Banana Bread & Only 3 Ingredients

I found a recipe (HERE) for a delicious banana bread containing only 3 ingredients.  That’s right, only 3 ingredients.  I made it using 4 bananas and put all the batter in one loaf pan.  It was super good and because I cooked all the batter in one loaf pan, it took approximately 50-55 minutes to bake.  I think the only thing that would have made it better was if I would have added some chopped nut.  Chopped walnuts added to any recipe is OK in my book (if you can afford the little jewels).

It was so good that the following week I bought more bananas so I could make another loaf.  This time, I added 1 cup coconut to the batter….mmmmm, love coconut.  I cut off a few slices when it was hot because I wanted to get pictures so I could blog about it……. Ok…….because I couldn’t wait and I wanted to eat a piece.  You can even see all the tender bits of coconut in the pictures I took.

I don’t know what happened, maybe the bananas were a lot bigger (making the batter too moist) than the first loaf I made, or the coconut, or I didn’t cook it long enough, or what, but when the loaf had cooled and I tried to slice it, it fell all to pieces, literally.  I could not even get one slice that looked descent.  Maybe I should have tried slicing it with my electric knife (just thought of that).  Anyways, the bits of blob are super moist and the flavor is great.  I’m not giving up on this one.  Next time maybe I’ll just try using 3 bananas, but I need to keep the coconut in the recipe.  And….maybe I’ll throw in a few nuts.

Bathroom Mirror Minus The Fog

I read on a blog somewhere that if you take a bar of soap and rub it on your bathroom mirror it will keep it from fogging up.  You don’t even need to cover the entire mirror…..just swirl that soap around a bit and your good to go.  If the soap bar is too dry, just get it a little damp then try again.  Now, get a clean cloth and buff your mirror off really good so none of the soap streaks show. 

Yesterday after taking my shower I was excited when I stepped out and realized that the one (I only did one first to see if it would work) mirror I had soaped was clear and the others (our medicine cabinet has 4 mirrors) were totally fogged up.  Wahoo……I ran to get my camera so I could show how neat this was and that it really works. 
As I was standing in front of the mirror snapping photos and then went to preview my photos, what a shocker.  I was so excited about the clear mirror verses the foggy mirror that I hadn’t even thought about or even noticed my body reflection in the mirror.  Mind you, since one side was clear and the other side was totally foggy the pictures only reflected 1/2 a naked body, but still, not a worthy picture to post – Ha! 
Anyways, this morning I had a plan and I stood in different places around the bathroom to see if I could get some photos without standing directly in front of the mirror.  I could see that this was possible so once again after getting out of the shower, the one mirror was still clear with a little moisture, but not too bad.  Snap, snap…..I had my photos.  I don’t know how long the soap will last but I know it lasts for at least two showers.

The photo below, showing all four mirrors really lets you see the difference. 

It’s a CLEAR choice for me……….I will be soaping my mirrors more often.

Heavy Frost

Yesterday around 4:30pm, the fog started rolling in.  It didn’t come in slowly but it came very quickly.  And this morning, we woke up to this.  It was still pretty foggy and everything was covered in frost.  It early (around 8am) when I took these pictures so they aren’t the best but just in the short time I was outside, my hands got really cold.  Burr-r-r-r-rrr! Foggy, frosty, 4 degree weather is not what I call… have a nice day.

Icy Mail Trail

Our back door is hard packed snow/ice and very slick. I cleared a portion of the mat off using a hammer.  I put some ice-melt on it but all it did was make little holes in the ice exactly where it was sprinkled.

Since our front door that I normally use to go to the mailbox has been blocked off because of regular snow and all the snow sliding off the roof, I’ve been taking the long route around (using back door) to get our mail.  I decided today that I enjoy my hips (did I just say that) and decided I didn’t want to fall so I set to work clearing a path to our mailbox using the front door.  The hardest part was trying to clear away the snow just off the porch area where all the snow had slid off the roof, compacting it and making it crusty and hard. After finally getting through that part, the rest was fairly easy going.

I was not able to get the ice/snow off of the first step and the ground next to the first step but at least it is easy to get over.  Better than trying to go around from the back on the hard, slick snow/ice.

Yep, just went out and got the mail and it was much easier walking on the snowy, grass path than using the back door and walking around on the hard-packed snow/ice.

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Well, the touch of OCD in me just couldn’t let me leave it the way it was so I just went back out the front door and poured some very hot water over the snow/ice hump.  It melted off quite a bit of it and got me close enough to the step that I could use the hammer to chisel off and break away a lot more.  It was still tough going and I didn’t want to crack or break the cement step with the hammer.  I thought about pouring more hot water on the rest but it was making more ice.  It is also getting late in the afternoon so I decided to leave what was left for another day.

I am happy, however, that we are getting the snow.  Moisture, we really need the moisture/snow/rain.  Things have been getting a bit dry in our little valley these past few years.