Tag Archives: Photos

Banana Bread!

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Am I the only one who feels like they’re typing too many n’s when I spell bananas? I feel like there are way more than 2 n’s in there!!Anyways I decided to make myself some banana bread the other day since we had some super nasty lookin bananas. It ended up looking for like biscotti or something when it was sliced… But hey, it’s healthy and it tastes awesome! Anyways, can you believe summer is like..over? I honestly want to cry. Maybe it doesn’t make that much of a difference to you mature working adults. But for me…for me, I feel like I’m going to prison. I’m not exaggerating. I never do that. But seriously, school stinks. Maybe if there were no tests or homework I could tolerate it. Ugh, why do people have to be smart?Skool is totally overrated.

Banana Bread

(If you want a normal looking banana bread, I recommend doubling this recipe)

(from here)

1/4 c. white sugar

2 T. butter, softened

1 large egg, beaten

1/4 c. applesauce

3 ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Combine softened butter and sugar, and beat with a mixer at medium speed, until well combined. Add the egg and applesauce, and beat another 2 minutes. Fold in mashed bananas.
  3. Combine the two flours, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture, 1/2 c. at a time, mixing after each addition until moistened.
  4. Coat one loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
  5. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
  6. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. 
Random Fact of the Day: One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.  Have you??
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Gettin’ Wild at the Zoo!

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So for about 2 WHOLE DAYS my entire family was in the house together. So we had to do something all together as a family. So we took a day out in the Windy City to go to Lincoln Park Zoo and go to Twin Acres for dinner after.Isn’t that baby monkey just too cute with his momma?!This guy was too funny, he just kept swimming in circles, coming around to the window to say hi and going around to do it all over again!There were soo many of these adorable little piglets in the barn with their mommy.These meerkats just could NOT have been any cuter!!! I would have never thought of a meerkat as cute animals before but I have converted. They’re freaking adorable. This beaver was obsessed with my brother. He would swim around and then just pop up and stare at him. He was the creepy beaver. I thought they were super cute at first, and then I saw their teeth and they were like all red and bloody. YUCK, turn off..This has just got to be my FAVORITE picture!!! Doesn’t he just look so sweet?We went into this other building that was loaded with a bunch of amazing flowers and plants. My mom was really looking forward to this part of the zoo, but I certainly was not. I was sure that it was really just gonna be a giant snooze. But it was actually awesome in there! There were so many incredible plants in there that really made me feel like I was on vacation in Hawaii or something. Loved it in there!

After wearing ourselves out at a nice long day at the zoo, we headed over to Twin Acres, which is certainly more than what it looks like. It was actually one of Frank Sinatra’s favorite hang outs back in the day (he would tip each waiter $100!!) and several movies have had scenes filmed in the bar. One of the famous movies that have taken place there was The Dark Knight.

It was really quite a successful day! New recipe comin’ at ya in the next couple days!

Random Fact of the Day: Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to watch TV for 3 hours.

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Frosted Pecans

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My next post is going to be creative titles! Get excited!! As you can see, I’m just fabulous at those. Anyways my sister’s boyfriend was staying at my house for about 3 weeks. Let me tell you he is well over 6 foot and on the higher end of 200 pounds. Now I don’t want to embarrass him here, so I’ll also tell you he played football for U of I. Unfortunately recently had to take a break for possibly forever because over the summer he had to get brain surgery for a tumor behind his ear. Yep, sounded pretty yucky to me. Moving on.. He requested a couple recipes while he was here. One being that key lime pie I made the other day and the other being frosted pecans. He’s from Florida so of course they’ve got high standards for key lime pie which made me a bit nervous to start. And of course down south pecans are real big or something so it was a bit daunting to make something that I’ve only seen in like candy stores during Christmas time.  Well I eventually got over my little anxieties and frosted me some pecans. Let me tell you, this may the easiest and tastiest recipe I’ve ever made!! Seriously just read the directions and you’ll see the hardest part is probably just separating the egg yolk from the white. Easier than pie. ;)

Frosted Pecans

(from Food.com)

1 egg white

1 T. cold water

1 lb pecans, halved (4-5 cups)

1 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1 c. sugar

  1. Heat oven to 300 degrees F and liberally spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
  2. Beat egg white and water until foamy, no stiff! Stir in pecans to coat. Mix salt, sugar, and cinnamon together and add to coated pecans. Toss pecans until thoroughly coated.
  3. Place coated pecans on prepared baking sheet and bake 30-35 minutes. TURNING EVERY 5-6 MINUTES (VERY IMPORTANT!)
  4. Remove from oven and stir before cooling.

