Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Super Delicious Banana Bread!

I'm not exactly known as a master chef or baker (actually quite the opposite), haha. I mean, I cook and prepare food obviously so I can eat, but I tend to stick with the same very easy recipes over and over again. And not much at all in the way of baking. Well, this year I hope to change that and I'm trying out a few new recipes to broaden my horizons a little bit.

Today we had another day off of school (Polar Vortex Part 2 and all...hah!) and I decided to try a recipe that I got from my sweet mom. She makes this banana bread and I LOVE it but this is the first time I've made it myself!

Here is recipe--it's pretty easy, you just have to plan ahead and make sure you have a few old bananas that can easily be mashed. I stick mine in the freezer after they have gone brown or very soft and save them for this recipe! 


Banana Bread (makes 2 loaves)

Ingredients

1.5 cups sugar

¾ cup shortening (I use butter – 1.5 sticks)

3 eggs

2 cups mashed bananas

4 cups flour

1.5 tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt

1.5 cups chopped nuts (optional- I put in extra raisins)

1 cup raisins

Cream sugar and butter, then add eggs and mashed bananas. Mix dry ingredients together, add 

to banana mix. Add raisins, mix well. Bake at 375 for 1 hour in 2 loaf pans, approximately 5x9 

inches.


And if all goes well, this is what you end up with!!


And that reminds me, time for another piece! :)

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Another SNOW day!

I feel like all I do is talk about snow days and winter here, haha. Well, we are yet again off of school and this time we REALLY do have snow! Whoo! The snow looks super pretty as I look out the window from my cozy, warm apartment. That's the extent of my interaction with this bout of snow. :) 

There are times when I think to myself, "Is it normal for a teacher to be THIS excited about snow days?" and then I see things like this on Pinterest and think "Nahh, I'm good..."


'I sure hope we don't have a snow day tomorrow,' said no teacher ever.
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Bwahaha!

teacher snow day | Sara*ndipity: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... unless it doesn ...
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For an absolutely hysterically funny take on stages of a snow day for teachers, you MUST check out this blog post from Tire Swings and Fireflies!

And I promise, one of these days I will write about something non-winter or snow-day related. One of these days... ;) :)

Friday, January 10, 2014

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Snow Day Fun :)

Today we had a day off of school and although I adore my sweet little first graders, I LOVE SNOW days! Like "jump for joy" love them. There is just nothing like an unexpected day off of work! :) Although it's a little funny to call today a "snow day" since we had not a flake of snow, but instead sub zero wind chills. We don't experience that kind of cold ever (!) and I'm glad that our school system decided not to risk putting kids outside in this type of weather, especially since some of the kids would most definitely not have appropriate attire, which is so sad but unfortunately true.... :( 

Today I obviously had very very important tasks to take care of that included: 

1.) Watching Downton Abbey 

2.) Painting my nails

3.) Drinking tea

4.) Watching Judge Judy

5.) Pinning things on Pinterest!


What are your favorite things to do on "snow days"? (if your work or school gets them--I'm very aware that probably most of the country might think we are wimpy here in VA, haha! I'm okay with that because I was legit afraid of this cold...) 

Monday, January 6, 2014

Oh winter!

Normally, I can handle winters in Virginia okay because although it gets cold, it's not SUPER cold like some places. Which I like. Well, with this polar vortex (??) coming in, here's what we are looking at: 


Um, I'm sorry, but say whattttt?? Feels like 2 degrees--no. just no. 


I'm over the cold already and its not even that cold yet. | Confession Ecard | someecards.com
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Hahaha. This is so me. I am not a fan of super cold weather and it's just going to get COLDER tonight....


A wind chill of 10 to 15 BELOW zero??!? Maybe that's not too bad for some hearty mid-westerners but in Virginia, we are just SOO not accustomed to this type of cold..yikes! Or maybe it's just me who can't handle this, hah!

My favorite outdoor activity is going back inside where it's warm. | Confession Ecard | someecards.com
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Yes! And luckily, our school system decided to close tomorrow because of the extreme (for us at least, hahaha) cold.

WHEW!

How do you successfully survive the cold winter months? (Unfortunately, moving somewhere warmer is just not an option right now--hah.)