Crayons for little hands

If you have kids, you probably have ALOT of broken crayons around.

Usually, I throw them out and buy new ones, but here's a way you can recycle them...

1. Peel
2. Brake into small pieces (if they aren't already)
3. Melt



After you break the crayons into bits, put the pieces into a lined mini muffin pan:

Put them in the oven at 300° for 10-15 minutes. Allow the "new" crayons to cool completely before you pull the paper liners off. They'll probably look something like this:

No more broken crayons :)

Turn on the oven to warm up your house

I made brownies last week. I was going to tell you how...last week... but, I lost the recipe. So, here's a picture instead.

This is what they looked like. They were really good.
If I find the recipe again, I'll put it up.

Today, I made cookies. Partly to warm up my house by using the oven, mostly because I wanted cookies.

Peanut butter to be exact.

1 c.       Brown Sugar
1/2 c.    Peanut butter
1/2 c.    Margarine
1           Egg
1 1/4 c. Flour
3/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt

Preheat your oven to 375°
In a large bowl mix together brown sugar, peanut butter, margarine and the egg with an electric mixer until smooth.
In a smaller bowl, mix together the remaining dry ingredients.
Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture, stir until smooth.
Drop by spoonfuls onto an UNgreased cookie sheet, do not press down.
Bake for ~10mins or until golden.

And here's what you get:

It makes about 3 dozen depending on how big you make the dough balls, and how many you eat during the wait time. I used a melon baller, seems to keep them consistent. Enjoy

Just say "NO!" to T.V. on Tuesday

If you've ever watched TV on a Tuesday, you probably know, there's nothing to watch.

Seems like a good excuse to make cookies to me.

I'm pretty picky about my chocolate chip cookies. I've tried many different times to get them just right. Today, I think I came as close as I can get. Thanks to Bakerella.

2 1/4 c. Flour

1 tsp.    Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 c.       Butter

1 c.       Brown sugar

1/2 c.    Sugar

2           Eggs

2 tsp.     Vanilla

1 1/2 c.  Chocolate Chips

-Preheat oven to 350°
-Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl with a whisk. Set aside.
-Combine both sugars and butter. Beat with a mixer (this makes the dough super fluffy and light. it's great)
-Beat in eggs and vanilla
-Add flour mixture to sugar mixture in two additions. (I mixed them together with a rubber spatula)
-Stir in chocolate chips

-Use a mini ice cream scooper (or a melon baller works too) to drop dough onto parchment covered cookie sheet (also, I didn't have parchment paper, so I used my silicone baking sheet, which I love. Makes for an easy clean up).

-Bake 8-10 mins.

And here's what you get:

Not that I want to pat myself on the back, but I think these give Pillsbury a run for their money.

Only one thing could make them better:

So if you are having a day like this:

Make some cookies.

Look how happy it made them.

Mr.Christie may make a good cookie, but Betty Crocker makes a tasty muffin

Since I made cornbread stuffing one year for thanksgiving, that has now become the item I  HAVE to bring.

Cornbread

Booooorrrinnnng.

It's very simple. Here's the recipe if you want to make some:

1 c        Flour

1 c.       Cornmeal

1 tbsp.  Sugar

1 tsp.    Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

1/4 tsp. Salt

1 1/4 c. Buttermilk

1           Egg

1/4 c.    Butter, melted

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Pour the wet over the dry and stir together. Grease an 8" pan, pour in batter, and bake at 375° for about 25 minutes.

Soooo... while I waited for that to bake, because I was bored,  I decided to try out a recipe I found in a Betty Crocker magazine for Gingerbread Cupcakes. It was well worth it.

Here's what you need:

1/2 c.   Sugar

1/2 c.   Butter, softened

1/2 c.   Molasses

2           Eggs

2 c.       Flour

1 tsp.    Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 1/2 tsp. Ground Ginger

1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Ground Allspice

3/4 c.    Water

And here's how you make them:

1. Preheat oven to 375°, place paper baking cup in 18 regular-size muffin cups.

2. In a large bowl, beat together sugar, butter, molasses, and eggs with an electric mixer. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and water. Spoon about 1/4 c. of the batter into each muffin cup.

(she could be a spokesmodel for that mixer)

(he likes to help too)



3. Bake 15-18 mins. or until toothpick comes clean. Cool for 5 mins, remove from pan to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 20 mins.

So tasty!

There was a recipe for icing as well, which I didn't get to... I was told (numerous times) by my spokesmodel, that "they would taste better with icing, I wish we had icing." So, if you make them, add some icing. I think they taste fine without any.... you be the judge.

Recipe courtesy of Betty Crocker "Fall Baking" magazine Oct/Nov 2010





Camera

I like to take pictures.

Alot.

Right now I use this to take them:

I would really like to use:

 It's a Canon Rebel.

It takes beautiful pictures.

One problem.

It costs alot of money.

Wanna help me get one?

You know you dooooo.....

Click the button:

Black Bananas

For some reason I always buy extra bananas with the intent of making them into some sort of tasty treat. They sit on the counter. No one eats them. They turn brown. They get thrown in the garbage.

This time, I put the extras in the freezer for a few days. And when I took them out, they looked like this:

Gross.

So, I got ambitious, and decided to make muffins. You should make some too. Because they taste good. Here's what you need:

3/4 c. Ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 c. Sugar
1/4 c. Oil
1        Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 c.    Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 c. Plain Yogurt
1/4 c. Chocolate Chips

1. Preheat Oven to 375°. Spray 12 muffin cups with vegtable oil.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat together bananas, sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl until well mixed.

3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add to banana mixture, stir in yogurt. Fold in chocolate chips.

Like this:

(little hands are a big help... most of the time)

4. Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups and bake in the center of the oven for 15 minutes, or until toothpick comes clean. Serve immediately.

Before:



When you have impatient children who don't want to wait 15 minutes, you need to find something to occupy them. We made chocolates.

Melt



Mold

Serve

Yum.

Annnnddddd.... the muffins...

So... next time you have extra bananas, now you know what you can do with them.