Random Fact of the Day: G-rated family films earn more money than any other rating. Yet only 3% of Hollywood’s output is G-rated.

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REAL Key Lime Pie!

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Have you ever juiced 28 limes?It’s really quite the workout. Then again, that’s coming from someone who has never juice anything. Here are a few things that will happen when you juice 28 limes.You will squirt yourself many, many times with lime juice. Quite refreshingAs a result of being squirted multiple times, you will be smothered in the lovely scent of lime.You will get lots of lime juice on your hands, making them all of a sudden sting…even when you didn’t think you had any cuts or anything. Mysterious.You will get very, very sore hands.Finally, you’ll get key lime pie!!! :)

Real Key Lime Pie

(adapted from Emeril Lagasse)

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/2 c. granulated sugar

4 T. (1/2 stick) butter, melted

2 (14 oz.) cans condensed milk

1 c. key lime or regular juice (it took me a LONG time to juice the key limes, if you don’t care too much how authentic it is, then just use the juice you can buy!)

2 eggs

whipped topping, optional

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. In a bowl, mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter with your hands. Press the mixture firmly into a 9-inch pie pan, and bake until brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before filling.
  3. Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the condensed milk, lime juice, and eggs. Whisk until well blended and place the filling in the cooled pie shell. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes and allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
  5. Once chilled, you may serve as is or place whipped topping on top.

Random Fact of the Day: Japanese and Chinese people die on the fourth of the month more often than any other dates. The reason may be that they are “scared to death” by the number four. The words four and death sound alike in both Chinese and Japanese.

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I scream you scream we all scream for…

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ICE CREAM!!! Yessss! As some of you may know, if you have “liked” me on Facebook, I got my ice cream maker in a week or two ago! Needless to say I was SUPER excited!! I mean is there really a better feeling than getting a big package delivered specially JUST FOR YOU!? And then having it be an ice cream maker…that’s just icing on the cake.I’ll admit…My first ice cream recipe kinda turned out to be a slight botch. I was a weee bit impatient and didn’t really freeze the freezer bowl long enough. woops! So I kinda just ended up with some icy ice cream. hehe, icy ice cream. And another disaster occurred… There was some spillage. oh well…less icy ice cream for me. But I had a few buddies there to give me kisses and make me feel all better.So if you do happen to make this recipe the correct way and freeze your freezer bowl all the way, it should be absolutely delicious. But if you’re like me and have zero patience, you just gotta microwave your ice cream for about 45 seconds and you’re golden! ;)  

Mint Chocolate Chip and Cookie Ice Cream

(adapted from Brown Eyed Baker)

(for 2 quarts)

4 c. heavy cream

3 c. milk

1 1/2 c. white sugar

pinch of salt

8 egg yolks

2 . vanilla

3 t. mint extract

6 drops green food coloring (optional)

3 c. mini chocolate chips

2 c. crushed cookies (I used Andes Mint Cookies)

  1. Warm 2 c. heavy cream, milk, white sugar, and a pinch of salt in a large saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves.
  2. Pour the remaining 2 cups of heavy cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
  3. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scarping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and into the cream, add the vanilla and mint extract and food coloring (if using), and stir until cool over an ice bath.
  4. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (preferably overnight). Churn according to ice cream maker’s directions, adding the chocolate chips and crushed cookies the last 5 minutes of churning.
Random Fact of the Day: One out of five people in the world (1.1 billion people) live on less than $1 per day.
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