Best Banana Bread EVER!

Does everyone have a tried-and-true, best banana bread recipe? I do. Nothing I learned at the CIA either. Nope. You just cannot beat Betty Crocker's recipe. Love it. And can I confess that my favorite part of the bread is the top - that kinda sticky top that you just don't get anywhere else? Aaron likes the end pieces, which is just fine with me.

By the way, do not leave out the nuts. Unless you are allergic, you should really put nuts in just about everything. We have a very short list of things that should not have nuts. Banana bread is not on that list.

Betty Crocker's Banana Bread

1 ¼ c. sugar

½ c. butter, room temp.

2 large eggs

1 ½ c mashed ripe bananas (3-4 medium)

½ c. buttermilk

1 t. vanilla

2 ½ c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 c. chopped nuts

Now can I just say creaming method and be done? Please? Okay, okay. Cream the butter and sugar until it's light (and I mean light!) and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time. Dump in the bananas and vanilla. I stir together the dry ingredients, then add that whole mess after the bananas. Others will have you do it in batches, beginning and ending with blah blah blah. Just pour in the dry, pour over the buttermilk, and mix it on low until it just comes together. And don't leave out the nuts. I take it off the mixer, give it a good scrape and stir with my spatula, then pour it into the bread pans. Bake at 350 until it's done. Don't ask me how long - at least an hour-ish. Every oven is different. In Seattle, it took over an hour. Here in Moscow, it's right at an hour.

There are those who might add things like chocolate chips, but that's really not for me to judge on. I did make a banana pound cake the other day that was a dead ringer for banana bread, but you put in a layer o' hot fudge. Now that's awesomeness.

Chicken

I love chickens. I love them fried, I love their eggs. I love them baked, braised, sauteed, barbecued, smothered, stewed and in a pot pie.

I also love them at the fair. I love the funky ones with feather dusters on their heads. I love the big ol' roosters.

I am also a chicken myself. But I'm working on it. Baby steps, right?

I took the plunge and ordered the fabric I want to back my quilts with - I think enough for about 6 of them.

*gulp*

When it gets here, there will be no place to hide it. It will stare at me, reminding me that I need to just git 'er done.

And, as I am 35 weeks pregnant and doing my dangdest to avoid another posterior baby, making quilt sandwiches by crawling around on the floor will actually help things. So here's to quilt sandwiching and babies in the right position!

Terrified!

This is my shrink-couch moment.

I am terrified to quilt a quilt.

I know I have an awesome machine for it.

I know I can do it, that I just have to dive in and try it.

I know I can start small and simple.

I know all these things.

Yeah, still terrified.

But I'm wondering what will get scarier: the prospect of quilting or the stack of quilt tops that need to be finished (last count: 15 - SO embarrassing!). The quilt tops are quickly winning out. I want to use them, not look at them in their little boxes and wish I had them to snuggle with.

Here's hoping I get over this fear soon so that we don't freeze this winter!

Still Here

I'm still here, still busy, still pregnant. Got my law student (that's his handsome self up there, posing with a perfectly roasted marshmallow, all for me!) off today and so begins are latest and greatest adventure. I'm so proud of him. I don't get too personal on this blog (usually save that for my other one), but I just love this guy - he's a hard worker and he's determined to make a good life for us.

The least I could do is finish quilts in time for Christmas! I've been sewing like crazy - I've got 56 blocks done on my string quilt. I've got some catching up to do on the FWQAL, but I'll get there. I'm also finishing my last two (hooray) classes at UW. Then I'm a graduate! Hooray!

Our landlords are remodeling the upstairs next week, so we'll be escaping the chaos and chilling in the air-conditioned goodness of my parents' house. I've got sewing projects there to cut out (baptism dress, blessing dress) and lots of fall/winter shopping to do. It will be a nice break, although we'll miss Aaron a whole lot. But it's his first week of classes, so he can really focus and work out the kinks in his schedule without having to worry about neglecting us. We'll all adjust when we get back from K-town.

In the meantime, happy sewing. I'll be ordering a boatload of flannel to back my quilts with - that's decision is a long story, but for another day - and then I will (gulp!) start in on the quilting of my finished quilt tops. Scary. But if Aaron can go to law school, I can quilt a quilt.

