Banana Cake

So good!! Dang, I am delighted. I scarfed two pieces before work. 


The directions say to put it in a freezer after you bake it but I didn't have room in my freezer or time to do it. But all the reviews say that it is a great idea. Ok, all the reviews I read...okay, the two I read hahaha. Anyway, if you make this, try the freezer step and let me know how it goes!


I've copied this from the website Allrecipes, but I'll paste it here with the things I did differently.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter
• 2 1/8 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (buttermilk substitute)
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
• 
  
• Glaze: (A recipe for pound cake glaze I found)
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 3 tbsp. Milk
• 3 tbsp. Unsalted Butter
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. In a small bowl, mix mashed bananas with lemon juice, set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Mine took about an extra 20 minutes but I hate my oven!
4. For the glaze: melt butter, add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla together and whisk until smooth. Pour over HOT cake. 

And I didn't do the dries with the dry ingredients and then alternately add them with the buttermilk. I didn't mash the bananas either, I like them a little chunkier so I just broke them up. I used 3 large bananas. I have no idea how much that works out to. 

It is so divine. Enjoy!!!

Anniversary and Willy Wonka

So hello there friends :)

I went back to work on Monday and holy busy!! I am going to enjoy my weekends (which I have so far) because work is KILLA! But I'm so lucky to have a job and especially to be given a job back after I walked away. I discussed what I was having a hard time with and things have been or will be fixed (of what we can do). I feel so much better now. And, shame me if I must, but I'm happy there are like 3 people newer than me there...I like not being the new person!

Our anniversary was last Saturday. I can't believe it's been a year!! We did NOTHING haha. Well, I made homemade cinnamon rolls in the morning, then we rented a bunch of movies (Eat, Pray, Love; How to Eat Fried Worms; Mars Needs Moms; and Rango), and Ian set up tv in our room so we could just lay around all day. We had nachos for lunch with this AMAZING white cheese sauce and then we went out to dinner. There was lots of pepsi and root beer drank that day. It was perfect haha!

On Sunday Ian made beef wellington (with a few tweaks) and mint risotto. He is incredible! He really should cook more often because he's super good at it :) And of course some sparkly for celebration!!

Then yesterday I decided to go get a hair cut. Ugh Ugh Ugh! On the left is what it was supposed to look like, on the right is what she did! I was SO mad! I showed her the picture, showed her on me where I wanted it to hit, and she still cut it like a bowl all around my head. And I said to be sure there is no step in the back with the layers....guess what....THERE IS! It's not even like it's a random photo that she could have messed up...IT'S ME! ugh. And we're taking staff pictures next month. I am so mad. 

I don't even know what to do to fix it. Any suggestions?? Should I cut it shorter so it looks like it's supposed to be short and not a bowl or how can I style this so I don't look like friggin Willy Wonka?! 

Should I just get myself a top hat??

Phineas and Ferb!!!!!

So, I have a confession. I love phineas and ferb! Today was the premiere of their movie and we have been looking forward to it's release for months!!

Ian even took the night off :)

We made brownies (just because yesterday the pan was dirty haha), and pretzels...in the shape of p's and f's!!!!! We also has pizza and fanta (he he he)!! It was a great night! We are so full but it was nice to have a date night that cost all of $6 and we are fed for days haha!!

If you didn't watch it, you are severely missing out!

Go!! Watch it now!!!

Best zucchini EVER

Oh my gosh, I'm still smiling from this stuff and I ate it over 30 minutes ago!

I bought a yellow zucchini at the farmers market last week and I finally got around to cooking it today. I've only ever made it sautéed, which is cool, but it just doesn't have a big umph to it.

So I umphed it.


I took the zucchini and peeled it. I am not sure if you're supposed to peel them, but it worked well for this. After peeling off the top layer and throwing it away, I continued to peel. I peeled and peeled and peeled. It looked like fettuccine! I stopped at the seed layer. I am sure (now) it would work to go all the way through, but it was a big zucchini so stopping at the seed layer was plenty for the two of us. I sauteed them with olive oil and butter (I'm not sure why but it's just better that way). I put on a few healthy shakes of italian seasoning.

After they sauteed down for a bit I added a magical can of Rotel tomatoes. Oh. My. Goodness. I let it all cook together and then I dug in.

Oh, and I topped it with shaky cheese...um...I mean...parmesan cheese. I know it's wrong, but I don't like "real" parmesan. I like the stuff that comes in the plastic bottle with the green lid that you toss on spaghetti. mmmm... so good!

Thank you to my new favorite website, mybakingaddiction.com.

I was assigned to make a treat for the birthday of a girl in Relief Society today. I didn't know what to make but I know I always get a lot of chocolate on my birthday (not that I'm complaining!!!) so I decided to get a little bit of a fresher, cleaner taste.

I have made lemon sugar cookie before but it was crispity crunchity icky uckity haha... so I specifically looked for chewy. I HATE CRUNCHY COOKIES!!

Mmm, don't they look delicious?? Question...when I used my cheap practically paper thin metal pan they were puffy like the picture. When I used my expensive air insulated cookies they were thin. They are still good, but why do I have the expensive ones???


Anywho, here's the recipe!!

Chewy Lemon Sugar Cookies

adapted from Rock Recipes

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of one large lemon, finely minced
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar for rolling cookies

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and very fluffy.
4. Beat in egg, vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest.
5. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.
6. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. 

    Place on lined cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.
7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned.
8. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

    Makes approximately 24-30 cookies depending on size

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