Banana Bread

I know there are hundreds of thousands of banana bread recipes out there, but this is my favorite.  I have a bad habit of not eating all the bananas up that I buy.  This is mainly due to the fact that I will not eat a banana once it gets a brown spot on it.  It is totally a texture thing. So, once they have brown spots they go into banana bread or banana freeze(I will do a post with this recipe it is so good).

Banana Bread

3/4 Cup Butter
1 1/2 Cups of Sugar
4 Eggs
3 Cups of Flour
1 1/2 Teaspoons of salt
1 1/2 Teaspoons of baking Soda
4 Bananas
1 1/2 Teaspoons of Vanilla

Grease and Flour 2 loaf pans. Cream butter sugar and eggs.  In separate bowl combine the dry ingredients Flour, Soda, and salt mix well.  Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter sugar and eggs mixing well as you go.  Mash the bananas with the vanilla and fold into your batter. Pour batter evenly into your two loaf pans and Bake at 350 degrees for 45 - 60 minutes.  or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Hidden Treasure...

Can you see the Hidden Treasure in this picture?

Or this one (different angle)

One more try...

Ok... let me give you a little history and then I will reveal the treasure. 

My great aunt Dean will be 90 years old this week.  She has crocheted most of her life. I don't think there is any way to ever find out how many table cloths, afghans, doilies, etc... that she has crocheted over all those years. 

This is Aunt Dean in the center with her son and Daughter.  This was taken 2 weeks ago at our Family reunion.

Aunt Dean brought 3 garbage bags of yarn and thread to the reunion to give to my Mom.  She said that her hands no longer let her crochet and she thought that Momma might get some use out of it.  Much to our surprise found in those three bags were 3 smaller bags of crocheted flowers. 

What a treasure! Look at this it took me almost 2 hours to lay them all out on my table. (click the picture for a bigger view)

There are big ones and small ones and some chained together and some crocheted on rings

There are solid colored ones and some with two and three colors. 

There are some made with cotton thread.

some are made of yarn.

I can only imagine the countless hours Aunt Dean spent making all of these flowers.  I have been so in awe of all of them I have left them spread out on my table for a week.  Every time I walked by and stopped to look I found something I hadn't seen before.  They are just beautiful.  A real treasure.

Happy Birthday Aunt Dean.  Thank you sharing your treasure with us.



Blueberry Crumb Cake

I had several cups of left over blueberries that had been glaring at me every time I opened the refrigerator door. I think they were saying "Hey Lady do something with us before we go bad". I started hunting for a recipe and came up with the following after combining a few that I found in a couple of different cook books.  I had to combine different recipes because I seemed to be missing at least one ingredient from each separate one and I had already made up my mind that I was going to stay in my comfy clothes and not fix my hair or makeup all day.  So, I was not going to the store. 

This turned out so good.  I think that it is my new favorite blueberry recipe.

Blueberry Crumb Cake



Cake
5 Tablespoons of butter
3/4 Cup of granulated white sugar
1 Egg
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
2 Cups flour
2 and 1/4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 cup of milk
2 Cups of blueberries (washed and patted dry)

Crumb Topping
6 Tablespoons of butter
1/4 cup of granulated white sugar
1/4 cup of light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 cup of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish. Combine the dry ingredients of the cake except sugar and set aside (Flour, Baking powder, Salt).  Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the egg and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture.  Alternate adding the milk and flour and mixing well.  Gently fold in your blueberries.  Pour batter in your greased baking dish. 

Mix together your topping ingredients.  I used a pastry cutter to cut these together.  Make sure it is nice and crumbly.  You may even have to get your hands into it.  Sprinkle this mixture over the top of your cake. 
batter.   Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. 

I had to have the first piece while it was still warm it is sooooo good!  Add a little butter on top for a extra treat! I ate it for breakfast...  Eating something called "cake" for breakfast sounds bad but it  has made smile today...
~Sherry~

p.s. I am really excited about my next post.  I will give you a hint... It is a true treasure!

Old Fashioned Gumball Machine Candy Dish

Every July we have a family reunion.  At the family reunion we have a craft sale where everyone brings their handcrafted items and sells them.  All of the sales go to pay for next years reunion. We rent a camp with cabins, pool, pond, cafeteria and lodge for 2 days and provide all the food.   It is loads of fun.  So, my next few posts will be all about what I have made to take to the reunion to sell. 

Today I made these gumball machine candy dishes out of a 4 inch terracotta flower pot and the dish it sits in, a glass bowl from dollar tree and a wooden ball.  I painted the flower pot and dish and the wooden ball all red with spray paint, glued the glass bowl onto the flower pot and glued the wooden ball on the bottom of the dish. 

~Sherry~

Father's Day Gift Bag

Tonight with a plain white gift bag, some scrapbook paper, white card stock, buttons and glue I put together this Father's Day Gift bag.  If anyone is interested I can post measurements and instructions.(Download Pattern for Tie Here)

Linking Up to

Someday Crafts

~Sherry~

Playing with food

Saturday mornings are special at our house.  Savannah always asks for pancakes... I got creative one morning and made a Mickey mouse pancake.  It has progressed from Mickey Mouse to Minnie Mouse. The hair bow is bacon.

I give her a tablespoon of chocolate chips  since she doesn't eat syrup and she decorates it.

Well Mickey and Minnie have now evolved into Elmo and Cookie Monster.  Same regular ole pancake mix with food color added.

I didn't think that the Cookie Monster blue pancakes turned out very appetizing looking since it turns kind of brown... but she absolutely loved it...

I am not sure how I am going to top these or what other characters I can do....

Linking To:

Tip Junkie (Tip me Tuesday)
Someday Crafts
Local Fun For Kids

Rummage Sale Makeover items

I went to my church's Crownpoint mission trip rummage sale yesterday.  Here is what I came home with for $7..

A large Canvas, spice rack and two metal canisters. 

Here is what I did to that spice rack today. A coat of semi flat black spray paint, added black craft foam to the back. and Tah Dah.... A craft organizer!  I already started filling it up...

I've already painted one coat of Gesso on the canvas.  I am pretty sure that it is going to become subway art.  I will  show you when I get a little further along.

I really like this little guy.. What do you think?  Doesn't it have character?

Catch you later...

Sherry

Linking To:

Tip Junkie(Tip me Tuesday)

Someday Crafts