Blackberry Cobbler

Blackberry cobbler and I go way back. Growing up on the southern Oregon coast, blackberries were a way of late summer life. We spent hours picking bucket after bucket of berries that, if they actually made it home, were turned in to cobblers most days.

One summer, my Gran was visiting us. We picked a mess of berries, and brought them home to her. She turned out the best blackberry cobbler I've ever had. I should know. I ate it through my tears that time.

See, I was so excited to get it to the table, and she was letting me carry it there, that I was dancing around. The exuberance of a child and hot, syrupy berry juice do not mix well. I ended up dumping some of that cobbler onto my right arm and burning it something fierce. While everyone else enjoyed their cobbler, I was standing at the sink, crying as the cold water ran over my wrist. I don't remember if I was crying over the burn or because I had to wait to have my cobbler. Room temperature cobbler's got nothing on hot cobbler with vanilla ice cream melting into white pools around the berries.

In honor of that cobbler (and the little white scar on my arm where the burn blistered), and in honor of my Gran who passed away this spring, I made this cobbler today. And did not dump any of it on my arm.

Meme's Blackberry Cobbler (adapted from Bon Appetit, Y'All)


1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 cups fresh blackberries (which are scarce here in Northern Idaho, so I used frozen and didn't feel one bit ashamed - didn't thaw them or drain them)
1 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling, if needed
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of kosher salt
1 cup whole milk (or 2%, which is what I had)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Whipped cream (what we used today) or ice cream, for accompaniment

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Melt the butter on the stove in a large cast-iron skillet. If you brown the butter a smidge, all the better I say.

Place the blackberries in a large bowl. Using a potato masher, mash them to release some of their juices. If the berries are tart, sprinkle over some of the sugar. I skipped this step as my berries were frozen and I'm impatient.

To make the batter, in another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the 1 cup sugar, milk and vanilla, and stir until evenly blended. Remove the skillet from the stove and add the melted butter to the batter; stir to combine. Pour the batter all at once into the skillet, then add the blackberries and juices to the center of the batter.

Bake until the top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the batter comes out clean, about 1 hour. Serve hot (most definitely), warm (still okay) or at room temperature (not in my house you don't) with whipped cream or ice cream. Save some for breakfast too.

Christmas Quilts

Here are the finished Christmas quilts, so far. Yes, they need to be quilted. Can I admit to a smidgen of nervousness associated with that prospect? And I need funds to buy batting and backing. I'm thinking of backing them all in flannel, just for extra coziness. Good idea? These are just snuggle quilts for everyone to use when they need one.



These are the two I finished up this week. It was just a matter of putting together the barn raising quilt and sewing the sashing on my Holiday Hostess quilt. Still, I'm glad to have them done!


I have the Christmas tree one (that I need a different foot for on my sewing machine - long story!), one using Riley Blake Christmas Candy and then I've got a string quilt in mind using up all those red scraps I've got left. So eight in all. People need eight Christmas quilts, right?

I'd stop making them if the fabric companies would stop designing such cute Christmas fabrics!

Out O' Thread Blues

No wordless Wednesday post today, because I have words. Frustrated words because, as I was putting together my barn raising red and white Christmas quilt, I ran out of thread. Grrr. And since my credit card info was stolen and we're dealing with that for the second time in a month, I'm without funds to get more thread.

Okay, technically I could drive to the branch in Pullman (there isn't one in Moscow), go inside and make a cash withdrawal, but that would waste even more time.

So, while I sing the "Out O' Thread" Blues, I'm prepping other projects.

Here's what I've accomplished so far:

• prepped the white strips on paper for the rest of my string quilt blocks
• cut the white pieces I need for my red/aqua pinwheel blocks
• cut the rest of the green material for my Christmas tree quilt
• prepped my Christmas stockings - all seven of them!
  

Still left to do, before I can go get that thread:

• prep my Sunkissed quilt
• cut the sashing for my Holiday Hostess quilt
• cut the sashing for my strawberry pinwheel quilt
• prep Laurel's purple quilt for her birthday
• finish prepping Cowgirl Salt Water Taffy quilt (just the girly prints)
• prep Cowboy Nieces and Nephews quilt (just the manly prints)

Then I will earn my trip to the store to buy a truckload of thread so this doesn't happen again for a while! But prepping is great because then I can enjoy the sewing without the fussing around with the rotary cutter every few minutes.