Food Friday!: Kona Inn Banana Bread

Kona Inn Banana Bread

This is one of my favorite childhood recipes (but aren't they all?!?) that my Auntie Jacqueline got from the Kona Inn in Hawaii ...the recipe is dated 8/5/1996 (I love it when a recipe has a history!). I promise that it is one of the best, moistest, irresistible banana breads I have ever tried! This recipe makes two loaves- one for eating now, and one for freezing and eating later (or sharing... I took one loaf to a Mom's Group farewell brunch this past week). Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1 cup softened butter
3 large eggs, well beaten
6 ripe bananas, mashed (the more ripe, the better!)
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With an electric mixer, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

Add mashed bananas and beaten eggs and mix well.

 
Sift together dry ingredients three times. Blend with banana mixture, but do not over mix.

Pour into loaf pans.

Bake 45 mins to 1 hour (err on the side of 45 mins...you don't want the bread to be too dry!).  Cool in pans 10 mins and then place on cooling rack to completely cool. Enjoy!

To my Baby Love, What an adventure it has been to be home with you! I'm loving getting to know the little person that you are... you sneezed the other day, and milk came out your nose; you are the happiest first thing in the morning; you love the outdoors; you are quite a bit more vocal and I love hearing your little voice; you move your arms in a steady rhythm when you are getting frustrated (your Papa calls it "kneading the dough"); you fall asleep every time we put you in the car; and you smile at me a lot more often now (or is it gas??). I love watching you grow!
To Ann Curry, I cried this morning when you announced that you were leaving the Today Show. When I was a kid, we took a trip to New York City and ran into you just outside of the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Plaza. Despite being in such a hurry, you spoke with us for a little while. It was definitely a highlight of that trip! Ann, you will be fondly remembered as a part of my mornings for a very long time. Best wishes on the next phase of your career! You will be well missed!
To the "Mom's Group" plus those off for the summer... you know who you are :), I have absolutely loved staying at home with Little T and have begun to realize that the Lord has prepared me for motherhood for years. Thank you to you all for all your encouragement as I have started this new career at home. I have loved spending so much time with you all! And my Popmiester thinks its funny that I have such a busy social calendar now that I stay at home! I'm not really home much! :)
To my Walking Shoes, In the last two days, you have traveled roughly 6 miles! Only 94 more to go before August 26th to beat Weathergirl in the 100 mile challenge. And what a challenge it will be in this ridiculous summer heat!! Here's to getting back into pre-baby shape...
To my Sweetheart,  The other day we tried out the new frozen yogurt place near us on a "family date". Of course Little T didn't eat any, but it was so much fun to get out together as a family. I can't wait for all the exciting -and even "normal"- things we will do together as a family in the future. Thanks for being my partner in all of this!

Food Friday!: Baked Brie with Blackberry Preserves

Baked Brie with Blackberry Preserves

As it turns out, you can have every intention of doing something (i.e. Food Friday post on Friday...hence the name), but with a new baby, there are a lot more higher priorities that come up. So, here is Food Friday on a Saturday. :)

The other night, I went to a Ladies Fellowship night that was hosted for our Sunday school class and we were asked to bring an appetizer. When I heard that, I thought: Something easy? Something quick? Something that looks nice but isn't much effort? Baked Brie! My mama would make this when we had people over for various functions. She would serve it with some favorite crackers/wafers and garnish the plate with grapes, which made it look truly beautiful! As you can see from my pictures, I forgot the grapes. :)

Ingredients

1 Puff Pastry sheet (found in the freezer section), thawed
1 wheel of Brie cheese
1/4 cup of your favorite preserves (I used blackberry)
Slivered Almonds, enough to garnish
1 egg, separated to use beaten egg white only

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and lightly grease a cookie sheet (just in case the pastry dough isn't completely sealed, I would recommend a cookie sheet with a lip on each side).

When dough is no longer frozen, gently roll out puff pastry. I don't have a great surface in the kitchen for rolling out dough, so I rolled it out on a lightly floured sheet of wax paper. Once rolled, place brie wheel in the center, leaving the rind on. Then place 1/4 cup of preserves on the top of the cheese wheel.

Bundle the pastry dough up around the cheese wheel (now topped with preserves).

