Banana Bread

 
          I have been itching to get really brave and make some of my own bread. For me I have to ease into that big adventure and make something small first. So here we have some old bananas that are clinching to a very small amount of yellow left. And then here is Mr. T saying, "You know what we can use those for?" and, "You know what old bananas are good for right??" It somehow dawns on me:

Ahhhh, banana bread

I suppose that would be a good (small) step into the bread world. Instead of googling this one, I looked through my trusty cookbooks.

           Okay I might have got a little.... involved with that one. So many recipes!! Anyway, lots and lots of tiny post-its later I manned up and headed for the kitchen. I found a banana bred recipe in one of out old church cookbooks. Those are the best!! And to show how on top of this I was, I even took loads of pictures this time :)

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter and room temp

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beat one at a time

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 Tbsp buttermilk

2 tsp. vanilla

3 ripe, mashed bananas

Directions

1. Mash the three bananas with a fork and set aside 

2. Cream butter and sugar; add eggs one at a time.

3. Add rest of ingredients, including bananas; mix well.

4. May add 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts if desired.

5. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Check after 1 hour with a toothpick; if it comes out clean take it out of oven.

Easy Taco Soup

There are some days that after the laundry, the cleaning, and - for some of you - the kid chasing that you just want to throw something in a bowl for dinner and be done with it. Well ladies do I have a treat for you!! Taco soup for dinner! Let me tell you, after searching the internet for recipes of taco soup I learned some things I didn't know. One: almost all of them have meat in it. Two: no two are the same. Man I tell you. I just kind of made up my own mix of some things and it turned out wonderful!! It was easy, spicy, and if I wanted to add some chicken to it I could.

I'm raiding our cabinets thinking, "What kind of beans do we have?" and, "What tastes like Mexican food?"
Well here is what I came up with:

ingredients
1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can red enchilada sauce

And really, I just poured them all together and heated it up. It was yummy!! Surprisingly spicy too (but not too bad!) I put some cheese on top and ate it with Fritos! Would have added some sour cream if we had some. Somethings are just too easy!

Fried Squash

              Not too long ago I had a couple of days to go visit my mom. During that time my sweet sweet mawmaw cooked dinner for the family. You know what that means don't you? Oh yes, I got some handy grandmother tips for cooking. And everyone knows that they cook the best!! The main thing I got her to teach me how to make is fried squash. Mmmmmmmmmmmm! For those of you who have not been fortunate to live in the south and tasted this delightful dish straight from the garden. You're missing out! It isn't that hard... so go ahead, try it!

             First you need some squash. I used about 5 of the small/medium size but you will know what is enough to feed your family. (The small squash are the best tasting!) You also need one onion. Any type should work, but I used yellow. Then you need some all purpose flour and corn meal. Take some oil and start heating up a large skillet. Cut the squash and the onion up into slices.
As you may know, grandmothers tend to ditch the books and cook from experience. This means that they don't always have a measuring system. The flour and the corn meal are for coating the squash. Take about 1 cup of flour to 1/2 cup of corn meal, mix it up, and coat the squash in it. Put the squash and onion in the skillet. Let it cook for a little bit (<10 minutes) flipping once. Reduce to medium heat, cover, and let it cook until the squash looks like a delicious hot mess. like this:

Now doesn't that just make your mouth water?

10 Things to Make Instead of Buy

As Mr. T and I stumble through my new life as a housewife and his summer of getting paid once a month, we have to get even thriftier than we were before. After doing some extensive research I have found that homemade cleaners are cheaper and healthier for you! Here is a list of 10 things you should start making instead of buying. Go on, try it out! You know your inner thrifter is begging you to.


1. All-purpose cleaner
This solution is great for everything! And luckily it doubles as a way to get your kitchen smelling fresh!            

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 liter (4 cups) of hot water

 2 Tablespoons baking soda

1/2 a lemon   

Mix the first three ingredients together. Squeeze in the lemon juice and mix well. After the solution cools, you can transfer the cleaner into a spray bottle and you are ready to use!

2. Tub and Tile Cleaner
This is another great cleaner!

Mix together the following: 3/4 cup baking soda, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 3 Tablespoons salt, 3 Tablespoons dishwashing liquid, 1/2 cup vinegar, 10 drops essential oil (optional) Pour into a spray bottle or a container with a lid! (To use; spray and rinse with water)

3. Stain Remover

For those pesky dirt and grass stains..

Mix 1 part blue Dawn dishwashing liquid to 2 parts Hydrogen peroxide and pour directly on the stain. (Also just using hydrogen peroxide works pretty well)

4. Dusting Spray

Although I love using lemon pledge, this is a great homemade alternative! The vinegar cuts through grease and disinfects and the olive oil shines and protects wood. 

