Weekend Recipe: Banana Nut Muffins

I've monkeyed around with a recipe until I have a favorite banana nut muffin. Here it is for your weekend enjoyment:

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

4-5 VERY ripe bananas-the more spots the better
2 cups walnuts, toasted
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled a bit

1. toast the walnuts, either in the oven on on the stove in a dry skillet. Watch them closely and keep them moving around. They will smell nice and toasty when they are done. Let them cool while you prep the rest of the ingredients.

2. Preheat the oven to 425.

3. In a medium bowl, mix all the dry ingredients- flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.

4. In a food processor, mix 1 1/4 cups of the toasted nuts and the sugar. Process until it looks like damp sand.

5. coarsely chop the remaining nuts and set aside.

6. In a large mixing bowl mash up the bananas. add the sugar/nut mixture, butter, eggs, milk. Whisk together until well combined.

7. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and whisk just until there are no streaks of flour remaining.

8. Fold in the remaining chopped nuts and then in the words of a favorite tv chef- "just walk away." Let the batter rest for 15 minutes or so while you prep the pan.

9. Spray your muffin tins liberally with non stick spray or preferably the bakers spray with flour in it. Prep 12 muffin cups.

10. Scoop the batter into the muffin cups filling them almost completely. If you want shorter muffins fill them less full and you'll get a few more muffins from your batch. I like big muffins:) so I fill 'em up!

11. Bake at 425 for 17-18 minutes, checking for doneness. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool on a rack.

Enjoy!!

sew simple

I was creative today!  This project was inspired by this Pin.
I put together some felt garland along with a cute burlap table runner.

I wanted to create some garland made with felt shapes, in fall colors, sewn together.
I picked up some felt sheets and cut them into squarish shapes- I wanted my garland to be less uniform (a.k.a -it's easier to cut crooked squares vs. precise ones vs. circles).

I created the color pattern I wanted and then started sewing through diagonally one after another until I was done!  You don't really even have to sew in a straight line!

I originally thought I was going to use the garland on the mantle- but it just looked too busy and didn't fit with our living room style so I hung it up in the kitchen/dining room and was even more inspired to make up a super easy and quick table runner to use with the garland on the table.

To make the table runner:
I cut the burlap to the size I wanted for our table and then pulled out threads from the loose weave until I had the edges frayed to the length I wanted.
Once the edges were frayed, I sewed around the entire runner on the edge of the non frayed burlap.  I trimmed the edges so they were all the same and pressed it- Done!

Onto the the table went the runner and I just laid the felt garland on top.  I hung the rest between the kitchen and dining area.

It was so quick and easy I even sewed up some garland in Christmas colors.  I can just switch out the garland in a couple of months for the Holidays!

in pursuit of a cookie

For YEARS I have been trying to replicate the recipe for Cherry Ice Box Cookies from Collins Street Bakery in Corsicana, TX.
(I've posted on this before)

They are absolutely DIVINE!  One of my favorites of all time-and when we are in TX we will drive out of the way to buy some.  If you get a real craving, the Collins Street Bakery will ship anywhere in the lower 48...

However, I, rather than just have them shipped, have been monkeying around with various recipes for literally years now in an effort to come close to this cherry cookie perfection.

In the last year though, I've hit the jackpot- it started with an episode of America's Test Kitchen (we love some PBS in this house).  They baked the perfect chewy sugar cookie and they just looked so good I had to try it.  So I baked some up and true to the promise- they were the best chewy sugar cookie I'd ever eaten.  As soon as I took a bite I knew I was close to the cherry cookie winner.

I mixed up another batch and added cherries.
Oh. My. Goodness.  I'd done it.
These are not exactly like the TX bakery version, but they are rich, chewy and oh so close.

To mix up some you need to visit America's Test Kitchen and start with their recipe for Chewy Sugar Cookies.

Follow the recipe directions exactly.  When you are prepping ingredients take 2/3 cup of maraschino cherries and 1/3 cup candied cherries (you know the kind in fruit cake- find them in the produce dept. usually or baking aisle) and chop them up- minced really.  You can do these without the candied cherries just use a whole cup of maraschino.

Drain the chopped cherries really well in a colander while you mix up the sugar cookies.
***If the cherries are too juicy they will make the cookie dough too thin and they cookies won't come out right.  I put them in a clean tea towel and squeeze out some of the juice.

Once the dough is mixed up, add in the cherries - I fold them in with a rubber spatula.

Finish according the the sugar cookie recipe by rolling them in granulated sugar and baking at 350.  LET THEM COOL ON THE PAN!  Then enjoy:).

the best cup of coffee I ever drank

7 years ago today, I was invited by one long tall handsome Texas Aggie to have coffee with him at the "Brooks Bistro" (really his kitchen table in the old Brooks Hall directors apt. at Baylor University).

It was Folgers decaf with skim milk- not great coffee (read: really bad) at all but, because I really liked him and really wanted to get to know him, I'd have drunk mud:). It turned out to be the best cup ever because it was our first date of many.

7 years, 3 graduate degrees, 3 states, 2 kiddos, and more moves than I care to say- he is still the best man I've ever met.

I Love you Larry Correll-Hughes!

Here's to better coffee, and more years of great conversation, laughter and adventure!

It Feels Like Fall!

The weather here has been just fantastic lately. Cool mornings, mid 70's all day, blue skies. Fall is in the air...

I couldn't resist adding the fall leaves to our front door wreath. I made the family wreath right before Lucy was born and we know we are home when we hang it on the door. The decorations get changed out for each season/holiday or we just leave plain too.

I love this time of year! I am resisting the urge to pull out the pumpkin stuff until October!

Pumpkin Dress

Finished this today!

What I did today...

sewed!

I have found some fun pins for easy looking sewing projects on pinterest.  I've been sewing for a while, but I love a simple project I can whip up in an afternoon and this pin for a peasant dress fit the bill.

I ordered some really cute fabric from Hawthorne Threads, one of my favorite online fabric shops, and wanted to see how this dress turned out before I use the new (pricey) fabric.

I picked some cute coordinating fabric from the stash and first embroidered a cute monogram patch, then I sewed this little dress:

I think it turned out really cute!  Lucy has worn it all afternoon.  As I finished the sleeves and ironed it, she kept saying "wear new dress!"  A little fashionista in the making:).