My Sis is Hungry: Banana Muffins

I know, I know - how many 'new' recipes can there be for banana muffins? I have a great banana bread recipe that I've made for years (click here for the recipe) and can easily be turned into muffins, but this recipe for 'the best banana muffins' caught my eye and I'm always curious when someone declares and names their food 'the best' - a little presumptuous, no? I'm sure my sis is hungry this week because I didn't make her dinner hahahha, so I asked her to review these muffins instead - will they hold up to the claim of being 'the best'? Here's what she has to say:


So my sister gave me banana muffins, apparently that means I am not getting any real dinner this week. LOL. But I am happy to have the banana muffins. So I had a bite of the first one, it was OK. As a muffin goes it wasn’t super sweet, a little on the dry side. Tasted a bit more like bread. So then I got out the butter and tried again.  With butter I thought was pretty good. it tasted exactly like banana bread, which I happen to love. Then I fed a bite to the husband, he tried it first without the butter and he gave it a six, he tried it again with the butter and that took him to a 7 1/2. All in all as a muffin I would pass because everyone knows muffins are basically less glorified cupcakes - but my husband says if you want to look like a muffin then go ahead and eat them. So if this had been in a bread pan I probably would’ve felt better about my choice.

found the recipe here at melskitchencafe.com and am pasting directly from her site because I'm in a hurry trying to make hot cross buns and the dough is finally ready:

YIELD: 20-24 MUFFINS

THE BEST BANANA MUFFINS

PREP TIME 20 MINUTES

COOK TIME 15 MINUTES

TOTAL TIME 35 MINUTES

INGREDIENTS

•  2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose or whole wheat flour
•  1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
•  1 teaspoon baking soda
•  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
•  2 to 2 1/4 cups mashed bananas (17-18 ounces, about 4-5 medium bananas)
•  1 cup (7.5 ounces) light brown sugar
•  1/2 cup (4 ounces) melted butter or neutral-flavored oil
•  1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
•  2 tablespoons milk
•  2 large eggs
•  1 1/2 cups add-ins (chocolate chips, nuts, etc)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners or lightly grease with cooking spray. 
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. 
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, brown sugar, melted butter or oil, sour cream, milk and eggs until well-combined. 
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until just combined and no dry streaks remain. If adding add-ins like chocolate chips, stir them in when there are still a few dry streaks remaining. Don't over mix or the muffins might be tough and dry in texture.
5. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling the muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 15-17 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs and the top of the muffins spring back lightly to the touch. 
6. Let cool for 1-2 minutes in the muffin tin before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.m

PS: Dave liked these because I left big chunks of bananas in the batter - I did not add chocolate chips tho and maybe everyone would have liked them better if I! I didn't because I wanted a muffin, not a cupcake without frosting...

4.10.19: chocolate bunny cake

4.10.18: prosciutto-wrapped mozzarella sticks
4.10.17: how to make paper umbrellas

4.10.16: oven steamed salmon

3D Flower Card

Bored? Sad? Cooped up? No pity party today - how about brightening up someone else's day and send them a quick little card to say you're thinking about them? I'm not talking about getting out all your card making supplies and making one of those gorgeous Stampin' Up multi-layered ones with gems, embellishments, ribbons, and pretty stamps that are super nice but require some work and maybe more creative thinking then you want to put into this - 'cuz sometimes when you want to send a quick note that's all it is, a quick note. And if you put too much thought into it you might procrastinate and it won't get done (speaking for myself!).

I saw a flower like this on the front of a card and thought it was so cute, but how would I mail that? Then I had the idea that if it was inside the card it would fold in half and then have a 3D pop-out effect when opened. Not hard at all to make:

Cut or punch 7 circles from colored paper, use a couple different colors if you want to give it even more dimension. Fold them in half and glue back to back. Snip a small triangle shape off the top.

Cut a piece of cardstock or decorative paper twice the length of the card and as tall as you want it. I found an envelope first and then cut the paper to fit 9" x 6.25". Fold in half.

Cut a stem and 2 leaves out of green paper, glue to the inside fold (fold the stem in half lengthwise to fit into the card fold). Then glue the flower on top. Close the card and flatten the flower.

That's it! Obviously you could just send a store-bought card, or have the kids color one, or color one yourself, or cut out other objects to glue together like butterflies or hearts (that'd be cute, I'm making those next). The point is to just whip something out and get it in the mail before the thought of taking your time to make something that you'll agonize over because it isn't exactly perfect or truly beautiful! Just do it already! And then when you aren't in a hurry to send a note you can take your time and create a few of those nice ones so you'll be ready next time (talking to myself here hahah).