Mix 1 cup water, 1/4 cup vinegar, 2 tsp olive oil, and 10-15 drops of essential oil (lemon is my fave!) in a spray bottle. Be sure to shake the bottle before each use and buff with a dry cloth (or old tshirt)

5. Drain Cleaner

This could not be easier. I mean seriously!! 

Pour 1 cup of baking soda down the drain. Follow it by pouring 1/2 cup vinegar down the drain. Immediately cover the drain (using a plate for example.) Let the mix sit for about 30 minutes - do not use the drain during this time. After your 30 minutes are up let hot water run down the drain for 2-3 minutes. May repeat if necessary. 

6. Laundry Detergent
Can I say wow? Before I got married if you had told me I could make my own laundry detergent for dirt cheap I would have laughed at you. But seriously! This one I leave to the pro though, read her wonderful post about it here!

7. Window Cleaner
For every day cleaner here is a simple solution:

Equal parts vinegar and water

Mix together and put in a spray bottle. Then, as always, wipe the window with a dry cloth! :)

8. Febreeze
I try to not use febreeze a lot, because I feel like I should clean instead of try to mask the odor. But there are times that the garbage can smells gross, my grandmothers quilt smells like feet, or I have guests coming in ten minutes. When those times happen this is what I use:

1/2 cups of water, 1 Tablespoon of baking soda (or vinegar), and 1-2 Tablespoons of fabric softener. Shake together in a spray bottle and voila!

9. Swiffer Wet Jet Solution
The fact that Swiffer tries to convince you that you must buy new refills of everything they offer makes me somewhat irate. That being said, I do love my Swiffer Wet Jet! Use it allll the time! Now, how to save money....

Mix 4 cups of hot water, 1 cup of lemon juice, and 3 cups of vinegar in a pitcher. Stir in 1/4 cup liquid dish soap. Make sure it's good and mixed then pour it into your old swiffer container. Now, those lids look like they can't be taken off but they are just being deceptive. Here is an instructable on how you open the darn thing.

10. Swiffer Pads
This is one - I must admit - that is still on my to-do list. (for shame!) I'm simply waiting to use all the pads I have. However, if you have just a smidge of knowledge in the sewing department these handmade Swiffer pads from the Crafty Little Bee are a great project!

10 (basically free) things to do with your spouse

 

One cool thing about marriage is that you are always changing and learning something new about your partner. I mean, almost always. We can't be the only ones that get in a rut sometimes and revert to sitting on the couch watching tv each night. Right? Riiight?? Well, assuming that you are one of the happy couples that also does this, I've gathered a few (10 to be exact) things that you and your spouse could do together that is a bit more fun than the same 'ole same 'ole.

1. Make a fort. This is my favorite thing to do! We have fun pretending like kids while we eat popcorn and watch movies from our fort that takes over almost the entire living room! Grab a couple chairs (and an ironing board in our case) Tons of blankets and pillows and go to work!

2. Play a game! Mr. T's favorite card game is Uno and my favorite board game is Clue. You can always try a game neither of you have played before! Ask your friends or family to borrow something they have and try it out! It's also an option in these warm months to go outside! There are plenty of games to play outside! Frisbee, Croquet, Cornhole, Washers, water balloon fights etc. Here are a couple of websites that will help you figure some out: two player card and tile games, easy backyard games, and I'll upload how to play washers for you later.

3. Put together a puzzle.

4. Do chores together. It may sound silly but it gives you great quality time together! Besides, something as boring as folding laundry or washing dishes is a lot better when you have a partner. :)

5. Take a bike ride! This is great if you live in the country - you can see so much scenery! If you aren't able to bike where you live or you don't have one take a walk instead.

6. Cook something together. Really! you might be amazed at your hubby's culinary talent! Don't know what to cook? You can always try Pinterest, Food.com, or Epicurious.com to find some new ideas.

7. Learn an instrument together. Maybe even start a band! Him learn guitar, you learn piano. Or banjo. Or the hurdy gurdy. (that's a real thing). With the power of Youtube at your fingertips nothing can stop you!

8. PILLOW FIGHT! Now this suggestion is fun and might also lead to ... other types of fun. But when is it not exciting to hit someone in the head with a pillow?

9. Learn something/Teach something. Say he plays video games a lot. Get him to teach you how to play too! Mr. T and I play games on the Xbox quite frequently. I'm a whole lot better now than I was when we first got married. You could teach him a thing or too as well!

10. Take a free online class together. It's a lot easier to learn spanish when you have someone to talk to! A few sites to explore is Coursera (currently they have a music of the beatles class - cool!) and Openculture.


There is a plethora of opportunities awaiting you and your love muffin to try.. so get out there!

Pancakes - from scratch!