Brush dough with beaten egg white (which will help the dough stick to itself and hold together while also giving the dough a nice golden brown color when finished baking). Finish by sprinkling slivered almonds on the top to garnish.

Place on cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve with your favorite crackers. It's DELISH! I hope you enjoy it!

To my Baby Love, Yesterday you turned 1 month old! Where has the time gone??!  And what a wonderful month it has been. This week has been one of several milestones already: you started sleeping in your own room (very important for this Mama since you are a noisy sleeper); you have started losing your hair (and your Papa says you share the same receding hair line); you slept last night for 5 hours in a row (Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!); according to the scale at home, you weigh about 10.5 lbs; and yesterday, you smiled back at me when I smiled at you (3 words- Melt. My. Heart.). Never in my life did I think it would be this wonderful to be your Mama.
To the Young Married Group Women, Thank you for an incredible time of fellowship last night! What a sweet reminder that we should be taking time each day to be spending with the Lord and in His word, even with the craziness of life with baby! Thank you for your honesty in sharing about your spiritual walk and the struggles you have experienced as a parent. I am so blessed to be apart of such a wonderful community of women! And thank you Handsome Hubby for having some special one-on-one time with Little T so that I could go! Sorry he didn't enjoy it as much as he did... P.S. Check out my Food Friday blog entry (coming soon) for the recipe of the appetizer that I took last night.
To Bessie (the Silver Jeep!), You certainly had an adventure this week! After braking down at a traffic light on Tuesday night, you got a free ride on a tow truck (hopefully a once in a lifetime experience...), and spent two whole nights away from home! :) We are so thankful that you are feeling better and have made a full recovery. Praise the Lord that your "hospital" bills weren't any more than they were!
To Handsome Hubby, Last night you got your new rotation schedule for the next year. I can't believe you're down to your last week of your intern year! Yay for being a PGY-2!! One year down, five more to go... I'm so proud of the doctor you're becoming! 

To Morfar, Popmiester, and Handsome Hubby, Happy Belated Father's Day! I'm so glad that Little T and I (and the rest of the family...) were able to celebrate this special day with you on Sunday. What a blessing to have 3 generations of Father's! Thank you for the support and encouragement that each one of you provides to the others.
To my Baby Love, You had your first trip to the "Magic Kingdom" this weekend to celebrate Nana's birthday (happy Belated Birthday, Nana!), attend your meet-and-greet baby shower (where you were absolutely the perfect star of the show!), and celebrate your Papa's first Father's Day (and Popmiester's first Grandpop's day, and Morfar's first great-grandfather's day!). Even more exciting- your first encounter with the swimming pool! Your hat and your swim trunks may have been too big (notice how we had to role them up...), but you loved just getting your feet wet and spending some time outside. I know you will have many more swimming opportunities in your future...and next time we will have sunglasses for you! P.S. Happy 4 week birthday to you! :)
To Caitie-bug, Thank you so very much for coming this weekend to meet Little T! I loved catching up with you and meeting the newest handsome man in your life...Nathaniel is a sweet heart and I can't wait for Little T and he to get to know each other. There will definitely be play dates in our future!

Getting his feet wet...

Handsome Hubby and Little T

Debuting my new do! I was so ready for the change!

To my Dr. Husband, We loved coming to visit you at the hospital for lunch the other day. Little T's first hospital visit (minus, of course, the day he was born...)! It may have only been for 30 mins, and it may have only been the McDonald's at the children's hospital, but I know it will be the start of many lunch outings to visit the busy Papa! Thanks for making the time to meet us. :)
To my Little T, Boy have you grown! You had your "2 week" appointment yesterday and weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs 10 oz! I was told that at this point, you just needed to have gained enough to be back at your birth weight for them to consider you thriving. I'd say that you "thriving" is an understatement!... Hello size 1 diapers! Goodbye newborn outfits!
To the Swede, Grattis på födelsedagen (aka Happy Birthday!)!!! I know it's belated, but as your host family, we wanted to just say that we miss you and hope that you had the most incredible day. Here's to another exciting year ahead!

Despite being 3 weeks behind, we are proud to announce that Thomas Aaron arrived on his due date (with some help of medical intervention), May 21st at 9:00pm exactly, weighing 7 lbs 11 oz and measuring 21.5 inches long. It was a long delivery but Handsome Hubby did an incredible job as coach which really helped this Mama!