I added a patterned piece of paper to the front of the card because plain pink was boring and I couldn't write on it once I glued the flower in! So if your front is plain maybe add some words before gluing it together - or use 2-sided paper!


4.9.19: tipsy tuesday: make a grease container
4.9.18: don't throw away old or broken candles...make new ones
4.9.17: JAR pot roast (short ribs and vegetables)
4.9.16: refrigerator jam and easy ice cream cake

Wacky Toes

I've decided this is Wacky Wednesday and painted my toes all different colors - makes me laugh and who's gonna see them? Totally doesn't matter but I felt like being silly. Or wacky because 'silly' doesn't go with 'Wednesday' hahahah. I have lots of polish so the choices were many - red, blue, orange, bright pink, green. If you aren't a polish hoarder you could always just do 2 colors. Just have fun!

Got any goals or plans for today? Are you making sure to move around, get some fresh air, create while you wait? How about connecting with someone by phone, text or email - let others know you're thinking about them. I just joined an email chain that is sending quick easy recipes, great idea - you could start your own email chain, and it doesn't have to be recipes - how about favorite book ideas, favorite movies or shows you like, favorite boredom buster, whatever sounds fun to you. Don't get bored - we can't put everything on hold just cuz we are 'staying-at-home', right?? Keep living your life, is my current motto :)

And if having multi-colored toes makes you feel happy and silly then do that too!!

4.8.19: mug rug
4.8.18: ham pasta salad
4.8.17: coleslaw dressing

How to make Crepes

Bored? Make crepes!

Natalie sent me this - I've never made crepes, have you? I've been a little intimidated to even try but she gave some good info and I'm going to tackle this one. Not sure if I want sweet or savory, she sent instructions on how to do both. I'm thinking I'll try sweet - she had my mouth watering after writing they usually sprinkle with brown sugar after brushing with melted butter! Because, yum!

Here's my text conversation with her:

Natalie: Made crepes today - in case you're bored. Joy of Cooking sweet recipe...we usually sprinkle with brown sugar after brushing with melted butter - but you can fill with macerated fruit and/or cream cheese or ricotta too!

Me: Yum!! I've never made crepes, is it hard?

Nat: Hardest part is having just under medium temperature pan - butter the pan before EVERY crepe. Lift pan off the burner. Pour only 2 Tablespoons batter into center of the pan, while tipping the pan in a clockwise circle to coat evenly! Then wait a minute or two for browning - and use a flexible scraper spatula to run around the edge to loosen and then lift a side - use your fingers (it'll be hot!) to gently grab and flip...otherwise pretty easy.

I thanked her for sharing of course and said I'm game to try. Then she added this:

Savory with light spinach dip rolled up, or with prosciutto and thin cake and neufachel! Just omit sugar and double the salt.

I looked in my Joy of Cooking cookbook for the recipe - I'm pretty sure it's this one for "french pancakes or crepes":

Sift:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour

Resift with:
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

In a second bowl, Beat:
2 eggs

Add and beat:
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Make a well in the sifted ingredients. Pour in the liquid ingredients. Combine them with a few swift strokes. Ignore the lumps; they will take care of themselves. You may rest the batter refrigerated 3 to 6 hours. Heat a 5" skillet. Grease it with a few drops of oil. Add a small quantity of batter. Tip the skillet and let the batter spread over the bottom. Cook the pancake over moderate heat. When it is brown underneath, reverse it and brown the other side. Use a few drops of oil for each pancake. Spread the cake with jelly, roll it and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar

makes fourteen to sixteen 5" cakes


4.7.19: around the campfire 🔥
4.7.18: swedish fish cocktail
4.7.17: DIY phone case by Brooke (I still use this btw, I just switched it to another clear case)
4.7.16: how to repair a wall clock

At Home Spa Day

Did you wake up this morning and think 'what day is it?' or 'what do I need to do today?' before remembering that we are stay-at-homing and it really doesn't matter what day it is? That led me to think it should be home-spa day, not something I usually think to do on a random Monday but right now Monday is like Thursday is like Saturday - no difference!  Just because no one is seeing us doesn't mean we should stop pampering and taking care of ourselves - in fact, because no one is seeing us is exactly why we should take some time now - cuz one of these days people will be seeing us and I don't want to have to play catch up frantically plucking shaggy eyebrows and loofah-ing rough dry skin LOL!

