Banana Bread

Its time to get those old bananas out of my freezer.  Im not sure how long they've been there so once I get to that point they need to be used.   I have two recipes for Banana bread, one that calls for 3 bananas and one that calls for 4. Since I had 5 bananas I made a double batch of the first one.  I always find it easiest to measuure everything out ahead of time if im doubling a recipe, there have been too many times I havent had enough butter or some other ingredient because im expecting it to call for half as much.

 Here is the recipe for a single loaf

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups flour
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Cream the butter and sugar together, add eggs.   Sift together all the dry ingrediants and add to mixture.  Add bananas and mix well.  Add chocolate chips.  Pour into well oiled loaf pan and bake at 325 for 45min-1hour.

This is such a simple and easy to make treat.

A tested til perfect recipe #2

Sunday night I made the Creamy Tarragon Chicken Medallions With Skillet Sweet Potatoes and Beans
http://www.canadianliving.com/food/quick_and_easy/creamy_tarragon_chicken_medallions_with_skillet_sweet_potatoes_and_beans.php

 We served this wine with Saturdays meal as well since were not huge drinkers so a bottle easily lasts us two meals, JM picked it out since we needed some white wine to make the cream sauce with this one. It was a pleasant white without any strong afterbite, so in my books I would get it again.  This meal was super easy and I was excited to get to use my Kitchenaid meat tenderizer since I havent used it in about a year.  It used to get lots of use but since the reno and baby blitz (the last 2 1/2 years of our lives) we avoided as much prep as possible even when its as easy as pounding it with a mallet a few times.  The recipe says that this meal takes 25 minutes start to finish and they speak the truth it was super fast.  Super flavourful too, the honey on the veggis and the wine and mustard in the cream sauce really make a huge impact on flavour.  I can see the veggis going great with a ham dinner and I think that the sauce would be a fun dip for chicken skewers on the Bar-B come summer time.

A cute little discovery

The other day while folding the laundry I made my first little discovery.  There was a little marble tucked in the pocket of Thomas' pants.  It got me thinking what other wonderful surprises I will find in their little pockets in the future.  This one was pleasant but im sure I will encounter unknown goos and perhaps something im not supposed to see in the future...

What have you found in your kids pockets?

A tested til perfect recipe #1

I decided that this weekend I was going to try a new recipe for dinner Saturday and Sunday.   My Mum always gives me her old Canadian Living and Toronto Life Magazines where I promptly tear out any pages that interest me and throw the rest of it in the recycling.  I figure its high time I actually try out these recipes.

Saturday I made the Pork Chops With Cider Sauce and Creamy Herb Polenta.
http://www.canadianliving.com/food/quick_and_easy/pork_chops_with_cider_sauce_and_creamy_herb_polenta.php

It turned out pretty well, like any new recipe for me it took a little while to prep everything and get ready to do it, im used to cooking by memory so its a lot of cutting while cooking on the fly. We paired it with a white wine we got for Sundays recipe and gave the boys glasses of apple juice in their own little glasses.  I had never made Polenta before so that was a neat experience, it was super flavourfull and easy to make. Next time I need to cook it a little less because once it cooled down a bit it got pastier in texture, otherwise a grade A meal that I will try again. The ingredients in the Polenta could easily be put into couscous or mashed potatos too.  I think the tested til perfect recipes will get a few more gos in our house.

Our First House!!

Well, our first house we bought a little under 3 years ago about 3 months after we moved back from England.    The plan was to live downtown somewhere that JM could get to and from work easily so he could see the boys in the morning and at dinner time. With our limited budget we basically had our choice of two houses one on Victoria Park just two blocks south of the station there or this one.

front of our house after the burgandy siding was taken off and the yellow and white porch was painted (for some reason I cant find a pic of it before, I will update it once it shows up somewhere)

The back of the house next to our garage neighbour. the front was covered in the same siding as the back. This was mid backyard fix up. we removed a shack from the middle of the property so there would be some yard.

So with an 8 month old and myself 2 months pregnant with Daniel we took possession of this little gem :)










The hole we made in the master bedroom to fix the ductwork


JM taking out the old railing that wasnt going to save anyone from falling down


pretty new railing




sill success

our backyard mid reno with our former huge tree that fell on the house mid reno during a big storm (thats right it fell on the house smashing our landscaping tearing off siding, damaging windows, roof and part of our completed kitchen)

old front with some new planting

our old steps, one of the last things to get completed during the reno

mouse ridden, leaking old kitchen with some new floor

door to "the hole" as we referred to the basement

my lovely papa helping gut the kitchen


There are many stories related to this whole experience of renovating with babies while living in the project and many learning curves since we did most of it ourselves (professionals did the wiring, roof and some assistance on some of the plumbing) It all pulled together in the very end.  We took a little over 2 1/2 years to finish it all getting the final portion of the siding on the front finished 2 weeks before we put it up for sale.




























It took 4 days to sell and we now have a little over a month to find somewhere else to live :)

Have you ever been through a reno?  any advice for us second time around?

The Merchantile

For the time being we don't own a car, dont see ourselves getting one any time soon and are okay with this, but what this means is our radius of places to get food/gifts/clothing etc is much smaller than for our former driving selves.  This also means we have learned to shop local and find some amazing places for special things in our life and special things for the special people in our lives.  My current favourite place to shop for gifts is The Merchantile on Roncessvalles Avenue.  Luckily my family likes to cook and eat so there are years to come of gifts from this place. It is full of jams and sauces, chocolates and other treats.  Im always intrigued by the different drinks that they have and they have a very cute yet complete baking corner where we like to pick out cupcake wrappers and the sprinkles to go on top for whoevers birthday is next or cookie cutters for the upcoming holiday.  They are alway friendly inside and always ready to help with a recommendation.

http://www.themercantile.ca/

Valentines Day

 What did you do on the holiday of love. No big romantic dates for the hubby and I, we decided to do one better. An awesome family dinner date at home.  Thomas picked the menu, Fondue and I added the nutrition carrots and broccoli.  We had been making hearts all week and strung them up over the dining room lights and I surprised the boys with balloons hanging from the living room chandelier :)

 Balloons are always a big hit around here and a super cheap way to keep the kids entertained and feeling like its a special event. Clearly hitting the balloons became the activity of the day with a chair for each one to stand on and try to hit each other in the face with them.

 My time consuming portion of our fondue dinner was the carrots, they wont take as long the second time around and turned out super cute.

 During the holidays I always find produce that normally isnt there like these multi coloured carrots. I was thrilled to find them while expecting to get regular orange carrots.

                              step 1- cut a notch out of the carrot lengthwise.

        Step 2- use the peeler to shave the bottom to a point and soften the curves of the top of the carrot

                                          Step 3- slice

... and then nothing like rice crispies with fun sprinkles the boys picked out at The Merchantile to top it all off.                http://www.themercantile.ca/

Hope you all had a great Valentines Day!