You know, I think I’ve had them all.  Different types of banana bread, I mean.  And I think that most of them are delicious.  I’ve enjoyed blueberry-banana bread, coffee cake banana bread, and just the good ol’ moist version.

But there’s something about this one that makes it feel like a dessert, rather than a breakfast item.  Which, of course, makes it much more surprising and delightful and would rather eat this any day of the week than any other type.  Because I love dessert.

What sets this banana bread apart from all others that have come before it is the caramelized crust that forms on top of the loaf.  It doesn’t make sense how tasty it is.  You have got to try it – you’ll never go back! (Well, except for making your trusty passed-down-through-generations banana bread recipe, maybe).

Let the sweet adventure begin!

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add 1 1/2 cups of sugar to 1/2 cup of room temperature salted butter.  Cream on medium speed for about 5 minutes.

Add 2 eggs and

1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Mix together.

In separate bowl sift 2 cups of flour (or have your little helper do it and work with whatever amount ends up in the bowl),

and add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda,

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt,

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.  Mix together.

Now alternate 1/2 of the flour mixture

and 1/4 cup whole milk

and 1/2 cup of mashed bananas to the sugar mixture.

Repeat with remainder of flour mix, another 1/4 cup of milk and another 1/2 cup of mashed bananas.

Continue mixing until ingredients are all mixed up.

Grease loaf pan and bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes and then lower the temperature to 275 degrees and cook for about another hour.

Just try to keep from pulling all the crust off and eating it without even touching the bread…I double-dog dare ya!

Make and enjoy with your little Loved One…

Bon Appétit, Ma Chérie!

Add a lot of happy to your life.  Add lavender to it!

Have a pot of it in your windowsill.  Line a stone wall with a bunch of plants.  Grow a field of them.

The smell of lavender is so calming and fresh.  Even if you can’t grow a field of them or walk through one, having a little satchel of dried flowers or fresh leaves to rub between your fingers will transport you.  You will be trailing your hand among the flowers in fields of lavender in France.  You’ll dream of fresh, clean linens blowing on the clothesline.  You’ll feel refreshed.

I have little satchels of dried lavender flowers in almost all of my clothes drawers.  They last forever (just squeeze between your fingers every now & then to release oils/fragrance) making your clothes smell lovely (Very subtle.  Can definitely be used in drawers with boys or men’s clothing too.  It just smells like clean laundry, tell them!).  And they also ward off bugs that like to snuggle in your clothing, extremely efficient at moth prevention.

And they are also a salve for the soul…

My little Beach Rose always grabs a handful of the lavender leaves when she is out in the garden and deposits little piles of them by each of our bedside tables.  So at night as we’re getting ready for bed, my husband or I will see the pile first and rub it between our fingers and make the other smell it.  And that is how we drift off to sleep.  Pretty poetic – barf!  For real though, nothing makes the load on your shoulders lighter than a whiff of that magic!

These are just some of my favorites…

There are so many fun books to read to your Baby at any age, Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Child, etc.  Too many to choose from.  When you get to the bookstore or the library, it can be a bit overwhelming.

So,  I thought that I would share some of my personal favorites and some of my Beach Rose’s too.  The list of our favorite’s is too long for me to remember even 1/2 of them, so this may end up as a “to be continued”post, on the off chance that I stumble into another pile of these little gems and remember to post about them!

Babies and Toddlers especially, but children too, love rhyming books.  They also love books that are repetitious, ones that encourage participation, singing, or touching.  Here are 20 board books that I recommend for your own personal library.

BOARD BOOKS:

1. Llama Llama – Hoppity Hop  (Anna Dewdney is brilliant with rhyming.  She is the brains behind the Llama Llama series.  Any of these stories are wonderful. Kids especially love that Llama Llama is so expressive, which means of course that Mama and/or Daddy has to be expressive too.  Stomping, jumping, pouting, wailing, are just a few of the verbs thrown into the mix that you will no doubt end up acting out!)
2. Goodnight Moon (a classic)
3. Hungry Caterpillar (a mix of counting, color identification, days of the week & a bit of science)
4. Goodnight, Gorilla (way too much fun!)
5. Little Quack’s Bedtime ( Cute way to talk through a child’s fears of unknown noises in the night)
6. Goodnight Pookie (Sandra Boynton is the silliest author out there and kids LOVE her!)
7. Pajama Time! (The next 2 books are more silliness before bed with Sandra.)
8. The Going to Bed Book (Sandra Boynton’s classic bedtime read.)
9. Tickle Time (Oh so much fun to read this one of Sandra’s with your little one…who doesn’t love a good tickle?)
10. Yawn (Clever rhyming board book for bed)
11. Mr Brown can Moo can You? (Not all of Dr Seuss’s material is understood by young children.  This is one perfect.  Mimicking sounds is always fun!)
12. Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? (colors, animals, repetition)
13. First 100 Words – Priddy (Any of the Priddy books are appropriate & fantastic for this age. They all have large glossy pictures and teach children the basics.)
14. The Foot Book – ( The other Dr. Seuss must have at this age)
15. Baby Touch and Feel Animals – (Any touchy-feely books for little kids are much loved, and pulled at and ripped.  Necessary!)
16. Time for Bed – Mem Fox (A bedtime book that teaches about animal babies)
17. You are My Sunshine –
18. Wheels on the Bus –
19. Old MacDonald Had a Farm –
20. One Two Buckle My Shoe –

(These last 4 books are all songs.  But they are a necessity in your Baby, Toddler, Preschooler’s library.  Let them have some pictures to sing along with and also, as they turn the pages over & over they see familiar words with familiar pictures that will eventually help them read!)

More information for you as a parent.

