Make-It Monday

Really Very Nice and Good Banana Bread.  This is what this should have been named, according to kids.  It is really the best banana bread I've tasted in a long time, and it makes 4 loaves!  Plenty for everyone.  I think adding nuts would make it even better, but it's good without too.

Sour Cream Banana Bread

3/4 c. butter
3 c. sugar
3 eggs
6 ripe bananas, mashed or pureed in food proccesor/blender
1-16 oz. (500 ml) container sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking soda
4 1/2 c. flour
1 c. nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 300 degrees.  Grease 4 loaf pans.

Cream butter and sugar.  Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon.  Add salt, baking soda and flour.  Stir in nuts.  Divide into pans.

Bake 1 hour, or til toothpick in center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

The Importance of Failing

I love these videos that emphasize the need to fail before you can succeed.  As the quote goes, "I have not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." (Thomas Edison, when asked how it felt to have 'failed' numerous times in his inventions).  So go out there, grab the bull by the horns, and if you don't make it the first time?  So what?  Try again.  That is my challenge to myself, and you.

Free-Range Kids: A Book Review

If you are a parent and you can find this at your local library, I would highly recommend picking it up.  I grabbed it simply because the title caught my eye (free-range, that's like chickens, right?  Not kids!).  I was pleasantly surprised to find myself laughing out loud while reading it and joyously sharing her insights with Dan, who also got a chuckle but probably just wanted me to stop interrupting his solitaire game.

The author is basically presenting a commentary on the paranoid society we live in that has resulted in super paranoid, over the top helicopter parents who can hardly let their children walk to the mailbox alone anymore, let alone to school, to their friends', or down to the local convenience store, library, sporting event, etc.  She discusses how this paranoia is producing kids who are basically useless when they leave home - which is why they stay or keep coming back. 

I'm sure my bias makes this book a great read for me.  Although in such a large city I also fall victim to some of the paranoid thinking outlined in the book, I am always shaking my head at how intent parents are on making sure their child is ALWAYS SAFE.  Not that you want any harm to come to your child, heaven forbid, but learning the hard way now and then only makes you tougher.  And we CAN'T protect them from the world.  It's out there, waiting.  Most children of paranoid parents only greet it a lot later in life, and usually have a break down trying to cope with it.

If nothing else, this book will make you giggle.  Skenazy has a way of saying things that brings the lighter side out on everything and points out the absurdly ridiculous (labelling classic episodes of Sesame Street as "adult only" due to it's representation of activities now considered unsafe in our paranoid society, for instance), yet she manages to show that a foundation of understanding must be created within our children.  Knowledge is power, and knowing what's out there and how to handle it is truly empowering.  She also backs up a lot of what she says with research supporting the fact that crime rates have not changed over the years, rather our 24/7 CNN coverage of every little traumatic event in the lives of people hundreds of miles away from us has changed what we believe are every day occurances that we have to protect ourselves and our children from.

Give it a read.  It'll make you smile in this wet, dreary spring!

From the Wall Street Journal review:

"Skenazy will find plenty of supporters for her contention that, in a world where the rights of chickens to roam freely are championed, it's time to liberate the kids."

Make-It Monday, on Tuesday

Here I am a little late again.  In our R.S. newsletter a recipe was included for Honey Lemon Whole Wheat Bread.  We tried it and really liked it, plus it's very easy to make.  It would also work well as a bread to let sit in the fridge over night, then pop it in the oven in the morning, or any other time you need to make the dough ahead and bake later.  Enjoy!

Honey Lemon Whole Wheat Bread

Prep time: 25-30 mins. (A lot is resting time for dough)
Rising time: 2- 24 hours, depending on your time frame
Bake time: 30-40 mins

3c. all purpose flour
2 pkgs. yeast
2 tsp. salt
2 1/4 c. hot water
1/4 c. honey
3 Tblsp margarine at room temp.
1 Tblsp. grated lemon peel (I used lemon juice)
2-3 c. whole wheat flour
vegetable oil

Combine white flour, yeast and salt.  Pour in the hot water.
Add honey, margarine, and lemon peel.
Stir briskly or mix approx. 2 mins.  Scrape bowl occasionally.

Add 1c. whole wheat flour.
Beat at high or by hand for 1 min.  Stop beating.

Stir in 1-2 c. whole wheat flour depending on moistness.  Dough should be elastic, soft and not too sticky.
Knead for approx. 10 mins. (I do it by hand, so I did not make it this long.  They still worked)

Cover dough with towel and allow to rest 20 mins.

Knead dough 30 seconds and divide into 2 pieces.  Shape into balls and let rest for 3 mins.

Form into loaves in pans.
Brush with vegetable oil.
Cover loosely with parchment/wax paper and saran wrap.

Place pans in fridge for 2-24 hours.

Remove from fridge and let stand while oven heat up to 400 degrees, about 20 minutes.

Uncover loaves, bake at lower rack for 30-40 mins.
Place on metal rack to cool.

Things I Learned from my Father...

Things I learned from my dad:

1. Love learning. Learning, not necessarily education, although he stressed that to all of us as well.  My dad does not have heaps of education under his belt.  But he was always learning.  He reads anything and everything in order to learn more about various subjects.  It was not unusual to find him perusing our text books from school.  He always has some random fact or knowledge he read somewhere.  (Gee, where did I get that from?)

2. There are no grey areas.  You either make the right choice or you don't.  You have both feet in or you might as well be out.  Name the cliche, but that was how I grew up.  You attend your meetings, you go to church, you go to all the activities, and you follow the prophet.  No questions asked.  Really, it makes life a lot easier in the end.  I can attest to that after seeing for myself what the grey really is.  It's just that - blah.

3. Talk to everyone, you might gain some interesting knowledge and friends along the way.  Okay, I didn't inherit this one very well.  I do great when I'm at work, but otherwise I pretty much ignore the rest of the world.  In fact, this is one thing that used to drive me crazy about my dad.  (Telling the gas attendant I had just turned 16 and maybe he'd like to ask me out might have sealed that for me!)  But I married someone EXACTLY THE SAME.  So they talk to enough people for all of us.  But now I appreciate it.  I'll keep trying.

Happy Late Birthday Dad!  I love you.  I miss you.  Hope it was a good one!

Let there be light!

This is what we are supposed to be doing in May....



This is what we are doing in May...



As a result this is increasing....



And we all feel like this...



Just like plants, kids need a little sunshine to grow...



Right now we are living proof that KIDS+RAIN = INSANITY.

Sunshine, where are you?

Pioneer Trail Progress

By the way, I have made it from Nauvoo past Sugar Creek and am well on my way to Richardson's Point in my progress along the pioneer trail.  Go here if you don't know where these places are....

http://lds.org/gospellibrary/pioneer/02_Nauvoo.html