Everything.....And The Kitchen Sink!: Busy Busy Busy

Things have been really busy around here lately. We are in the midst of buying a new house, we have had some sickness around here (my little professor had Scarlet Fever and I had the flu, and my photography business is thriving. Other than being sick is has all been good busy, but it is still tiring! This weekend my photoshoots got rescheduled because of the weather, so we had a free weekend! It was a wonderful time to sit back and relax a bit. We were still very productive around the house, but it was nice to not HAVE to go anywhere or do anything. Saturday was icky, so we spent sometime in the house. The highlight of the morning was playing "Duck Duck Goose" with the kiddos. I wish I had pictures, but I was too busy playing to take pictures! My little Roo didn't quite get the hang of the game, it was hilarious to watch her pat us on the head, say "duck, duck, duck" and then take off running and giggling! And my little Professor relaxed enough to just enjoy the giggles and he didn't get too upset when the rules weren't followed to the letter! I also tried my hand at ladyfingers on Saturday. I love tiramisu and would love to make it, but I want to make it from scratch and in order to do that I need to master ladyfingers. The taste was delicious, but next time I will make them a bit thicker. I made up some chocolate buttercream frosting and made really yummy sandwich cookies for dessert! Here is the recipe I used: Ingredients: 4 eggs, separated 2/3 cup white sugar 7/8 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Line two 17 x 12 inch baking sheets with baking parchment. Fit large pastry bag with a plain 1/2 inch round tube. 2. Place egg whites in bowl and beat on high until soft peaks start to form. Slowly add 2 tablespoons of the sugar and continue beating until stiff and glossy. In another bowl beat egg yolks and remaining sugar. Whip until thick and very pale in color. 3. Sift flour and baking powder together on a sheet of wax paper. Fold half the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Fold in flour, and then add the remaining egg whites. Transfer mixture to pastry bag and pipe out onto prepared baking sheet. Bake 8 minutes.

We also had bananas that needed to be used, so I found a recipe for Marbled Nutella Banana Bread. I doubled the recipe and used it to make "cupcakes" that I then frosted with the left over buttercream frosting. So yummy! Marbled Nutella Banana Bread 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 cups mashed ripe banana 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 large eggs 1/2 cup Nutella Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together banana, butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until creamy and well combined - about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs until well combined - about 2 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture until just combined. Divide 1/2 of of the batter into a medium bowl; stir in Nutella until combined. Alternate spoonfuls of batter into loaf pan until all of the batter is used up. Swirl batter gently with a knife (not too much!). Bake 1 hour or until well risen, deep golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into bread comes out with moist crumbs attached. Makes 1 loaf