Edible Adventures: Keeping Bananas Yellow

Because I spend a tremendous (read: too much) time on Pinterest, I often find cool things that I would love to try. Most of the time, they stay on Pinterest and I do not have make the time to try them out. But this pin was so promising, I just had to try it.... plus bananas are so inexpensive at Costco, it would not take much work or money on my behalf.

The pin basically suggested that wrapping the stems of the bananas with foil would help them keep longer. Not seeing any side by side evidence, I decided I needed to test this out a little more scientifically .. well, as scientific as I get.

To begin, the husband and I bought two large bunches of bananas from Costco. (Seriously, their 'nanas are super cheap and tasty... so worth it if you can!) We tried to get two bunches that were alike in color and size. The unscientific part is that we ate some of the non-foiled bananas as we went. They were too delicious to resist, but I tried.

We then put both bunches of bananas in one place in the kitchen. One bunch we left untouched, the other bunch we wrapped foil tightly around the stems. (Note: in another trial we discover that the foil must be wrapped tightly around the stems or it does not work.)  We took a photo every day around the same time. Here are our results:

Day 1: March 12

Day 2: March 13

Day 3: March 14

Day 4: March 15

Day 5: March 16

Day 6: March 17

Day 8: March 19

 Clearly, the foil bananas are faring much better than those with no foil... partially because they aren't getting eaten, but also because they have foil on them. For us, wrapping the stems with foil will prolong bananas for a few days. I will be honest, once they get as brown as the unwrapped ones in our Day 8 picture, I won't eat them --- but husband will. Of course, he forgets, which is why we probably have two dozen brown bananas in our freezer. Yum, chocolate chip banana muffins... but that is a different post.

If you try out the "foil" method, let us know how it works for you! :)

Adventures in DIY: Birth Announcements

After seeing some really cool birth announcements on Pinterest (find the original art on an Etsy store here), I wanted to make a poster-sized birth announcement/wall decoration for my brother and sister-in-law. All the ideas I saw were just subway-art like text posters, with no picture. I wanted the baby to be front and center. 

I used the free design software Inkscape to design the layout, and GIMP to match the light blue colors with the colors they painted Braden's room. I used a font called Narkisim. 

The final design was printed 11 x 14 at Costco's photo center. I also reformatted the print just a little and made a 5 x 7 for a very proud grandma. ♥

After seeing it, a few of my friends suggested that it would be a great birth announcement. In addition, a few friends suggested other people might want a design like this!  If you or someone you know would like a birth announcement like this, email me and we can work out a deal. I can certainly reformat the setting with your baby's information and colors and send it to you for printing at various places like Costco or Vistaprint. 

Edible Adventures: January & February

Hello there, long time no see! I was going to attempt to write about our Edible Adventures once a week. Then it became once every two weeks. Then I was like, "Hey, once a month would be awesome!" And here I am, nearly through with February, and I still have not posted one edible adventure yet. Blerg!

Better late than never… here we go! We have made some pretty interesting stuff, too! Thanks to Pinterest, we have gotten a lot of really good, inspiring ideas.

I am completely lame and did not take a picture of them, but I did make the Soda Can Cupcakes. Basically you take a box of cake mix and substitute all the other ingredients for a can of soda — diet, regular, you pick! I took a chocolate cake mix and a can of Diet Pepsi. (If you know me, you know Diet Pepsi is my favorite beverage of all time. It's a little sad.) Despite my pessimism, the cupcakes were very flavorful and moist. They had a hint of something that I think comes from the carbonation. Super easy and simple — especially if you are jonesing for a cupcake and don't have any oil or eggs!

My classroom room-mom gave me a box of pastry dough, so I was all excited to make anything and everything with it! I really liked the Warm Apple and Brie Pastries from BlogHungry. I used my super awesome apple/corer/slicer to prepare the apples — and, using the recipe as a guide, topped the apples with some butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and a slice of brie. After baking them, be sure to serve them warm — they are oh, so tasty nice and warm from the oven.

We made several tasty Nutella treats over the last few weeks. We started off with some Nutella Sandwich cookies. After searching high and low for a recipe that looked easy and appetizing, we settled at Dishing Up Delights. They were delicious. I actually think I liked them better as a Nutella-based sugar cookie, rather than a sandwich cookie.

We also made Nutella turnovers – twice! Once for funzies, and once for World Nutella Day! We got a super simple and fabulous recipe from Bake at 350.

Seriously, so good. Especially hot out of the oven. 

Our good friends the Meeces hosted a Wine & Cheese Party. For this we decided to make Champagne Cupcakes. These cupcakes, featured on Gimme Some Oven, were very decadent and flavorful. And, yes, the frosting also had sparkling wine in it!

Sadly, we did have one edible flop. I was super excited to make the Mac N' Cheese receipe from the Alton Brown's Good Eats book. My sister purchased the book for us last Christmas and we had never quite gotten around to making it. Let me just say, it wasn't my favorite. I must have done something wrong since so many people love it and I clearly did not. But Aaron liked it, especially as left-overs. He thinks if we make a few 'corrections' it could be pretty darn tasty!