April 2012 - Page 2 of 2 - The Sunny Side Up Blog

Food and Cooking...or lack thereof

04.05.12

Banana bread muffins

I’m sharing a recipe today! Woot woot!! I know. Try to contain your excitement. ;) I may not be much of a chef and you may already have a great banana bread recipe, but I’m sharing this recipe anyway because, well I am just SO proud of myself. I have finally mastered these babies and let me tell you – for me to have mastered anything in the kitchen is reason to celebrate! :)

This is my mom’s recipe and it is simple (for most people, me not included) and they are delicious. My mom always makes loaves of bread. I tried making loaves of bread multiple times and couldn’t ever get the inside cooked right without burning the outside. So I finally said – forget that, I’m making muffins. I love the muffins because aside from the fact that they are easier for me to cook, they are also easier to eat. Just grab and go! Perfect with OJ for a quick breakfast or to pack in school lunches.

So after making these only around 300 times I finally went from this…

{Exhibit A – proof that I have not always had these muffins mastered}

To this. :)

3 crushed bananas

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1/2 cup shortening

2 beaten eggs

1 tbsp sour cream

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp vanilla

dash of salt

Bake for 25 minutes @ 350

Couple things to remember: Use bananas that are just starting to go bad. Mushy bananas always taste the best. I like to crush the bananas first before I add the rest of the ingredients. I also like to double this recipe because my family loves them (they’re gone before I know it) and it’s always fun to take a plate to a friend (a double batch makes around 33 muffins). Don’t forget the dash of salt like I did once (really does make a difference). Don’t use 1 tsp sour cream instead of 1 tbsp sour cream like I did once (also makes a difference). Don’t forget the flour like I did once (makes a big difference). Don’t under cook them. Don’t over cook them. (Been there, done that, makes a difference.) I think I’ve made every mistake possible with these muffins.

But not anymore!

That’s right. You’re feeling my excitement now. :)

Enjoy!

xoxo, Erin

Kitchen cupboard (Spring update!)

Sharing pics of one of my kitchen cupboards today! I updated it a bit for Spring. I have been slowly changing the colors in my kitchen and I’m only half way there. My kitchen right now is making me laugh! I’m bringing in more of the blues but I still have a lot of the reds and greens. It’s just a really colorful space. I call it the RAINBOW kitchen. I’m kind of using this house to experiment with different looks and colors so I know exactly how I want to decorate my new house. But let’s face it. I change my decor around about as often as I visit Pottery Barn. I’m sure whatever I start with in my new house won’t last for too long. :)

I can’t find a “before pic” of this cupboard but here is what it looks like (for now).

Same dishes I had before, but I re-arranged things and added some pops of blue.

The left side…

and the right. Do you recognize the aqua letter R?

It’s the one I painted for my Fall wreath. It was just hanging out once December hit and I took my Fall wreath down. It’s happy to have a home again (for now).

My favorite part of the shelf is this butterfly plate I recently bought at Pier One. Isn’t she beautiful!? LOVE this for Spring. I bought it to go on my Spring mantel but it just didn’t look right. Actually nothing is looking right on my mantel. I’ve had it about ten different ways and still haven’t found the winning combination. Part of the problem might be that I only have 3 minutes here and 2 minutes there to actually play around with it. Oh well! As long as I have it done before next Fall I’ll be happy. I’m so busy right now. Expectations are being set pretty low these days! As long as kids are fed and we all have clean clothes to wear I label the day a success. :)

So even though my kitchen cupboard has a lot of the old mixed in with the new, at least it sort of ties in with the rest of my kitchen…

A rainbow cupboard for a rainbow kitchen!

Works for me (for now). :)

xoxo, Erin

Random Monday

Thank you so much to everyone who commented or e-mailed me after Kole’s birthday post. I was so touched. Some of you mentioned the post made you cry…well some of your sweet words made me tear up so now we’re even! :) I really appreciated your thoughtful words and the way so many of you openly shared your experiences with your own children. Hopefully Kole is just a late talker and will speak when he is ready and everything will be fine. He is the third and he is totally spoiled and he does have two older sisters who do everything for him. Fingers crossed that is the reason for the speech delay. However, we do know that if it is something more, early intervention is key which is why we have started some therapy with him. He is too little for a formal assessment – we will know more next year when he turns three – so until then we are just going to work as hard as we can with him. There have been several nights that I have stayed up way too late researching possible causes for the delay and it has done nothing but make me emotional and stressed. So my current plan is to ignore the Internet (aside from blogging of course!), focus on working with Kole, and take it one day at a time. :) Again, thank you for your support. It really does mean so much to me. I read your comments and e-mails several times over the weekend. They always bring a smile to my face! I am continually grateful that I have so many wonderful and kind people reading this blog.

Kole wants to thank you all too. He was sick on his birthday (spent the morning at the doctors because of an ear infection and cough) and your comments seemed to cheer him up as well. :) He was a little bummed we had to cancel his birthday get together at the park with his buddies, but perked up in the afternoon for some cake. Even though he didn’t eat a bite he sure enjoyed destroying it. And clapping because all of us were standing around cheering him on. :)

In other random news I spent Saturday afternoon at one of my favorite malls because Ellie had a birthday party there. Kenny had our other two kiddos and it felt so nice to have a little down time wandering around my favorite stores. I saw so many fun things that I almost bought! Things that I may still go back and buy because I’m still thinking about them. And if I’m still thinking about them it’s probably because they were meant to be mine!

How fun are these spice jars from Anthro!? LOVE the colors and the chalk labels. So fun for Spring! I didn’t buy them because I really don’t need them. I’d love to use them to decorate with but I have NO place to put them. See why I need a new house? I’m ready to start over! :)

I’m really loving these pillows from Z Gallerie and I have been looking for new pillows for my red couches (they would go so well with my yellow hutch!). But they are over $60 bucks each and I keep thinking do I really want to spend that much on pillows that I’ll most likely replace as soon as we move and I have different couches? I am going to be in this house over a year still though…hmm…I may need them after all.

Fun lanterns are popping up everywhere this Spring and I LOVE them! These are from Z Gallerie and like the Anthro spice jars, if I had a spot for them they would be home with me right now. Aren’t they fun!? Pottery Barn has some black ones I have my eye on also.

I’m still debating purchasing these items, but in case I talk myself out of them (for the second time) I am sharing them in hopes that some of you will buy them! They are all too cute to just sit in the store!!

Wanna see what I did buy?

Board shorts for Kole. Yea! Beach days will be here before we know it!

I wanted to buy him this set too but his size isn’t available anymore.

Bummer because we are big turtle fans around here.

Wanna know who else we are fans of?

Is this guy not the coolest!? Kenny and I are loving him on American Idol this year.

Who do you wan to win?

Well that was a random post. Random Monday. Hope yours is a good one!

xoxo, Erin

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