So - there's all kinds of things we can do for at home spa day, pick one or two or all of them:

• apply a hair mask, leave it in as long as you want and let it really soak into your hair - you have no place to be so it's not like anyone's catching you with what will appear to be super greasy hair!There are lots of 'recipes' online to make your own - I found this site that has quite a few different ones that look easy to make, I think I'm going to try the egg white and coconut oil one.
• apply a face mask. This site has a few different ones you can try; I had a facial that included cocoa tho and it turned my face red for a few hours, just warning ya if you do that one. Although, as we've established, who's going to see your red face and it did smell really good. Make the mask complete by adding a couple cucumber slices over your eyes.
• or you could make a face scrub - try my oatmeal version, click here for that post, or google for other formulas. 
• or do an entire facial: first you can easily steam your face for a few minutes by filling up your bathroom sink with hot water, lean your face over the sink and cover your head and the sink with a bath towel trapping in the steam. Then proceed with whatever facial steps you like -cleansing, exfoliating, moisturizing, etc. 
• If you have a body brush or loofah, brush over your dry skin before soaking in a bubble bath or epson salt bath with a few drops of essential oil (Or take a nice hot shower, you choose). After you dry off apply a nice thick lotion and let it absorb. Ahhhhh.....
• or make a sea salt body scrub, click here for one to try.
• yep, pluck those eyebrows! I just read that even tho it's good to use a magnifying mirror, be careful to not focus on one area too much to avoid over-plucking. Just tweeze a couple hairs, stand back and look at the overall brow, before proceeding with another couple hairs. 
• have you ever done a lip mask? First, lightly brush over your lips with a dry toothbrush or eyebrow brush; mix together a little oil, honey, and sugar to make a paste and gently scrub over your lips. Rinse (or lick it off hahahha, it's all edible)
• I'm not doing a mani/pedi thing for my spa day today, that'll be a different day. Between hair, face, and body I think that's enough pampering for one day :)

Enjoy your beauty day - and just think, you'll be so much more ready to face the world (or if nothing else you should be relaxed and smell better than before you started hahahha).

4.6.19: vodka bolognese 
4.6.18: diy heating pad
4.6.17: emergency kit ...although good luck finding everything right now :(
4.6.16: stuffed mini sweet peppers

Around the Campfire 🔥 (week 14)

Dear Campers ~

Here's a quick recap of what happened at MMDC last week in case you missed anything:

Posts ~
3/29: 🔥 week 13
3/30: my plan for april
3/31: chocolate sheet cake
4/1: ASL alphabet
4/2: 'my sis is hungry': cowboy pasta
4/3: neighborhood messages
4/4: virtual dinner party

What's cooking ~

• crockpot country ribs, mashed potatoes, broccoli 
• grilled chicken thighs, gnocchi, chopped kale salad
• cowboy pasta, green salad
• spice rubbed grilled pork chops, roasted asparagus, spinach ravioli
• baked salmon, sticky rice, wilted spinach
• steak, caesar salad

Miscellaneous stuff keeping me busy ~

• read 'Twisted Twenty-Six' by Janet Evanovich (#26 in the Stephanie Plum series),  I love these books so much it doesn't even matter what the plot or caper. I was giggling in the kitchen one day while reading waiting for water to boil and from the next room Dave asked what was so funny hahahah. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• halfway thru 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' by Thomas Hardy, originally published in 1891. Ok, so I read a lot. ALOT! But I haven't read many 'classics'. It wasn't part of my school curriculum (I went to a Christian school for 9 years, we read lots of the Bible and historical books, but we didn't have the secular school literature class reading assigned) and I've decided to finally get to reading some classics! So I picked Tess as my first one because in one of my scary books, I think it was 'Triptych', a character was reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles - I figured it was as good of a place to start as anywhere! 
• busy making fabric masks, I'll show you how this upcoming week!

Hope you've been keeping busy and finding fun things to bust any boredom - are you 'creating while waiting'? There's virtual game nights, virtual cocktail parties, Dave had a virtual ukulele group meeting yesterday, tomorrow I'm doing virtual tap class - it's a whole new virtual world right now! Remember - tough times don't last, tough people do! 

See you next week :)

Sincerely ~

Jill

camp counselor and classic novel novice

Virtual Sunday Supper

Not sure how this is going to work, but it's a fun idea and we are going to try it tomorrow -  'virtual Sunday Supper'. What's that you say? Well you know how I love to have Sunday suppers with my friends, and now that we are having to stay at home we are bummed to be missing out on our Sunday get-togethers. So Patty came up with the idea that we can pick a recipe (actually she made me pick a recipe hahah), everyone get the ingredients ahead of time, then on Sunday we will Factime and make the recipe together at the same time. Because of our time difference we won't eat together (maybe in the future we can figure out how to coordinate it but for now we are going to at least cook together). Fun idea right? This is the recipe I found, went for easy to find ingredients and not too many of them! Whatcha think, does this sound like something you'd like to do with friends and/or family?  It's something different and a great way to stay connected with our peeps - and cooking with friends seems like a good boredom buster to me!

