It was chaos and I wouldn’t even know where to begin so instead, let’s jump into this recipe that I managed to squeeze in amidst all the crazy.
Mr. C&M has been begging me to make banana bread for months now. So, one day after work, when it had been quiet, and therefore energy remaining, I did the thing.
Since I haven’t been baking a whole hell of a lot (this is my first recipe of 2024), my supplies were limited, and I had to find a simple recipe with limited ingredients.
Despite that, it was quite the tasty treat. Even better, I topped it with butter and Moth’s parents’ legendary raspberry rhubarb jam. (I cannot eat enough of that jam if I tried, and they keep me fully stocked!)
If you’re interested in giving it a try yourself, you can find the recipe HERE.
I will log in another night to catch up with everyone’s blogs. For right now, just know that I’m still kicking. Swimming in a sea of chaos but still swimming!
One delightful thing about being with one company for so long is that I have accrued quite a bit of vacation time. The downside of this last year has been the constant employee turnover, which led to having one full week of vacation left as the year is winding to a close. So, here I am, on vacation with nowhere to go. That’s not a complaint! I have so much I want to do around the house and never the time (or sometimes motivation) to do it.
I started my vacation out in a bit of a panic. I completely forgot that Cookie Day 2023 was scheduled right at the start of it. In fact, if it wasn’t for a chance call from my aunt, I would have missed it completely. Queue my first few hours off planning two recipes and an early morning trip to the store for ingredients. But I made it! (Only 14 minutes late.)
What is Cookie Day? A few years ago, I was invited by a few bakers in the family to join their little baking club. They meet one day before the holidays and bake their little hearts out. Each person brings two recipes. We bake them up, decorate if need be and split the goods. That means each person brings home 8 dozen cookies at the end of the day.
After that panic (and being stuffed full of cookies), I relaxed all day Sunday. Monday, I went Christmas shopping with my friend and Tuesday, my lease being up on my car, entailed figuring out what to do about that situation.
Yesterday, I was able to stay home and start working on some of those projects I mentioned. First project being to finally decorate for Christmas. I usually do this the weekend after Thanksgiving, but I was busy, and it didn’t happen.
I had the brilliant idea to decorate the tank stand that my uncle and I created together and I’m very pleased with the turnout:
Edgar approves of his festive space.
For now though friends, it’s time for me to spend a minute catching up on fellow blogs and then get back to work! I could truly take a second week off to get things done, but whatever I do now is at least a dent in it. 🙂
It’s that time of the year! Time to make lists of the good things that happened in 2021. Now, baking wise, I didn’t go crazy but I still had some really great recipes happen. Here they are in order of greatness:
‘Tis the season to hit the baking HARD. I don’t know that I will actually get too because work is burning me out so bad but I am trying people.
These cookies were awesome. They even go well dipped in coffee. Exceptionally well. Just don’t let it hang out in there too long because they break off fast and then you end up with cookie crumbs in the bottom of your coffee and well, that’s not all that bad really. 😉
Welcome to October Ghouls and Ghosts! Sure, I am 8 days behind that statement but who cares? It’s the greatest month of the year!
I made some new cookies as a thank you to my coworkers and aunt for helping me out during Ozzy’s healing process. (He’s doing great.) They were a huge hit and all of them, I mean ALL OF THEM, were sucked down in one day.
I highly recommend dunking them in a pumpkin spice coffee for maximum pumpkin goodness. In fact, I think I should make another batch of these this weekend!
The original recipe calls for white chocolate chips but your ghoul here, did not have any. I had vanilla though and they still turned out scrumptious!
One of the new pharmacists at work has Celiac Disease. She never wants anyone to go out of their way to make her anything but we were having a joint birthday party for her and another coworker. Ya girl here, cannot see someone NOT have a birthday dessert. So, I embarked on my first adventure in gluten free baking.
It was not as hard as anticipated. I even substituted coconut oil for butter in this recipe because another coworker is lactose intolerant. I still put regular milk in it though since it was what I had on hand. Either she avoided the dessert altogether or it didn’t upset her stomach too badly.
I think they turned out pretty great. They had good flavor and the consistency wasn’t even that different. The only issue I had was since I replaced butter with coconut oil, the frosting would get pretty hard in the fridge. I left them out for the party to thaw some.
Look, this recipe made about 2 dozen cookies and they’re about to all be gone in 2 days. So, that should tell you all you need to know about this recipe. (Not bad for the first new recipe of the new year!)
Happy New Year! Out with the old and in with the new or whatever it is they say you should do this time of the year.
How did you ring in the first day of the new year?
I spent mine drinking and baking with my BFFF (best fucking friends forever) Ignited Moth and I cannot think of a better way to do it given the circumstances.
For our first (we determined that it will not be our last) time drinking and baking on video, we had a bit of a messy start. And, that was BEFORE the drinks got involved. Quickly, we got our shit together and got to baking!
Moth outdid me as she made not just bread, but jam AND a fancy homemade cocktail. Is there anything that girl CAN’T do??
While she tried out a new honey beer bread recipe, I tackled an eggnog bread with eggnog icing. I needed to clean some holiday stuff out of my fridge okay?
Both breads turned out to be winners but here’s a picture of mine (her’s is in her hands in the photo above):
Ignited Moth is literally one of the best people I know. I’m so lucky to have her as my friend. I’m not sure how I would have gotten through 2020 without our weekly video calls and shenanigans. ❤
cupcakesandmachetes 