cost me pennies!  When the glue is completely dry, my husband will take rubbing alcohol to get rid of the black marker he used to show where to glue the vases.  Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!  Please feel free to leave a comment if you would like!  Have a great day!

Another Tile Card

I am really liking these tile cards!  My sweet husband bought me a new stamp last night, so I decided to use it on this card.  Don't you just love that butterfly?!  I did this card a bit differently than the other one.  I stamped the butterfly and cut the tiles into 1" pieces this time.  Also, for the word faith, I just left that as one piece.  I like the effect.  I embossed the actual card itself and then glued the other layers to it.  It was really very easy.  Unfortunately, my gluing was not as precise this time and my squares look a bit skewed.  Oh well, better luck next time!  What I really need to get is a paper cutter that will cut absolutely straight lines.  It seems that the two that I have curve ever so slightly at one end or another of my cuts and therefore my squares aren't quite square.  It does get frustrating, but I do what I can with what I have!  If any of you have a very accurate hand cutter, please leave a comment and let me know what brand you have.  I would love to know!  Thanks for stopping by!

January Decor

I am really slow about posting my January kitchen decor.  I change the decor in my kitchen for every holiday (actually about every month!).  Since I just started my blog at the end of October, I am going to include my year-round decor this year and then I won't do it again...unless I do something new with it!  Anyway, I love snowmen, and I love the color blue with those snowmen!  My curtains are very basic, with glittery snowflakes on them, and the rest is just my collection of snowmen over the years.  I used to have A LOT more, but had to give some away because I just don't have room to store so much stuff.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Cookie Dough Pops

So, today I had a dilemma.  We have our family night tonight and after our family night, we always have a treat.  It is an absolute must with my sweet-toothed husband and son!  My dilemma?  I have no eggs!  What could I possibly make...that they would like...that has no eggs!?  I got on line and found this wonderful site that has a couple of eggless cookie dough recipes...http://www.cupcakeproject.com.  I just used her Raw Cookie Dough Recipe, added some mint chips, formed them into balls and inserted the sticks.  The dough needs to be squeezed together really hard as it has a tendency to crumble.  I put them in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.

I melted some Ghirardelli chocolate chunks and dipped the cold cookie dough balls.  I guess you could call it "dipped".  When I put the dough balls in the chocolate, the sticks came out so I had to cover the balls with chocolate, take them out with a spatula, and then re-insert the stick.  These are probably not the most beautiful "pops" you have ever seen, but for all of you cookie dough lovers, they actually are pretty tasty.  And I know that at least one of my sweet-toothed family members was happy!  Not so sure about the other!  Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping!

Tile Card

Over on the Black Cat Forum they are having a Cyber Crop with 10 (I think!) different card challenges.  I REALLY, REALLY liked this tile card challenge so I decided to try one.  I am not participating in the crop, but thought I would try this one out.  I did it a bit differently than on the challenge, but the end result is the same, beautiful!    I cut nine 1 1/2 inch squares and stamped designs on them.  I don't have very many stamps, so this is the best I could come up with!  Next, I glued those to a patterned piece of cardstock.  The size of the patterned piece will depend on how much space you want to leave between each small square.  Then I attached all of that to a larger piece of cardstock the same color as the small squares, leaving room on the left to add a ribbon.  I then attached all of that to the front of the actual card.  Very easy, very fast, and, I think, very nice.  I think I am going to try a couple more using different colors...just to see what I can come up with!  Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Grandson's 1st Birthday Card

My only grandson's 1st birthday is coming up so I made this card for him.  I found this cute Number 1 candle coloring page on line and brought it into Make-the-Cut, cut it out with my wonderful Black Cat Lynx cutting machine and glued it to the front of the card.  The actual card paper is from Nana's Kids paper stack.  This particular little tidbit of information is amazing because usually I have no idea where my paper was from or what kind it is!  Maybe I am making some kind of progress!  The sentiment inside says "How amazing.  You're already one.  What a precious, perfect little grandson!"  I am not one for coming up with catchy little verses or rhymes.  Kind of cheesy, but it's the best I can do!  :)  Thanks for stopping by and having a peek.

Birthday Card

This birthday card is for my son who lives far away from us.  I did a little different take on it.  I stamped "Home is where the Heart is" and on the inside I put "...and we are sending birthday wishes from our hearts to your home."  I sure wish he was here to celebrate his birthday, but since he isn't, this is the best I could do to convey our feelings to him.  Thanks for stopping by to take a peek!  Have a great day!