Rainy Day Baking

"The most indispensable ingredient of all good home cooking: love, for those you are cooking for." -Sophia Loren

I LOVE a rainy day! Unless it's ruining some sort of outdoor plans or something...I'll take a rainy day ANY DAY! Except of course when it's been rainy for a week straight! Coming off of a drought here in our area, if was definitely needed. However, home with the kids during a series of rainy days gets a little, well cumbersome. The girls and I had watched movies, done puzzles, drawn a bazillion pictures, played on the computer, made beaded necklaces, broke out the paint, napped, and even had each girl start their very own scrapbooks. What is left to do? Despite the fact that Nic isn't usually too fond of desserts and had recently gone back into his really, really healthy eating habits (as opposed to just the normal healthy eating habits he possesses), I decided we should bake him and the rest of the fire station some banana bread. I wanted to get a little crazy with the banana bread and scoured the Internet for a jazzed up recipe. I finally found one with peanut butter and chocolate chips. It even had wheat flour and with the protein from the peanut butter, and if I used dark chocolate chips, Nic couldn't resist the "healthiness" of it! Once the girls figured out we'd be doing a little baking, Kristin jumped up and down squealing while ordering Kaylee to go get both stools. Kristin immediately asked if they could wear their baking hats and outfits. What baking hats and outfits? She then pulled me by my hand into the laundry room and pushed back several miscellaneous articles of clothing hanging up to reveal their pink princess "baking hats and outfits" (really just aprons). I had purchased them on clearance at Target at least a year ago and I had COMPLETELY forgotten all about them. How funny that Kristin remembered them! Especially since I let them cook with me often and they've never before been mentioned. So after scrubbing our hands, the girls got all dressed up in their baking hats and aprons and hopped up on the stools. I kept repeating to myself in my head that it doesn't matter about the mess they may make, I was just going to let them have at it! They took turns back and forth with each task, with Kaylee even cracked one perfectly shell-free egg into the mix! We finally finished and we ended up making four mini loaves of peanut butter chocolate chip banana bread! By the time it was done baking, it was dinner time so the girls thought it was even more special that they got to sample their sweet cooking right before dinner! After a girls only dinner date of pizza, we took two loaves to the fire station. Nic couldn't resist our yummy goodness and even shared just a tiny bit with the rest of the guys. I'm definitely filing the recipe away for another rainy day of baking! And this time maybe I'll remember the baking outfits!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tbs. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas

1 cup milk

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 cup chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease loaf pan(s) or muffin tins.

2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, salt, cinnamon.

3. In another bowl, combine mashed bananas, milk, peanut butter, vanilla, and egg. Add to flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan(s). Bake 50-55 mins. (give it a check at about 40 mins.) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Old Navy- The Next Generation

Back in 1997, it was the second semester of UF, and my money was getting a little more than tight. I decided to get a job as I knew it wouldn't be long until I'd be living off of Ramen noodles and PB&J's. I applied and got hired at Old Navy on Archer Road. It was here that I met (over the course of the next four years) some great people. You can only imagine the turn over rate at a place like Old Navy in a college town. Due to that people were always coming and going. However, we developed a little group that pretty much stayed together for the duration of our time in Gainesville. We would have THE BEST parties; we would definitely ALWAYS make work fun; and even had a few road trips (one in particular to Key West stands out). Around 1999 or 2000, some of us started to graduate, move back home or to start a job, and soon after that came the weddings and children. Some of us here and there have gotten together through the years, but once the kids started joining our lives, it became increasingly more difficult to schedule a get together. So it had been a good probably six years since anyone has gotten together.

I think the whole Facebook thing got us all back in contact again about six months ago. Jen M. threw out a couple of dates for a reunion and we all picked one and marked our calendars and vowed to make it work!! We all met up at Jen's house in Palm Harbor to have a cook-out and swim and catch up. The furthest family came from the Panhandle, one family from Jacksonville, a few from Orlando, and others here locally. There were a few other Old Navy Vets that couldn't make it (some as far as North Carolina now).

Nic was on duty so it was just the girls and I. When we walked around back to the pool, I couldn't believe how much everyone looked the same like a day hadn't passed in the last ten years! We all picked right up where we left off! What a great feeling to be back with such comforting and fun friends! Everyone has kids of their own now and we had a total of 13 there that day! The kids swam non-stop from about 11:00 a.m. until about 4:00 in the afternoon! They all played so well together and looked like little mini versions of us! The stories and memories we shared were so much fun! Definitely took me back to the good ol' college days.

I hope we are able to keep this little reunion going. Good times and good friends from a great place! It's great to be a Florida Gator! Maybe our next reunion can be at The Swamp!!

Cliff Notes

So when I started this blog I promised myself it wouldn't end up something that I start and get excited about and eventually just let fizzle out. Well I've broken my promise already, what... 3 or 4 posts in?? Life has just gotten in the way. A busy life these days. But I think I'm settling for a slow down pretty soon with summer already underway. Home for the summer with the girls with NOTHING definite on the calendar until school starts in August (well almost nothing...we're going to a mini-trip to Orlando in a few days to take the girls to Sea World).

