Wordless Wednesday: SPLASH!

Another new tradition - Tasty Tuesday: Banana Crumb Muffins

You might have realized that I'm on a "tradition" kick lately as I've started incorporating some new ones into my blog. I came across the A Beautiful Mess blog and found that she hosts a blog-hop called "Tasty Tuesdays" where she posts a recipe every week, along with photos of her making it. I like the idea of being more organized about recipe posting, so I've decided to join the blog hop as well. At the bottom of this post is a link to the others in the hop, as well as a link where you can pick up the code an join in yourself if you like.

So... on to this week's recipe...

Banana Crumb Muffins

Ingredients 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 bananas, mashed 3/4 cup white sugar 1 egg, lightly beaten 1/3 cup butter melted 1/3 cup packed brown sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon butter  Instructions Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Meet me on Monday 7/26/10

1. What one food could you eat every single day?
When we were in Italy I had margherita pizza and caprese salad every day for lunch - I think I could enjoy that if it was authentic and the tomatoes were always "good" (a problem we have here in Arizona is lack of good tomatoes).

2. Do you wear glasses or contacts?
Yes - I wear contacts daily but sometimes give my eyes a break and use glasses instead.

3. What kind of cell phone do you have?
I have a Palm Pre, but I'm trading it in soon. Tired of the lag time and how it takes so long to get to what I want to do. Why can't I just press a button or too to open a simple email message?

4. What did you have for dinner last night?
Last night was Justin's family birthday dinner, and I made some luscious barbecue ribs. Homemade rib rub, homemade sauce. They turned out awesome, I must say.

5. What is your favorite candy?
Wisconsin candy raisins, which have now become extinct, sadly.

Lions are lazy

This weekend both of my kids will officially be teenagers. That makes me...

• old
• frustrated
• a sympathy magnet

This isn't multiple choice folks, but if it was, the answer would be (4) all of the above. 

So Justin is going to be 13 on Sunday. What happened to my baby boy? That cute little guy that used to recite the Hail Mary? The toddler with the mysterious Boston accent that replaced his baby-babbles that sounded like French? The kid that would rather suck his toes than his thumb?

Well he's growing up. Yes, that's right folks, he's become the textbook lazy teenager. So what better astrological sign for him than Leo, as symblolized by the lion. Here are some facts about lions that also translate to Justin (stolen from wikipedia.org):

Lions spend much of their time resting and are inactive for about 20 hours per day. Although lions can be active at any time, their activity generally peaks after dusk with a period of socializing, grooming, and defecating. Intermittent bursts of activity follow through the night hours until dawn, when hunting (or in Justin's case, foraging in the pantry and fridge) most often takes place.  Lions have an array of facial expressions and body postures that serve as visual gestures. Their repertoire of vocalizations is also large; variations in intensity and pitch, rather than discrete signals, appear central to communication.

Just for fun, here are some famous people who were also born on July 25th:

• 1929 - Eddie Mazur
• 1941 - Emmett Till
• 1954 - Walter Peyton
• 1967 - Matt LeBlanc
• 1976 - Javier Vazquez
• 1978 - Louise Brown
• 1979 - Amy Adams
• 1985 - James Lafferty

Hopefully you know who at least some of these people are - if not, surf on over to Wikipedia.

Some things that suck, some that don't

Sadly, I don't get to write in my blog as often as I'd like to. Sometimes I'm driving down the road, left alone with my thoughts, and something will occur to me and I'll think I should post that on my blog. But then life happens and it's Sunday night and I feel the need to instead post a traditional "family update" post. Adding random thoughts into the mix would only lengthen what is probably an already length post. And that's only if I actually remember the random thought in the first place.

Maybe I should keep a little notepad in the car to jot these things down.

So as I write this it actually is Sunday night. If you are a blogger and haven't discovered how to schedule your posts for a future date and time, well, I feel sorry for you.

Anyway, there's a lot on my mind. I can't possibly keep up with it all on the blog. To keep this post from becoming the online version of War and Peace, I'll break it down for you into list format.

Things I'm loving this week...

1. HGTV - it's what inspired me to paint those bathrooms
2. Light trails and light painting - I'm hoping to experiment with some of my own soon
3. Glycolic acid
4. Zumba
5. Hawaii. What's not to love about that?
6. Carin, the super-duper masseuse at LifeSpa. ABSOLUTELY. LOVE. HER. I wish I could start every Saturday that way.
7. Crafting. I have a few new projects I want to do, and some will make excellent holiday gifts. Yes, I'm thinking Christmas already. Scary, huh?

Not so in love with...

1. Wal-Mart. Do they even know what customer service IS?
2. Teenage boys who would lose their heads if they weren't attached.
3. Migraines. Wish they would go away forever.
4. Humidity. Yes, we do have it here in Arizona, and when we do it SUCKS. Thank God for the pool.
5. Forgetting to add a title to your blog post. Ugh.

What's on your lists today?