Ingredients:

• 3 lb. pork sirloin tip roast, boneless pork loin roast, or boneless center cut pork loin
• 3 t. minced garlic, divided
• salt and pepper
• 2 t. dried rosemary
• 1 t. dried thyme leaves
• 1 cup diced onion
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 2 T. olive oil
• 3/4 cup beef broth

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 225'
2. Rub pork with one teaspoon garlic. Combine the rosemary and thyme in a small bowl and crumble together with your fingers. Sprinkle herb mixture onto all sides of the pork. Season with salt and pepper. Pat meat to gently rub everything in.
3. Heat oil in a 9"-10" cast iron or oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Brown roast on all sides then remove to a plate and set aside.
4. Add onions, carrot, and celery to skillet and sauce, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to brown. Add remaining garlic and cook a minutes longer. Deglaze skillet with beef broth.
5. Place roast on top of vegetable/broth mixture and place skillet in center of oven. Cook until an instant read thermometer shows the internal temp at 145' (about 2 hours).
6. Remove roast from oven and tent with foil. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving with pan juices. 

Click here for source of the recipe, and she has more info on the type of roast to use if you have questions. I have a boneless pork sirloin tip roast from Costco that's just over 2 pounds. Don't use pork tenderloins for this one, they're too thin and will get dried out; and don't use a bone-in roast because it takes longer to cook. I don't have a skillet like the recipe calls for, will do it in my Dutch oven instead. Also, it seems the veggies in the recipe are for flavoring the roast, not as a side dish - so I'm going to roast extra carrots and baby potatoes on a pan next to the roast. Yum, I'm hungry already!

I'll take pictures when we are making this and share with you later!


4.4.19: thousand island dressing
4.4.18: april challenge - water
4.4.17: using up postage stamps
4.4.16: how to make refrigerator pickles

Neighborhood Messages

Here's a quick little easy 'boredom buster' and a great morale booster for sure - walking Sarge this morning and we came across this cute sidewalk chalk message and it made me so happy that I have to share. If you live somewhere with sidewalks and foot traffic I can guarantee you'll make someone's day if you leave your own fun message for people to stumble upon! (stumble upon, not stumble over hahahah).

It's a cute chalk animal with a heart on his tummy (reminds me of a care bear) and the words say "if you can read this stay healthy and have a nice day". Awwwww.


4.3.19: sheet pan pork chops
4.3.18: peeling potatoes tip
4.3.17: K-cup bunnies (fun Easter craft!)
4.3.16: chicken soup

My Sis is Hungry: Cowboy Pasta

Today's 'boredom busting' challenge is to make up a recipe - do you ever do that? I mean,  I cook ALOT but I usually follow a recipe (altho I also change the recipes ALOT too!) - very rarely have I just plain old made up a recipe. This one that I've named 'cowboy pasta' came from having ground meat and a pantry full of canned goods - I googled a bit to see if anything sounded good, I could have just made chili but I gave myself the task to create something new; there's lots of burger and pasta recipes but nothing that was perfect. So 'cowboy pasta' is born. I ended up making waaay too much for just Dave and I,  and had the idea to start 'my sis is hungry' posts back up and left her a pan of this pasta and a chunk of Al's birthday sheet cake. Read what she has to say ~ and after you read it and then see what the recipe is you'll laugh, I'm feeling bad that she thinks I didn't use canned goods LOL:

GOOD NEWS!! GOOD NEWS!! MY SISTER IS BACK!! and yes, I’m still hungry!! 😊

Not sure what the rules are on eating her quarantined cooking but I will say that she left it outside the door and I picked it up. HAHA.. literally the best kind of take out.  She leaves it outside, I swing in and grab it, and I don’t leave any money!! 

Oh and lets get right to the bottom line that it was DELICIOUS.  SO SO GOOD. 

So I’ll start with that I’m not a fan of hamburger helper - and this was kind of what this looked like.  Did you ever have that as a kid?  I couldn’t even stand the smell.  There is a reason it was like a buck.  This LOOKED like that but definitely didn’t smell like that and certainly didn’t taste like that.  it was delicious rotini like pasta noodles, burger, some kind of red sauce (clearly not from a can), cheesy something or other (how can you go wrong with that?) and corn.  Yes corn.  Doesn’t seem like it would belong there but it was delicious.  This really could be done with any kind of veggie I think but the corn was great in there.

