Mom's Banana Bread

Banana Bread

2 c flour

½ tsp salt

½ c butter or shortening

1 c sugar

1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar

1tsp baking soda

2 eggs

1 c mashed very ripe bananas (about 2)

1/3 c milk

½ c chopped nuts

Sift the flour, soda and salt. Cream the butter and banana and blend thoroughly. Combine the milk and lemon juice, which will curdle a bit. Slowly and alternatively fold in the flour mixture and milk mixture beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Blend well after each addition. Stir in the nuts, then pour the batter in to a lavishly buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan and bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for 1 hour or until the bread springs back when lightly touched in the center. *Note buttered and floured pan is very important, banana bread is very difficult to get out!

Grandma’s Texas Sheet Cake

Grandma’s Texas Sheet Cake

(the best one out there…I promise!)

Mix in large bowl:

2 c sugar

2 c flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 heaping Tblsp cocoa powder

Mix in sauce pan on stove: 

1 c water

2 cubes butter

½ tsp cinnamon

Bring to simmer then pour into dry ingredients

Then add to cake batter:

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs beaten

½ c buttermilk

Stir well and pour into a greased bar pan. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

While cake is cooking make frosting.

Frosting (use same sauce pan, don’t even bother washing out)

1 cube butter

1 heaping Tblsp cocoa powder

1 c mini marshmallows

Stir well until melted then take off heat

Add 2 c powdered sugar and mix

Then slowly add 1/3 c milk until a syrup consistency

Pour over hot cake and let cool until frosting has set up.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Melanie Hutchings cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks butter softened
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
*Cream together (butter should be soft)
*Add
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powd
er
1 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs (one at a time)
*Mix, but not too much
*Add 3.5 c. flour
chocolate chips to taste
*Mix
*Bake 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes

Oriental Cabbage Salad

Oriental Cabbage Salad

1 lb. bag coleslaw mix

1 bunch green onions, chopped

    Add any or all of the following:

1 c. slivered almonds

1 package Ramen noodles, crushed

     OR 1 c. Chinese noodles

1/2 c.sunflower seeds

1/4 c. sesame seeds

canned chunk chicken

Dressing:

1/2 c. oil

1/2 c. honey

1/3 c. rice vinegar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Corn Bread aka "Corn Cake"

¾ c corn meal

1 ¾ c flour
2 tsp. baking powder

1 ½ tsp. salt

¾ sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 ½ c evaporated milk

½ c oil

Combined cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Beat together eggs, evaporated milk, and oil. Add to dry mixture stirring only enough to mix. Pour in greased 9x13 pan. Bake 350 for 30 min.

New Quilts

I am finish with a few new quilts. What do you think? 

 X's and O's 

Fall Pumpkin Quilt

Mickey Mouse Quilt

Spring Planting

Garden Spot

          Many times I have planted a garden and most of the time it kind-of works. My husband is the main push for me to develop my skills as a gardener. I know it is good to have fresh veggies, but somehow I just can't find the momentum to keep up with a garden until the end.
          Why is harvesting the hardest part of gardening?? I don't know when to pick anything besides the tomatoes, only because they turn red. The watermelon, squash, and melons are all really hard to read. When are they ready? We had a great crop of cantaloup last summer and one by one the ants bore into them and ate the insides out, before we even knew they were ripe. I feel so bad when this happens. Gardening is not cheep, we have been paying for water, bought the plants, or seeds, all of the soil amendments that were needed, and fertilizer through the growing season; it is not likely that any of our gardens have produced enough to make back all that we have spent.
        Why then do I even want to garden. Well first off, if I need to use this skill to ever feed my family I would like to have it sharp; the world is at a very unstable place and having a backup food source could be a HUGE blessing. Next, it is a outlet for my husband and I to help our kids learn how to work. This is a skill that is becoming less and less important in today society.  I want to have my kids feel the thrill in having to work at something so hard, like digging in our rock hard ground, and then tilling and tending to a little plant that will someday grow to be a food they like to eat. It really is a beautiful experience to create something living and raise it to its full potential. Also I love the way a garden looks and the smell in the evening of the wet dirt is a treat to me. I know it might sound crazy but we all can find something good about having a garden.
           I felt that by posting my weekly ups and downs of gardening, I might keep my momentum up until harvest time. If any of you would like to join me now's the time. It is just peeking into spring and the weather in my neck of the woods is going fast on into summer. So I say grab a shovel, study the area around your home that sees sun and plant something with me.

April