Banana Bread

What is it about banana bread?  It's like having a little slice of childhood back with you for five minutes.  We liked to eat it with Kraft Singles when I was a kid.  My husband thinks that's crazy, but then he's the one that won't even put butter on his banana bread, so we don't count his opinion.   These days we usually eat it with just butter because I tend to not buy Kraft Singles these days. 

This recipe is one of those that's been handed down through several generations.  It's worth hanging on to. 

Banana Bread

1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
3 very over ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 c flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 c chopped nuts (optional)

Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl between.   Add the bananas and vanilla, mix until thoroughly combined.   Add the flour, salt and baking soda.   Mix until just combined.  Fold in nuts.  Pour into a greased and floured large loaf pan.    Bake at 325 degrees until fully baked.  It will take over an hour, and maybe as long as an hour and a half, depending on your pan and oven.  Pay attention to the scent coming from your oven, it will tell you when to check the bread.   There will be a crack up the center and that is the last section to fully bake, so when the bread under the crack is done, the loaf is done. 

Little Boy's Tool Belt

I've been doing way too much stuff for my girls lately and my boys were feeling left out.  It's time for a boy project!

I don't know about your boys, but mine like to help their dad with stuff.  Grown up tool belts just don't fit boys.   I was able to just grab stuff I already had on hand to make this belt.  Canvas, upholstery vinyl, and seam tape is all it takes.

1.  Cut your canvas into two rectangles, one measuring 13.25"x15" and one 5.25"x15".   Cut a strip of leather or vinyl 15"x2". 

2. Finish one long end on the big rectangle with some sort of 5/8th inch hem that won't unravel.  I did a simple rolled hem.  Use whatever method works for you.   Fold the other long edge down 5/8th of an inch as well, but do not sew.

3.  Finish one long edge of the small rectangle with a 5/8th inch hem and fold over the other long edge 5/8th of an inch but don't sew, exactly like you did the long edges of the large rectangle. 

4.  Lay the pocket across the big rectangle, placing it right side up on a right side up bottom piece.   The bottom of the pocket should be about 3.5" from the bottom edge.   Sew down.

5.  Finish edge of bag with seam tape.   You can do another method but seam tape gives a nice finished look without extra bulk.

6.  Fold over the top of the bag to the back about 2" creating a casing for the belt to go through.  Sew down close to edge. 

7.  Place vinyl strip across bottom of the bag.  Sew at sides and at different points along the vinyl creating loops for hammers, measuring tapes, and pliers.   (See photo.)

8.  Find an old belt under your son's bed or in the bottom of the closet (if your son's room is anything like my sons' room) and run the belt through the casing.  

The bag is ready to go.  This one is super quick to make and basically free if you've got the canvas or denim in your stash.   It would be easy to use recycled denim for something like this as well.  If you don't have leather or vinyl for the hammer loop strap, you can make a strap with more denim or canvas.  Just make it a double thickness so it's strong enough to support a hammer.   

Another peasant skirt

Carnations and roses in pink, red, and green.  This is my middle girl in her new fat quarter skirt.  I was able to change up the pattern a little bit and found some extra inches in length.  She's very happy with it, although she's decided that her big sister and I both need peasant skirts now.   I'm thinking it would take a lot more than 3 fat quarters to fit around my hips. 

Good News!

I've been working with a local fabric store lately designing patterns and planning/teaching classes.  We have decided to partner together to release my patterns for purchase!  I'm so excited.  Right now we are working on getting my two most popular bags into a PDF format with easy to understand instructions.  I'm even considering getting the instructions translated into a couple of other languages if there is interest.   (Who knew I'd have so many new friends from Brazil? Hi! Welcome!  Let me know if you want instructions in Portuguese. I'll use someone who speaks the language fluently and not Google's translation program.)

I'll also be working to get more of my patterns into PDF and I'll have a way for you all to purchase and download them.  I'll still have instructions on how to draw out many of my patterns here in the future, but if you want to have me do all the work for you, that will be an option too.   If there is something I've posted in the past you really want to buy the pattern for, let me know in the comments. We'll be doing past patterns in order of interest.

Today I'll be making another fat quarter skirt.  This one is for my middle girl.  She's pretty excited about it.  Thank goodness I can make it in under an hour because I've got a busy day ahead of me.

Lemon-thyme Roast Chicken

I love roast chicken because it's so easy to make and it's impressive at the same time.  The hands off nature of roast chicken means I can devote some attention to a good salad and risotto.   Roast chicken is also great because it feeds my family for two meals.  (The second meal is always a chicken noodle soup around here,  also super easy.)   This particular recipe combines a wet rub with a special roasting method to create a chicken that's juicy and flavorful.