The husband also was a fan.  This one got his highest rating yet I believe- at an 8 ½.  He LOVED it.  So much that he had seconds.  Loved it.

That said, this would be a great one for a dish to pass somewhere, a potluck, work thing, or just a dinner for the family on a regular night.  Great flavor, could have eaten seconds myself if I had the recipe in front of me to figure out how bad that was for me. LOL.  What makes me wonder is the creamy/cheesy texture.  Maybe cream cheese?  Not positive but guessing its not super healthy.  Also wondering how easy it was to make?  That too would make me more apt to make it again myself. Especially since the husband loved it so much.  

Welcome back Sister!! Hope your restaurant stays “essential” to be open during this quarantine because I’m sure I’ll stay hungry!

COWBOY PASTA

• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1/2 lb ground turkey
• 1/4 cup finely chopped celery
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can cream of tomato soup or tomato sauce
• 1 can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 can diced tomatoes with chili seasonings, don't drain
• 4 wedges Laughing Cow original cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 teaspoon Mexican seasoning blend, adjust to taste
• salt and pepper to taste
• garlic salt to taste

• 3/4 box pasta, cooked (I used cavatappi)

Brown the meat in a large skillet along with the celery until the meat is cooked thru. Add all the other ingredients except the pasta and cook until everything is hot and the cheese melts. Toss with the hot pasta if serving immediately. If reheating it later you can toss the sauce with cold pasta, put it in a baking dish, sprinkle with additional shredded cheese,  and heat in the oven or microwave until hot. 

 note: I would have used a can of tomato sauce instead of soup but I don't have any on hand, it was good with the soup tho! Also wasn't sure if the laughing cow cheese would melt - yes it does! She's right, it added a creaminess that was delicious - I bet cream cheese would also be great.

Whatcha think - up to making up a new recipe today? Look in your fridge/freezer/cupboards and get inspired to experiment :) And hey, if it isn't good you can always give it to your sister hahahahaha!

4.2.19: stringing beads tip
4.2.18: yarn and tulip wreath
4.2.17: BBQ chicken stuffed sweet potatoes
4.2.16: cleaning glassware

How to: Sign the ASL alphabet

No foolin' - it's April 1st already! If you read my post a couple days ago you know that I'm about to knock out a months worth of boredom busting (also known as finding reasons to put clothes on in the morning and stop bingewatching netflicks!). I'm going to get up in the morning with a plan, learn/do/make/find new things and not waste this month while distancing and being in the house as much as possible. Some might wonder if what I'm really trying to do is stay busy enough that Dave doesn't drive me bonkers but nope, this is a personal mission of mine to be living life and not just killing time during this coronavirus nightmare. So...on that note, let's get started with staying busy!

• first thing this morning we walked Sarge, then I did 30 minutes alternating between leg lifts, arm work, and cardio intervals. I did one song of legs, one song of arms, one song of grapevines and jumping around. Have to get the exercise out of the way first thing or I'll get distracted and not make time for it later!
• drove to my sis's and walked 2 miles on her lunch hour. Stayed outside the whole time and kept our distance. Got to see her and gab for 30 minutes, and also get more fresh air and exercise. It was a win-win!
• my 'new thing' is I learned how to record myself on my computer, I've never done that before and usually just use my phone propped up on something - for today's project having it recorded on the computer was so much easier! I did it by opening Quicktime, turning on the mic in system preferences/security and privacy/privacy/turn on microphone. Then click 'file' in the upper lefthand corner, click 'new movie recording'.

• group facetimed cocktails with friends - so much fun and so good to see their faces! Can't be lonely when you're having a virtual cocktail party on a random weeknight :) 

Today's camp project is how to sign the alphabet - I made a video breaking it down, and also found this graph for you to reference. I learned to sign a bit when I was in school, did you know I went to a Christian school for 9 years? There was a deaf boy in our school, I do not remember if we had a sign class or if we just all learned to do it so we could communicate with him - and although I've forgotten a lot of the gestures/words, I've retained the alphabet so I'm sharing that with you. Can't tell you how much fun it was as a kid to be at dinner spelling words out with my sister so no one else knew what we were saying LOL.

https://youtu.be/eKqFJu-o56E (to see the video if you can't open the one below - not sure why it's not working for me...) 

I should probably have a little disclaimer that I learned this as a kid, and have been signing it this way since then - if I'm doing anything incorrectly I'm sorry!!

4.1.19: microwave bowl cozy we still use these just about every day!
4.1.18: Easter and how to make a jelly bean tree
4.1.17: perfect baked sweet potatoes