Betty’s Banana Bread

1/2 shortening (can substitute applesauce), 1 cup sugar, 3/4 cup mashed banana (2 overripe bananas), 1 1/4 cup self rising  flour(I use whole wheat), 2 eggs, nuts.  Combine all ingredients.   Bake at 350 until done.  Approx. 45 min.

Here are a few pictures of some flowers that are blooming around our house now.  I am pretty sure these are called violas.  I so enjoy their tiny bright blooms.  So cheerful.  Purple and yellow are my favorite color combinations for flowers.

Yesterday, we made strawberry rhubarb jam.  I had enough rhubarb to make a rhubard pie as well.  The recipe I use is :

1 cup rhubard- finely chopped, 1/4 cup melted butter, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp cornstarch and 2 eggs well beaten.  Combine all ingredients and pour into 1 unbaked pie crust.  Bake at 350 degrees until done.  It takes about 45 min in my oven.  I have made this pie for about 25 years.  It is a family favorite.

Today was friends day at church.  We had a great day.  Probably about 70 people in total.  Our numbers usually run in the 40′s.  We had some really good music, a good sermon from our pastor and  a great fellowship meal afterward because you all know how much we like to eat.  I took pinto beans, green onions and a peach sauce pie.   We won’t be having evening bible study tonight so we plan on just relaxing this evening.  The girls and I will be traveling down to Jessica’s tomorrow to watch the boys.  She will be having an ultra sound tomorrow to (maybe) discover if she will be having a boy or girl.  This all depends upon the baby’s cooperation of course.  

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Remember a while back I said we were working on a big surprise.  Well, here they are.  We have baby chicks!!!!!  Aren’t they sooo cute?   The girls and I are so excited.  Hubby is a little more reserved but we know he’ll come around.   Our friends, the Horns, gave us the red ones.  The others came from Tractor Supply.   We got them Saturday.  They spent the weekend inside as it was extremely cold here.  We moved them out to their coop yesterday.   We pulled a quilt down over the roost and put a light inside so they stayed nice and warm.   I will be posting more pictures all along to let you all know of their progress.

It is a little warmer here today.  At least no snow or ice.  Hopefully, we will be able to hang clothes outside to dry.   Today is supposed to be our warmest day of the week.  Colder with rain for the remainder.  Oh well, this is the last week of March.  In April, things start warming up more.  We will be doing school as usual today, with breaks to go check on the chicks.  The girls have already been out once this morning.  They want them to be used to them and not be afraid. 

I made a new recipe yesterday for pumpkin muffins.  They turned out pretty good.  The recipe I used is:

Original Recipe Yield 1 dozen muffins

This morning as Hubby and I were having our morning coffee together, we saw what we thought were tracks on the pond.  Then we thought maybe it was just where the wind had blown the snow in swirls.  Later in the day, Grace took these pictures.

They look like they are having fun!

Maybe this is a sign of early spring.  They do seem to be here kinda early this year.  Maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part.

Yesterday, for dessert I made an oatmeal pie.  This is one of my favorites, also Julie and Jess.  The recipe is:

2 eggs beaten, 2/3 cup sugar, 2/3 cup uncooked oatmeal, 1 tsp vanilla, 2/3 cup melted butter, 2/3 cup corn syrup, 1/4 tsp salt.  Mix all ingredients together and pour into uncooked pie crust.  Bake at 350 degrees for l hr. 

Okay, so my crust is not too pretty but I promise you it tasted delicious!  It tastes a lot like pecan pie.  Temperatures here are warm-mid 30′s.  We have some sun right now but a storm is supposed to be moving in.  One forecast said 4-5 in of snow.  We’ll see.  Right now though it is nice.  I have clothes on the line outside, hopefully, they will dry before the clouds come in.

Tonights menu is deer bbq, made from the roast yesterday, home fries and slaw.  We still have some pie left for dessert.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Well, the snow did come yesterday-about 4″.  So no family coming today.  Hopefully, Dave, Jess and the boys will get to come about the middle of the week.  I’m not sure when Chuck will come.  The girls are excited today.  There is enough snow to make snow cream, which is a favorite around here.  There probably will be some sledding today too.  The winds are supposed to start later today so we’ll just have to see how everything goes.  The cows don’t seem to mind the snow at all.

I took these pictures from our dining room window.  Later today, we will be going down to the barn to get milk.  I will try to take more pictures then.

Hubby completely surprised me yesterday morning.  We very seldom get each other gifts at Christmas but this year he got me this wonderful mixer.  He even braved Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve to get it for me.  Complete surprise!  I got up yesterday morning, went to turn the coffee pot on and there it was.  I squealed out loud and he just smiled that beautiful smile of his that always says “I love you”.  He said with all the cooking and baking I do, he thought it would come in handy.  Well, it certainly will.  I made a batch of banana nut muffins in it this morning.  I used a different recipe than I normally use and I think I like it much better.  The recipe is:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat), 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/3 cup applesauce, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup sour cream, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. allspice, 2/3 cup mashed bananas, 1/3 cup chopped walnuts.  Combine all ingredients.   Pour into muffin tin.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 min.  I used my large muffin tin and got 6 muffins.  Very good.