Mr. T just doesn't get excited about things like I do. I'm over here like "Yay! Random drive around town!" or "Yay! You want to play Toy Story 3 with me!" and more commonly, "YAY! FOOD!"
I try awfully hard to excite him like that but it just isn't in his nature. There was the one time I bought him the star wars xbox 360 and thought he was going to cry.
I hold on to that moment.
I also try to achieve that glimmer of excitement from his pretty green eyes almost daily. So aside from peanut butter, one of his favorite things to eat are pancakes. Boy gets up at 4 every day so the only breakfast in bed he is able to get is on Saturday. (Not that I wouldn't love being that wife that wakes up every morning with her husband and have his breakfast on the table... but we haven't reached that point yet.)

So Saturday I woke up before him - later than 4am mind you - and decided to surprise him!

The budding Betty Crocker in me decided that from scratch would be the best way to go with this venture. Let's make a note that I had to get creative. We had no eggs and we are basically poor right now so I had to substitute. Did you know two tablespoons water, one teaspoon vegetable oil and two teaspoons baking powder could be used in the place of one egg? Imagine that!

As you can see, I made ours into different sizes. We each had 3 and they were in cute little layers. I had some batter left over that I stuck in the fridge for later.


Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg, beaten lightly (or the substitute)
1 ½ cups milk
2 tbsp butter, melted

Directions
Grease a nonstick pan with cooking spray or vegetable oil. Start heating the pan on medium (for about ten minutes) In a large bowl, mix the first three ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the egg and milk until combined. Add it to the flour mix and stir until smooth. Finally, add butter. *note that if you want fancy pancakes add your blueberries, chocolate chips, etc. here.* Pour the batter to make whatever size pancakes you want. Cook until bubbles start to form on top, then flip and cook a couple more minutes.

Good Work!

The not so scary soufflé

Guys. Guys guys guyssssssss.

I'm just saying that this is the most fancy sounding dessert that I've ever made! And the secret? It's so easy! If any of you watch Doctor Who (if you don't, you should try it out) But he has a companion named Clara aka "Soufflé Girl". Being the culinary train wreck that I am I thought to myself, "what the heck is that?"

So I googled it.

The definition is this: A light, fluffy baked dish made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a main dish or sweetened as a dessert. So I started looking for recipes and found this magnificent 4 ingredient chocolate soufflé. It is worth the whole five minutes it took to prep it. So serious. 

just look at this deliciousness

Ingredients:
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs

Directions:
1. Start melting the butter in a pot over medium low heat. When the butter is about halfway melted stir in those chocolate chips baby! When that's almost all liquid, remove from heat.
2. If you are good at multitasking, mix eggs and sugar in a bowl while the chocolate is melting. (all the eggs.. this one doesn't involve separating them)
3. After you have removed the chocolate from heat, stir in the egg/sugar mix until  it thickens up a little more.
4. Pour the mix into your ramekin bowls until they are about 3/4 of the way full. 
5.Bake the bowls at 350F for 20 minutes. When times up wiggle the bowls with tongs. If it still jiggles like jello keep it in there for five more minutes. 

That's all there is to it! I impressed my family with it for sure. Would go great with some ice cream or powdered sugar!!

EASY Chicken and Dumplings

photo credit: dailydishrecipes

Alright guys, I have a confession.

I like shortcuts.

So when I found this recipe for chicken and dumplings with canned biscuits? Ohhh yeah buddy! The result was absolutely AWESOME. Mr. T and I devoured it while watching the first X-Men movie (again!). Made for a perfect night :)

I have been very hesitant about making chicken and dumplings because let's be serious no one does it better than Cracker Barrel! But I manned up and tried it and you know what? SO CAN YOU!

Let's get started shall we? Here is what you need:

3-4 boneless chicken breasts
2 cans butter biscuits
1 can cream of chicken soup
3 bouillon cubes
1 tsp garlic salt (optional)
2 Tbsp butter

Start by boiling you chicken breasts (20 min) At that point, start preparing your dumplings by rolling out biscuits on a floured surface. Make them flat and make sure they all have a coating of flour. Tear them into quarter size pieces. When the chicken is done, set aside to cool. Keep the water in the pot the chicken was cooked in. Make sure you have about 3/4 water in the pot. (I had to use a big pot - the kind with the two handles on the sides) bring to a boil and add the cream of chicken, 2 Tbsp butter, 3 bouillon cubes, and 1 tsp of garlic salt. Stir well. Over med-high heat, begin to add the dumplings to the boiling water. Turn the heat down to medium and stir occasionally (they turn out better the less you stir.) Tear the chicken into small pieces and add it back into the pot. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes or until the dumplings are soft.

They were totally scrumptious! Let me know of your experience :) Do you do something different?