Banana Nut Bread

I love banana nut bread. It is so hearty, moist and yummy! I have tried a couple of recipes out over the years, but this one is a keeper! I took a recipe I found and kind of changed it up a bit. I like to do that anyway as a rule, making it more mine. Adding the sour cream and honey keeps the bread nice and moist. Just make sure to eat it up fast, gift it, or freeze it so it doesn't go bad. I like to eat mine straight out of the oven or toasted with butter, but it is yummy enough to just pinch peaces off and munch on too. Om nom nom nom!

Banana Nut Bread Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 1/2 bag walnuts, chopped (about 3/4 cup)

Directions:

1. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Fluff butter and sugar together in mixer. Split vanilla bean down the center and use knife to collect vanilla beans from pod. Add to butter/sugar mixture and continue to fluff.
3. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and sift or stir together (flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder).
4. Mash bananas in a small bowl and microwave for 15-20 seconds to soften.
5. Add eggs one at a time to butter/sugar mixture and mix together.
6. Add sour cream, bananas, and honey and mix.
7. Add dry ingredients slowly and mix to combine with wet ingredients in mixer
8. Use spatula to carefully add nuts.
9. Pour into pre-greased/floured pan and bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes to 1 hour 10 minutes depending on your oven (knife should come out without gooey mixture).
10. Remove from pan and cool on cooling rack.
11. Eat it up!

Yard Sale Time!

Here are a few pics from our yard sale party we had recently. Much fun! There were about 6 people selling stuff and we donated the rest to charity (which was great, because it kept our homes from collecting unwanted clutter junk stuffs). The best part of course was having an excuse to hang out with good friends and eat good food! We grilled burgers and hotdogs in the backyard and I made a yummy potato salad to go with it. Fun times!

Kitchen Island

My kitchen is big considering my house was built in 1933. The only bad part is that there is very little counter space. My handy friend Brady has recently started working in poured concrete. He built me a beautiful island to go front in center in my kitchen. He welded the base out of iron and poured the top out of concrete. Instead of using pebbles as an aggregate in the concrete top, we collected 37 pounds of glass, busted it all up and let it figure out where it wanted to stay. There are a couple of big pieces on top and a lot of tiny ones around the edges and throughout. My favorite is a triangular piece of light blue glass on top. Don't my little owl buddy cookie jars and salt/pepper shakers look right at home? I am loving it! Function, meet form!

Pebble Painting

I found a rock. I took it. I painted it.

Succulent Living Picture

It isn't a secret how much I love succulent plants. Skimming through the internet looking for garden inspirations, I found the coolest way to present your little succulent buddies...a living picture frame! You can buy kits online (but they are pretty pricey). So, I think I am going to try and build some myself. I found a pretty decent tutorial at sunset.

After they have been been growing in the frame from 4-8 weeks you can actually hang or lean them vertically. How cool! Aren't the beautiful?

Garden Bounty Asian Noodle Salad

Last year, I serendipitously clicked on a link that my friend Katrina has posted to her facebook. Lucky for me, Katrina knows good food! The link led me to the Pioneer Woman blog that catalogs everything from cooking, gardening, home ideas, homeschooling, and more.

Ree, the blogger has some really great recipes. I have only tried a couple of them, but they were both fabulous and I can't wait to try more! The first one I tried-the one that I fatefully found from Katrina's fb post-is the "Asian Noodle Salad" that uses fresh veggies. Ree designed the recipe around her current garden bounty, but if you don't have a garden you could just raid the produce department at your local grocery. When I made this, I did a combo of crops from my garden and the local farmer's market. Pick whatever noodles and veggies are your favorite, but in my opinion the must have veggies are red/yellow bell peppers, bean sprouts and spinach. I know that none of us have garden bounties yet, but in honor of gardening and the spring and summer that is soon arriving I thought this would be a great recipe to share!

The secret bang to this recipe is the combo of the salad and noodles and the lip licking, oh so good dressing (so don't skimp on making it to opt for buying some not as good substitute when you are at the grocery raiding their produce).

The recipe is below, but you should really check out Ree's recipe because it has step by step instructions and lots of fun pics (including the pic I borrowed from her page for this post). Yum!

Recipe

Ingredients:

Salad

• 1 pkg. noodles (cooked, rinsed, and cooled)


• 1/2 head thinly sliced napa cabbage


• 1/2 head thinly sliced purple cabbage


• 1/2 bag baby spinach


• 1 whole red bell pepper, sliced julienne style


• 1 whole yellow bell pepper, sliced julienne style


• 1 whole orange or green bell pepper, sliced julienne style


• 1 bag/container bean sprouts


• chopped cilantro (up to 1 bunch, to taste)


• 3 whole scallions, sliced


• 1/2 onion, chopped


• 3 whole cucumbers, peeled and sliced


• 1 can (about 10 oz. whole cashews, lightly toasted in skillet

For Dressing

• 1 whole lime, juiced


• 8 Tablespoons olive oil


• 8 Tablespoons soy sauce


• 2 Tablespoons sesame oil


• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar


• 3 Tablespoons fresh ginger, finely chopped


• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped


• 2 whole hot peppers or jalapenos, chopped


• chopped cilantro

Preparation

Mix salad ingredients together. Whisk dressing ingredients together and pour over salad. Mix noodles and veggies together with tongs or hands and gobble it up!

*Note: dressing keeps for up to three days before serving (without cilantro)

Merrilee Challis

Art of the Day

"Devil in the Wood"

Merrilee Challis is and has been for quite awhile now my favorite local artist. The ultra hip co-owner of Birmingham's bar/venue Bottletree creates whimsical paintings that I adore. Her color palette makes me swoon (filled with pastles, neutrals, and punches of bright colors throughout). Her imagery seems to often include a lot of woodland animals and insects combined with gorgeous organice shapes and often eerie figures.


"Veindeer"

"Skull Garden"

When I was in graduate school, I had the delightful experience of learning under her. She taught a figure drawing class I was enrolled in. A couple of years ago, I attended an "art in the park" event and ran into another old art professor-and fabulous artist-Doug Baulos. He is a good friend of Merrilee's and they often collaborate. I bought a piece by them that is hanging in my living room now (will post later). For now, check out these awesome pieces by Merrilee. And if you are interested in seeing more of her work, check out her website here.

**I don't know the title of this one, but I posted it anyway because I love it!