To my Baby Love, Happy 3 week birthday! You seem to get bigger everyday and I have loved every moment (many of them tired moments) of being your Mama!  You are an incredibly handsome addition to our little family of, now, four and it has been amazing to see your little personality already: you recognize your Papa's voice and mine; you love music, especially the Celtic women (thanks to your Nana) and the organ at church; nothing quite calms you down like being swaddled and having me sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or "Jesus Loves Me"; its possible that Long Dog likes your Red Dog wubbanub more than you do; you sigh after you sneeze and it melts all of our hearts; you don't seem to mind bath time and love getting wrapped in the towel when your clean; you grunt all the time; and you've been able to lift your head up since the day you were born and you're getting stronger everyday! Know that you are already so loved by a whole community of family and friends...some of whom are still waiting to meet you!
To Long Dog, You have done an incredible job adjusting to life with a baby in the house and I've been so impressed with how seriously you have stepped into the role of protective big brother! I'm hoping that you continue to love Little T...even once he gets big enough to try and ride you. :)
To Granny D, Banker Boy, Weathergirl and Hurricane Hunk, Mama Ne', and Popmiester (and all the others...), Can't wait to see you this weekend! I think you will be surprised to see how much our little man has grown since the last time you saw him... we find out how much weight he has gained at the dr's tomorrow!
To the Handsome Hubby, Every time I see you holding our son, I love you all that much more. Just saying... And thank you for taking so much time off (and thank you Surgery Dept for allowing him to take so much time off) after Little T was born. You have been more help than you will ever know...especially since I changed all of about 2 diapers the entire first week of his life. :)

Proud Papa

Meeting Mama Ne' and Popmiester (aka Nana and Grandpop)

Meeting Granny D

Meeting Weathergirl

Hurricane Hunk and Weathergirl

Headed Home!

Banker Boy...a proud Uncle!

Little T and Uncle Drew

To my Dr. Bee, From my desk, I have the perfect view of the landing pad on the roof of the hospital. Since you are on trauma surgery this month, I know that those patients who arrive by helicopter are likely going to be seen by you (or at least your service). I love it, that in that moment when I see the helicopter fly by my window, I know that you are preparing for that patient. What a special reminder for me to pray for you as you go about your day! Can you believe it?...only 3.5 months remain of your intern year! Wahoo!
To Baby Boy, Just in case you're not keeping track...t minus 61 days until D day! :)
To the Yellow "Snow", You have made your annual appearance! It is nice to have you back (if only as a sign of the nice weather and beautiful flowers to come!). Even Long Dog sneezes when he goes outside. Wishing we got "snow" days from this kind of ground cover... Thank you, Lord, for the occasional afternoon rain shower that has given us some relief!
To the Kings and Queens of Inappropriate Comments, Pregnant women are still people. I am surprised by the bluntness of some of you expressing an interest in how my body has changed shape over the last several months. Although not offended myself, I would like to speak for other mothers-to-be and say we would prefer not to hear the following listed below, all of which I have actually heard. :) If you have the urge to say anything at all, tell her how beautiful and glowing she is. Even if it is alluding her that day...  It is not appropriate to say:
            "You are really bulging now!"
            "You look like you might drop that next week!"
            "Really, you have 8 weeks left?! But you are so big!"
            "Oh, it's you! I'm not used to seeing you fat..."
            "Your face is really filling out..."
Note: This is not a comprehensive list. And, in fact, I heard two of these today alone.
To my Handsome Hubby, The other day you changed the oil in my car while wearing latex gloves. Do even non-doctors do this? Regardless, thank you for this selfish act during your oh-so-infrequent free time. I am incredibly grateful! And thank you for taking off my toenail polish. I've never actually had to explain how to take nail polish off before...Thank you for such a rare opportunity! I love you with all my heart!