No church today because of the snow.  I sure am glad we got to go Friday night to the candlelight service.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

The girls and I made molasses cookies today.  They are one of my favorites.  I thought I would share the recipe I use:

1 cup butter- softened, 1 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup molasses, 2 eggs-slightly beaten, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 1/4 tsp. baking soda, 2 1/4 tsp. ground ginger, 1 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, 4 cups flour (I use 3 cups whole wheat and 1 cup unbleached all purpose)  Combine all ingredients and drop by spoon onto cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 min.  Sprinkle tops with sugar.

These cookies always make me think of fall, however it has been pretty warm here today, upper 80′s.  The night temperature though has been cooling down nicely.  It was mid 50′s this morning, nice sleeping weather. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

We did make cookies this afternoon.  It seems like it has been a long time since we made cookies.   We have made lots of other desserts this summer, just not cookies.  Here’s the recipe I like to use:

1/2 cup shortening, 1/2 cup butter, softened.  1 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, 3 cups self-rising flour.  I use 2 cups white flour, 1 cup fresh ground wheat flour.  Add 1 12 oz package chocolate chips.  I use the mini chocolate chips.  I think they do much better, makes you think there is more chocolate in each cookie.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 min.  We are enjoying them now with a tall glass of fresh milk.  Life is good!

We gathered the corn this morning but because of my back problems it had gotten a little bit hard so we are making pickled corn from it.  I really like pickled corn with brown beans and corn bread.  When I make pickled corn, I cut it off the cob-do not scrape the cob.  Then I put it into a crock, cover it with cold water.  Put a plate on top of this so the corn stays under the salted water.  For every gallon of water I need to cover the corn, I add 10 tbsp. of canning salt.  Let the corn sit in the crock for 1 week.  Drain the salted water off and rinse the corn.  Put into jars and process in water bath canner.  10 min. pts and 15 min. qts.  When it is time to eat it, we like to heat it up in a cast iron skillet with just a little bit of oil.  To make myself feel better I use olive oil.  The old way is to use lard.

More cookies are ready to come out of the oven.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

I thought I would post a few pictures of things that are growing in our garden. 

Green beans starting to set on the vine.  I will soon be able to pick some of these and enjoy them.

Our hot peppers.  They will taste so good in our homemade salsa.

Sweet banana peppers.  YUM!  Hubby and I have had to start watering our garden.  It is so dry here.  Forecast is calling for a chance of rain over the weekend.  We really need it.  Seems like no matter how much you water, it never does the garden as much good as rain from God does.  I think I forgot to tell everyone what a nice weekend we had here-very cool temperatures.  Two mornings when we got up the temperature was 43 degrees- then up to the lower 50′s, upper 50′s and today mid 60′s.  Daytime temperatures over the weekend were great-low to mid 70′s.  Starting Monday though its been back up to HOT-not near as hot as some places but hot for us.  96 degrees yesterday when Hubby came through Christiansburg.  Upper 80′s here on the farm. 

Last nights supper was grilled chicken, green beans, pasta salad and rolls.  I fixed everything on the grill so as not to heat the house up any more than it already was.  We ate outside at the picnic table.  It was really nice.  A little breeze was blowing which helped a lot .  Yesterday I got a recipe from my friend Vicki-applesauce pie.  I made it and thought it was really good.  I wanted to share it with you all.

2 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp flour, 1 tsp.ground nutmeg, 1 stick melted butter, 1 cup applesauce, 1 tsp vanilla.  Combine sugar, flour, and nutmeg.(You can use cinnamon instead or a little of both).  Beat eggs, add eggs to dry ingredients.    Gently combine butter applesauce and vanilla until mixed.  Pour into pie shell.  Bake at 350 for 45 min or until golden brown.   (I would recommend if your applesauce is sweet to cut down some on the sugar, I didn’t but Hubby thought it was a little too sweet.  I thought it was just fine.)

Enjoy your day and God bless.

My accomplishment for the day.  This cake goes by several different names.  Some call it a stack cake.  Some call it a lassie (molasses) cake.  No matter what name you call it, it is just plain GOOD.  When I was growing up in the mountains of southwest va, this cake was very popular among my mom’s family.  You very seldom had any type of family get together that someone didn’t make this cake.  Of course, as a young girl I took this for granted.  Ate the cake and never thought about learning to make it myself.  Then we moved away from family and of course I wanted me some stack cake.  I called my aunt and got the recipe.  It has taken much trial and error but I think I’ve just about got it right.  This is a recipe I want to pass down to my girls.  Old mountain recipes will be lost if we don’t teach the next generation how to make them (even if they don’t want to learn).  If anyone is interested in the recipe, here it is:  1/2 cup oil, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs,   1 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1/2 cup hot water, 1/2 cup molasses, 3 cups self-rising flour.  Mix all ingredients together.  Turn mixture onto floured surface.  Knead until slightly stiff.  Divide into 6 parts.  Put wax paper into round cake pans. ( I do three at a time)  Take each section of dough, spread out thinly in cake pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Romove from oven.  Place on cooling rack.  Repeat process for the other 3 sections.  Spread apple butter between the sections.  Let set overnight to allow the apple butter to moisten the cake layers.  Then serve.  Many enjoy this cake with buttermilk.  Any questions, just leave a comment or e-mail me.  Enjoy and God Bless.