Banana Applesauce Muffins

I put together this recipe when my kids were too young to have eggs. I still like to make these sometimes because, well, I can eat the batter with no guilt whatsoever. 

Banana Applesauce Muffins

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 c. olive oil or canola oil

1/3 c. sugar

1/2 c. applesauce, unsweetened

3 mashed ripe bananas

Spices, optional and adjustable:

ground cinnamon

ground nutmeg

ground cloves

 

Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly grease a muffin pan with olive oil.

 

In one bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Mix with a spoon. 

In another bowl, mix together olive oil and sugar on medium for 30 seconds.  Add applesauce and banana, and mix for another 30 seconds or until the mixture is well combined.  Add flour mixture to the banana mixture, and stir with a spoon until thoroughly combined.  The batter is, I think, best described as "gloppy". 

Spoon into muffin pan, filling each cup about half full.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Let cool in pan for a minute before moving to wire rack to finish cooling.

A little light building

It's no secret that I kind of love Ikea. So, when the time came that we decided to upgrade the kids from their mattress and boxspring sets on the floor, we went through a couple possibilities. Do we get, you know, normal people beds, with the headboard and footboard and a cat and a dog and a briefcase and a pleasant housekeeper named Maud? Naaaah. Do we get a prefab bed from Walmart or Target or wherever that will be okay for a while, but eventually be revealed as the one-hit wonder it is and become a burden later? Or... do we go for an Ikea hack??

We hack!

Or, well, something like it anyway. I don't know if this is really a hack since there is in fact no hacking, but these are once and future bookshelves, making storage under twin beds, and that's pretty cool. We bought four 5x1 Expedit bookcases (this is the whole line, they come in quite a few configurations). The bookcases were $59.99 + tax.




The mattress sandwich



Dada's helper


They move fast!


"Bam bam bam!"


One unit in place!


Almost done with the second unit.


Yep.... still almost done.


Box spring down!

As a temporary measure, since this is the last day we have to build these for two weeks and we needed to get this storage solution going, we decided to use ratchet straps ($7 each) from a hardware store to attach the box springs to the bookcases. To protect the bookcases we tucked some scrap fabric under the ratchet straps on the pressure spots. And we can always use ratchet straps later on.


Ratchet strap


Box spring achievement!


Behold, the storage space!


Zee approves of his new bed.


So does Maddie the cat.


And on to the next bed!


More helping... (actually at this point he was freaking out because Spike's mattress was out of the room, even though he tolerated all the moving stuff before this. He calmed down in time to help build the second unit)


So very very close...


It's a bed!


Nightstand, back in position.

The kids (neither of them) have needed those bed rails in a long time, but since we're changing things up on them (get it? up? hehehehe) we thought it might be good to add them back for a bit while they get adjusted.


He seems fairly excited.


Putting some things away


Aaaaaaand done!

Now we can take one, if not both, dressers out of the room so the kids have more space to do whatever it is that they do. Among the plans we have a desk for Spike (now that he's a big kindergartner!) and a swinging seat that suspends from the ceiling for little Zee. Also... curtains. Maybe a set of fitted sheets to go over the box springs too. What else? Who knows!

WIP Wednesday, February 1, 2012

..... February. I thought January would never end and yet I'm surprised to see February here so soon. What's up with that?

This week I have more exciting things to post about for WIP Wednesday. First a stitch marker, one of a pair, that I made to go along with a test knit that I can't show you. It's sparkley and gold and silver and red and very Gryffindor. Plus I used little bitty jump rings and nothing bad happened. This could be the beginning of a beautiful thing.

Waaaaaaay bigger than life sized.

So, the test knit. I can't show you. I can't tell you anything really, except this is fingering weight yarn and a typical sock skein in the 450 yard range should make this when it's published. The beads I bought on Monday, thereby making Spike a little late to preschool (so sorry, education system!) are artfully draped over the top of the yarn cake.  I put special effort into my staging as you can tell by the random crap in the background including my can of seltzer and distinct lack of ability to see the knitted object.

I mean... it's in this picture.....

Shhhhhhhh.....

When my hands need to go and I don't have the mind power for a chart, I'm still picking up my two-color not-noro striped scarf. The yarn is Lion Brand Amazing and I have to say, it's a good name for the yarn because it IS.

Colors are Rainforest and Mesa. It's for my husband to own and for me to steal borrow. I mean, for my husband.

Last weekend we rearranged some furniture and took out the futon that has been in the yarn room for a long time. It went upstairs to the playroom so I could bring in my sewing table!!!!!

It folds up for sleeping as well. Paul found this by the side of the road. It is in excellent condition and I'm really excited to sew. 

Now with TWO screens. You guys. It is made of win.

We also reorganized the stash a little bit.

.... and that's it for today!

WIP Wednesday, January 25, 2012

2012? Can that be right?

What's on the pile this week? Oceanspray is coming along at roughly 6.5% complete based on my adjustments to not run out of yarn.



So far so good....

Project 38: Traveling Woman

This project was completed in May, 2011.

Traveling Woman is a very popular pattern that's been around a while. The designer re-released the pattern with a host of matching patterns and directions for making the shawl in other sizes and yarn weights. I used the free version to make my own, at long last!





It's a nice little shawlette, and the yarn really makes it. It was also a quick knit, taking me only three days to complete.




Pattern: Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante (the free version; there is also a pay version available)

Yarn: Alina Shea Creations Vines in "dancing in the rain", the club yarn from February 2011.

Needles: US 7 (4.5mm) nickel-plated Knit Picks interchangeables.

Rav Page

Mods: I did 3 repeats of Chart A. it's been a while, so not sure if that's a mod or not....

Project 37: Deathly Hallows Illusion Dishcloth

This project was completed in May, 2011.

This dishcloth was my first try at illusion knitting. Very cool!





Pattern: Deathly Hallows Illusion Cloth by Jenn Bragg

Yarn: Natural color is a Peaches & Creme cone of cotton in Ecru; blue is Lily's Sugar & Cream in cornflower blue. I used 34.4 yards of ecru and 38.4 yards of blue.

Needles: Size 8 (5.0mm) boye aluminum circular needles

Rav Page

Mods: none

Locals, read this! and WIP Wednesday, November 9, 2011

My Tour de Sock....er ... tour.... ends tonight, as Stage 4 is ending in a few hours and this is all I have.



Oh well, I stuck it out as long as I could and that was far longer than I expected! And now I'm a sock knitter!!

But, right now, this sock knitter wants to look at lace.



This is a variant of the very popular pattern Ishbel, where the lace is started first thing instead of having a stockinette triangle. The variant is a free supplement to the actual Ishbel pattern, which needs to be purchased to make the shawl. Also,

Meanwhile, I've finished the first bobbin with half of my purple rain batts I started spinning the other day.



Back in August some areas near where I live were hit very hard by flooding from Hurricane Irene. Here in town we were fine, but some of the lower-lying areas of the city near the river were flooded and the nearby Schoharie Valley had historic flooding, destroying homes, farms, and businesses.

This morning I learned about a not-for-profit corporation called Schoharie Recovery, based right in Schoharie and working to match skills, volunteers, and donations with the people who need help.  This weekend there is a fundraising event for Schoharie Recovery from a local spinning guild in conjunction with the Home for the Holidays weekend.  There's more information over here.

As for me, as soon as I got off the phone with the organizer to say I'll be there Sunday for sure and probably part of Saturday too, I started spinning up this corriedale roving so I can donate it to sell.



Every little bit helps, right? Of course I want to help, but sometimes it's hard to figure out how to help. This time it was easy.  Maybe I can get some holiday shopping done too!