Remember those yellow and black paperback "Cliff Notes" that would focus on a novel's main points and give a brief summary..the stuff you need to know? So you could bypass reading every detail of the entire novel and still get the main gist of the story. Not that I know ANYTHING about those cheating reading materials, but what follows is the Cliff Notes to our Spring happenings... only the gist of our recent lives.

April

• Kristin ended her soccer season early. Nic and I struggled with the decision on whether or not to make her finish it out or not. We are firm believers in that if the kids want to sign up for something, they are making a commitment to the end of the season or session or whatever. We decided not to push her as she was also dealing with the strange anxiety of her first attempt at preschool. We let her stop going, however just made her think that the season was over for her so as not to let her think she was actually getting her way and being a quitter.
• Easter was a nice and quiet day. Kaylee says this is actually her favorite holiday. She'll even tell you the reason is because Jesus is Alive! The girls loved their baskets and actually got a bit spoiled this year as they received 3 more baskets each... one from Uncle Bill and Aunt Marquel, one from Gramma and PaPa, and one from Millie. After going to church, we went out to lunch with the family before Nic had to go into work. We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool and relaxing.
• Kaylee had her spring recital at school....her last one as a preschooler. She was in the front row and sang every word with a smile!
• Nic stayed busy with the firestation and pools, but was extra busy with spring baseball and all the games he umpired. He loves to do it and it's great extra money so we don't mind him being gone a little more than usual in the spring.

May

• Nic went to Cape Coral for his annual Firefighter Olympic Games trip with some guys from work. He competed in golf and billards. Didn't place but had a bunch of fun trying.
• I took the majority of my third graders and most of their parents to Kennedy Space Center on a Saturday in early May. We had a GREAT time and I'm sure made many memories for the kids. I was very proud of their behavior...so much in fact that I may attempt to take them on a 2 day trip to St. Augustine next year. Speaking of the students, I am looping up to 4th grade with my same class and am absolutely ectactic about it!
• Kaylee lost her first tooth!! It was wiggly and wobbly for a few weeks until it finally was hanging on by a thread. Every so often, she'd let me touch it, but only if I pinky promised I wouldn't pull it out. Early one Saturday morning, she climbed into bed with me to watch cartoons and as she pulled the covers up over her, she hit her mouth and her tooth went a flying! She looked at me and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I think she wanted to cry but when she saw how excited I was, she started laughing and showing her excitement. We found the tooth amongst the sheets and put it in a safe place until the Tooth Fairy could pay her a visit later that night.
• Photo shoots with Jen and I have picked up and we've done a few handfuls of them this spring. We both have the same eye for photography and truly have passion for it. For as far as we can see into the future, this will probably always just be a thing on the side as we do our other passion, teaching. We are fortunate though that our clientele base has grown as much as it has, and that it continues to grow.
• I went to Orlando for a girls weekend with Jen, Telsha, Nic's cousin Melinda, and her friend Kristy. We had so much fun just being girls and scrapping all weekend long. For some reason, my creative mojo was down that weekend and I was not feeling it at all. I was trying to be creative and cutesy, but it just wasn't working out the way I wanted it to. I started Kristin's ABC book, but have yet to finish it. Despite the lack of creativity I had going, the weekend was still well needed and memorable.
• The month ended with my dear sweet Kaylee ending her pre-K year at her preschool. What a bittersweet time for me! So sad because I'm hit with another reminder that she's growing up in mere instants in front of my eyes; so sad because she will no longer be at her amazing school; so sad because she's starting kindergarten...BUT also so sweet because she's growing up in front of my eyes; so sweet because she's starting kindergarten; so sweet because she's so smart...just bittersweet. We were so blessed that she's had the BEST teachers at her school and that they have done an indescribable job at beginning her academic years with such a solid foundation and have encouraged her and provided her with more than what she needs to love school and be prepared for the school years ahead.

June

• Well school ended for me last week and as much as this was a great school year; I really can't complain about a single thing about this past year....I was SO happy to start the summer. I was just plain pooped!
• Kaylee lost her second tooth. :)
• We just got back a few days ago from a refreshing and relaxing trip to Marco Island. What a beautiful place!! The beach, the pool, the time share we stayed in.... all wonderful! The girls had a blast in and out of the water all day. However, their favorite I think would have to be pushing the buttons on the elevator and going up and down all day. Of all things! We also went down to the Everglades nearby and rode an air boat and a swamp buggy. Awesome! Now mini-vaca number 2 starts in a few days as we head to Orlando to go to Sea World and hang out at our resort for a few days!!

Obviously I skipped the minor details, but I think you get the gist. Hopefully, now that I'm settling for a slowdown, I'll have time to update more often!