Lemon-Thyme Roast Chicken

1 3.5-4 lb roasting chicken
1 lemon
2 T chopped garlic
1 T fresh thyme or lemon thyme
1 T kosher salt
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Start by removing the zest from the lemon with a fine mesh grater.   Combine in a small bowl with the salt, thyme, and garlic.   With your hands, spread the rub underneath the chicken skin.  Rub it all over the breast and as much of the thighs as you can reach.   Be careful to not stretch the skin too much and make sure the rub is spread evenly without clumping.  It's usually pretty easy to get in under the skin from the neck end.  You may need to keep a knife handy to cut the connective tissue right under the skin, especially right at the neck opening.   Cut the zested lemon in half and shove a lemon half inside each of the chicken cavities. 

Place prepared chicken in a roasting pan on a rack.   Pour 1 cup of water into the roasting pan (don't pour it over the chicken, just pour it to the side.)  Roast for 40 minutes.   Rotate pan in oven and increase oven temperature to 450 degrees.  Continue to roast the chicken until the internal temperature reaches 175 degrees, about another 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and let rest for ten minutes before carving. 

If you are going to use a 5lb bird, it's best to increase the time at the front end when the oven temperature is lower in order to maintain the moist texture of the bird.   You do not need to increase the amount of the rub.  The recipe will make enough for a bigger bird.

For those of you keeping track of my $5 or under dinners:   1 roast chicken for $5+1 lemon at 50 cents+garlic and salt at lower than 25 cents+free thyme (grow it myself)=$5.75/two meals=$2.62 per meal.   I probably went over my $5 limit on Valentine's day but not by much.  Remember my home made turkey broth?  Home made broth takes care of more than half the cost of making risotto.   It only takes 1 cup of arborio rice to make enough risotto to feed my family for one meal.   That's 75 cents worth when I buy it in bulk from Winco (my favorite grocery store that only exists in the western half of the US.  The bulk bins are a great place to find really good deals on food.)  I use about 75 cents worth of parmesean, so one batch of risotto costs me $1.50 to make. 

So Valentine's day dinner is up to $4.12 leaving me 88 cents for my salad.  I doubt I was able to make a salad for that amount so we'll just say that valentine's day was a special occasion.   The soup I made later in the week cost me around $4 to make so the two meals evened each other out.   Isn't it nice when it works that way?

Need More Fabric?

Fabric designer Jen Allyson is giving away fat quarter packs of  her new Quite Contrary line!  Enter the giveaway here, and you can have up to five separate entries.  

If you've been looking for something cute for little girl's quilts or summer dresses, this is the line for you.  Wouldn't those make the cutest fat quarter peasant skirt?   or even a sundress.   You'd still have enough left over to make a fat quarter ruffle bag, too.

Good luck!

Quick and Easy Baby Gift

Got a baby shower coming up?   How about whipping up a couple of onesie dresses.  They take less than half an hour each and they are as cheap as you can buy a onesie.  The skirt is scrap from other projects and the ribbon is from my I'm-really-going-to-use-it-someday ribbon collection.

 (Ok, so the photography on this one is horrible.  Sorry.  It's February and the light was just horrible that day.)

I started with an inexpensive 6-9 month sized onesie.   This one is pink and white stripes but the horrible photos mean you can't really see the stripes.  It really is a cute little outfit, I promise.

I laid the onesie down flat and measured across the center.  It's about 18 inches around.  

This measurement lets me figure how much fabric to cut for the skirt.  I decided to do a 1.5 times gather so I cut a piece of fabric 30"x8".   The fabric has a lot of body on it's own, so it looked ok.  Next time I'm going to do a full double gather at least (that would have meant cutting 37"x8" for the skirt.)  The fuller fabric would look really cute. 

I sewed up the side seam with a fake overlock stitch.  I don't have a serger or I would have used that.  This seam is going to show and get a lot of wear so make sure it looks nice and won't fray.  I'll be doing a French seam on the next one of these I sew. 

Do a narrow, folded hem (again, looks nice.  won't fray.)  I also sewed a coordinating ribbon about an inch from the hem.  It really added a lot. 

Gather and sew with a stretch stitch to the onsie.  You can see my seam here.  This doesn't have to be quite as pretty but do make sure you are using a stitch that will move with the baby and stretch to go over her head.

Press the skirt and wrap it up for baby.   These are also cute with a little applique on the front of the bodice.  You could do a heart or a crown.  Try a simple iron on design or a ribbon rose.

These little dresses are great summer wear for babies.  They can go out in a lightweight onesie but still be dressed up and cute.   If you've got a good pattern for them, you could make a pair of fabric booties to match as well.   Babies always have the cutest outfits.   Lucky babies.  I haven't gotten to wear a onesie since I was 19.   (If you remember we called them "body suits" and they were cool.   I also had the body to get away with shirts that tight at the time.  Lucky 19 year olds.)