The Naptime Chef

Everyone has recipes they reinvent time and time again and one of mine is banana bread. Soft, easy to make, and one of my daughter’s top five favorite snack foods, it never gets old. In fact, I am pretty sure I could make the same old banana bread over and over and she would find it just as wonderful as the first time she tried it. The only thing is I like to keep trying new variations. Sometimes it is a new topping, sometimes it is a new add-in, and sometimes it is a new form! This week I decided to sweeten it up and a bit and it was a huge hit.

Lately I’ve had pantries on my mind. As I mentally design my dream kitchen it doesn’t have cabinets. I would like to have kitchen counters with nothing over the top. Also, I am not that tall and I am so tired of having to use step stools to get beyond the first shelf. What’s the point? I think one large pantry for food and everyday items is ideal. That way there are no cabinets, and everything can be put where I want in order of how I need to reach it. Here are a few pantries I’ve been loving lately:

When my son was born last year my friend Amy brought us a delicious cinnamon-y bundt cake as part of our dinner train meal. The warm, moist quick bread was the perfect balm to soothe my sleep-frazzled nerves. When I asked for the recipe I expected her to share one for cake and was shocked to learn it was classic Amish friendship bread. I had always envisioned Amish friendship bread to be a yeasty loaf-like bread that was used for sandwiches. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This spring, now that I (mostly) have my feet back under me, Amy shared a cup of her starter with me and I’ve been having a blast learning how to use it.

I am a little sad these days because my dear neighbor, Sarah, has moved to Pennsylvania! {Sniff!} The community we live in is very transient, but it always hard to say good-bye to a friend, especially since we just settled into a new house for a while. One of my favorite things about our old neighbors is that we used to lend a hand to each other whenever we could. For example, when we moved last fall Sarah made dinner for us for our first night in our new house. It was such a thoughtful gesture. Instead of blah take-out, we got a home cooked meal of enchiladas, Mexican rice, and salad. Talk about the epitome of a good friend.

Last month I received a wonderful email from Patty at Sucre, the New Orleans bakery known for their outstanding macarons. They invited me, along with 11 other bloggers, to participate in a macaron baking challenge. All month long a group of us will be sharing our own riff on Sucre’s top secret macaron recipe on our blogs and everyone can vote on their favorites. The top three finalists will have their recipe made by Chef Tariq and a winner will be chosen. While I don’t typically participate in contests like this I couldn’t resist this one. I adore baking and have always wanted to improve my macaron making skills so I immediately accepted the challenge.

Last fall we started at square one with the garden in our new house. It will take us several years to get it up to speed with fully planted garden beds, mature plants, and lots of color. This year is essentially a big experiment. I’ve done a lot of research on what grows well in our zone (6) but there is still no guarantee. We are starting slowly to see what will work and hoping for the best. Once I get through on full growing cycle I’ll have a much better baseline for drawing up long term plans. I’ve also been observing what is popping up now that spring has (finally!) sprung. Here it is so far if you’d like to see…

This year my husband’s birthday coincided with Easter so we had a day of dual celebrations. Our morning started off with the usual Easter basket frenzy, then we moved on to birthday presents, brunch, and cake. It was actually a lot of fun to have both celebrations on one day. The kids were so wired with sugar they were in the spirit to do just about anything. Which was good, because, as you might be able to tell, my daughter was in charge of decorating Dad’s cake and she did a great job.