These reminders can be so helpful as you’re talking to your child about potential situations in the future, so that if anything ever did happen to them they would hopefully come to tell you about it.  You want to make it as easy as possible for your child to come to you if they have something difficult to say…

 

“Sexual abuse is often confusing for a child. Abusers often manipulate children by making them feel that this is a loving interaction, that it is normal. They often seek to pleasure the child so that the child feels good about what is happening. The older the child – the more likely they are to understand that this is not normal, and become confused by feelings of wanting it not to occur yet physically feeling pleasure. This can lead to feelings of embarrassment, shame, and guilt for being “complicit” in their own abuse. Some children would rather deal with the stress and burden of carrying these emotions than have to face their parents and expose their “dirtiness” and/or failure to say no to their abuser.

We must remind our children:
If you were too afraid to say no – it’s not your fault.
If the person tricked or scared you into letting them touch you, or you touch them – it’s not your fault.
If you feel like you love this person – it’s not your fault.
If it felt good to your body – it’s not your fault.
If it happened over and over again – it’s still not your fault.

This happens to children all over the world.
You have nothing to be ashamed about.
I would always be happy and proud of you for telling me.
I love you no matter what. ” – The Mama Bear Effect

The Paris Key by Juliet Blackwell

If what you’re looking for is to live vicariously through a character in Paris for a week, this is the book for you.  You’ve left everything about your life behind in America, hopped a transatlantic flight seducing you with delectable food and French wines, and find yourself in your own furnished apartment in the middle of the antiques quarter in Paris.  French coffee & pain au chocolats for breakfast, long walks along the Seine, beautiful people, cafés, haute couture, cocktails in the afternoon, art, romance, architectural magnificence…what’s not to love?

And that’s exactly why there is such a deluge of novels being written, published, and sold in droves with the bestselling theme of Paris.  Paris as the title of the book.  Paris as the subject.  Paris as the scenery, the backdrop, the “subject” of the book.  “Give the people what they want and they’ll come.”  And, Americans especially, want Paris.  They yearn for it, dream of it, talk about it with reverence, plan to visit someday and cannot imagine a place more glamorous, romantic, or intriguing.

Once you get past the magic of being a part of the city of lights as a reader, you realize with great sadness that this book is not worth your time.  It starts off with the possibility of being a clever read, but as you quickly and disappointingly become aware of there is no substance to it.  There are a couple of plot lines that are started and never finished.  So at the end of the book you’re left wondering, why didn’t the author ever complete her thought?  And the main plotline is so long and drawn out and then at the end of the book it comes to an abrupt end, quickly and unbelievably tying up all loose ends in a pretty little package with a bow.

Unrealistic and an unnecessary read!

Something I didn’t think about when I was younger and went through 6-packs of Sunkist or Natural Light (What was I thinking?!) like water.

The rings on these 6 or 8 packs of soda, beer, seltzer, etc can be deadly to animals.  Even if you throw them away in your garbage bags or recycling bin, it doesn’t ensure the safety of wild animals.  They easily blow away from a refuse site or fly free from your recycling bins into storm drains.  And most of these 6-pack rings end up in the ocean and pose a serious threat to our marine wildlife. The rings, the larger ones that hold the cans in place and the smaller ones in between can end up around an animal’s neck, choking them to death. Or ingested by seabirds or turtles or entangle sharks and rays, etc.

And yes, this is still a major problem.

In 1989, federal mandated that the sole global producer of these rings manufacture it to be 100% photodegradable.  So, it now starts to disintegrates in sunlight after a few days.  So that’s good, right?  Well, yes.  It means that any that wash up on shore or are exposed to the sun at a waste station will not be a danger.

But what about those wrapped around the middle of a turtle?  The one who’s swimming and spending the majority of its time under water?  Not really exposed to sunlight.  Not really a big help for the rings to be photodegradable.  Neither does it help out the dolphin or manatee who gets entangled by it under water.

The best way to handle these plastic nooses is to cut them up.  Still.  This is not outdated.  This is the only way to ensure that they won’t strangle or incapacitate wildlife.  Cut through every possible hole in the rings.  The large ones that hold the cans and the smaller ones in between.  Snip, snip, snip!

And goodness, if you know of another way we can safely dispose of these, please share!

It’s true!  I didn’t find this out until much, much too late.  Meaning that, of course, I had spent years using expired spices in my meals.  Yech!

None of us have gotten sick due to my negligence, I am happy to report.  But my meals did not taste any better because of them, I can assure you of that.

When I had my first apartment by myself, I did whatever I could to save money while stocking up my kitchen with tools and essentials.  What that really means is that I spent weekend after weekend at yard sales, scavenging people’s throw-aways for hidden treasures.  And you know, I did pretty well.  Found some nice pots and pans and cooking utensils that had been barely used, for pennies on the dollar.  One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. – Hector Urquhart

I went to an estate sale in an upscale town one Saturday morning and hit the jackpot.  The home had been occupied by an older woman who had just passed away the month before, and her kids were selling everything.  Including all the spices from her spice rack.  And so, I bought them all.  Buying 20 different spices at the estate sale = $5.  Buying 20 different spices at the grocery store = $100.  $95 is a lot of money to a 20 year old.  You know, it’s still a lot of money to me now!

Well, as the story goes, you get what you pay for.  The spices ended up being expired.  And I didn’t find out for years.  Yup, years.

The good news is that expired spices cannot make you ill, like expired chicken, for instance.  (Did you just gag a little when you read that?  I did when I wrote it!)  Expired spices lose their flavor.  Quite a bit.  So your dish will not only be lacking in the flavor you’re looking for, but may also have a strange taste to them.  Something a bit…..off.

So, next time you’re cleaning out your kitchen, check your spice drawer.  Might be time to invest a little money in some fresh, fragrant, delicious spices!