To all the nerds out there, Happy Pi Day!! I know, I know...what 27 year old that is no longer in school could possibly have the time or effort to remember that today is pi day (3.14 = March 14th for those that don't get it)? I do! And I'm very excited about it. So, in honor of this special occasion, and frankly because Baby Boy was craving some pie, I made Mud Pie for dessert tonight and I listed the recipe below. Enjoy! It is super easy to make and it doesn't take much skill or effort, but it does require a little patience. This was one of the favorite desserts my mama used to make when I was growing up. Contrary to the reason why we are celebrating with pie, this recipe isn't an exact science... I kinda just wing it.
To Daylight Savings Time, I am so thankful that you are here! I can now officially say that Dr. Handsome Hubby gets home from work while it is still light out (sometimes...). Hallelujah! What a privilege it has been to spend some time outside in the evenings without it being pitch black. However, I am still really struggling in the mornings... hurry, summer, so it will be light when I wake up!
To my Handsome Hubby,  The other night as we were getting into bed, you called me a "princess"...which I instantly boycotted, because I have never in my life thought of myself or desired to be a princess. In response to my protest, you said, "You're right. Only peasants sleep with that many pillows..." Thank you for always putting things in perspective.
 

Mud Pie, a family favorite

Ingredients
 
Chocolate Graham crackers or Teddy Grahams
4 tablespoons butter
1.5 tablespoons sugar
Tub of coffee ice cream
A jar of Hot Fudge topping

Flavors can be adjusted as you like. Handsome Hubby doesn't like chocolate, so sometimes when I make this for just the two of us, I use cinnamon Teddy Grahams, Butter Pecan Ice Cream, and Hot Caramel topping.





Directions

In a sealed large ziploc bag, place approximately 8 graham crackers or approximately 2 cups of teddy grahams and crush until pieces are fairly small. Add sugar and melted butter and mix. Dump crumb mixture into a greased pie pan, or an 8" x 8" baking dish. Press into the bottom of the pan to make a crust. "Incubate" :) in the freezer for approximately 15-30 minutes to allow the crust to slightly harden.


Once the pie crust has hardened (or at least cooled), dump the tub of ice cream onto the crust and spread evenly. It helps if the ice cream is somewhat softened. Again, place dish in freezer and "incubate" for at least an hour.


Once the ice cream has re-hardened, heat up hot fudge topping in the microwave (or per the directions on the side of the jar). Pour topping on top of the ice cream layer and smooth evenly over the top. It helps to work quickly...otherwise you end up with quite the marbled pie as the ice cream begins to melt and mixes with the fudge topping.


Place in freezer for several hours. I usually make this at least a day before serving so it has plenty of time to refreeze. Mama always served this with crushed peanuts and whipped cream on top. Mmmmm... Enjoy this special treat!

To the Belly Hog (I mean that in the sweetest way possible), I am overjoyed that you are growing healthy and strong...but it's amazing how long it is taking my stomach to adjust to giving you more room. Gone are the days of second trimester when I was hungry all the time and had room to fit everything I eat. Now, I am instead hungry all the time, and very much limited in the amount of space I have to put that food. Not to worry! Your papa and I have started the daily half-dozen or so after-dinner-laps around the surgical center by the house to help with getting the food moving. Only, Long Dog gets confused and tries to go back to the house every time we pass it.
To Hobby Lobby, After searching high and low for the perfect nursery decor for our little guy's room, I came across your selection of metal planes. Hallelujah! What a relief to find exactly what I was looking for...and 50% off too! I bought all 3 models you had. I am so excited to see this precious room come together. ("Before" pictures are below..."After" pictures to come, whenever the nursery is finished...)
To the Snake in the Yard, You gave me quite a startle yesterday while I was weeding. Thank you immensely for not being any bigger than you were. We don't want Baby Boy to come this early! And thank you for the reminder that no matter what my yard looks like, much of God's creation is still able to enjoy it!
To Weathergirl, Let me just quickly say that sometimes when I call you in the evenings and you are sitting down to eat the exact same meal I just ate, I wonder if it is unintentional ESP. Did we unconsciously communicate earlier that day what we would be having for dinner that night?! :) Mostly, this just makes me feel like you don't live so far away. I wonder, are you having pregnancy cravings as I have them?

To my Hardworking Hubby, After quite a long day on Trauma surgery, you came home yesterday and decided to cut the grass. It took several (dozen) tries to wake the lawn mower from hibernation, and even then it didn't seem happy that you gave it such a difficult job to do on it's first day back to work. ;) I'm proud of you and your persistence...even in the complete dark I thought the yard looked so much better.

Before picture 1... this room, once Handsome Hubby's office, has never been so clean! :)

Before Picture 2

Before Picture 3