Sweet Treat Saturday

Banana Split Cake

Do I need to say anything else?

Oh. You want the recipe? Ok. I suppose.

The recipe (I don't know where this originated - I just know it ended up in my box):

2 cups powdered sugar
2 sticks butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Mix together and beat at medium speed for 20 minutes. This is where a stand mixer comes in handy. I just tossed it in and enjoyed a quick lunch with Monkey while the mixer did the work!

Mix together 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about a sleeve and a half of whole crackers if you crumb them yourself) and 1 stick melted butter.

Press evenly into a 9x13 pan.

Spread cream mixture over crumbs.

Beware of the mess your toddler will make with the mixer beater while attempting to lick it.

Layer 2 cups drained crushed pineapples (don't forget to reserve the juice for something else - like Sweet N Sour Chicken Balls, perhaps?).

Layer 4 split bananas on top of the pineapple.

Spread a large container of cool whip on top of the bananas.

Sprinkle with chopped nuts and cut up cherries (I forgot the cherries, but actually do not like them so it worked out in MY favor! haha Sorry T.)

Refrigerate for 2 hours and enjoy!

I did not put nuts on the entire cake because of the choking hazard for Monkey, but we did put them on our indivial servings. This cake is really good and very easy.

Enjoy!

Recipe Review

We tried out the Savory Grilled Shrimp and Pear and Gorgonzola Salad (recipes here) tonight. My Mom is visiting (we're taking our girls junking trip tomorrow/Saturday), so I got an extra input.

I got to grill in the rain because it started raining about 10 minutes before it was time to throw the shrimp on. It's times like this it makes me glad our grill is right outside our door on the porch. And very glad I could find my rain coat. HA. It was also very easy to prepare.

I added apple to the salad, also. I need to tweak the dressing a little. I found it a little overpowering on the bottom of the bowl, but has great flavor.

All in all, we enjoyed both very much.

Project Procrastination - After:

Two weeks ago, I joined in a Project Procrastinators Party over at The Inspired Room. After much deliberation, I decided I wanted to tackle my stairway project.

First, let me show you once again my wonderful decorating sense. (Note the dripping sarcasm)

Top Half - Before:


Bottom Half - Before:


After much sweat and tears (ok - no tears but with these pregnancy hormones, yes there was a lot of sweat!) I got those stairs AND the trim painted! (T had already painted the walls of the top half and the shelving had also already been painted). I'm mighty proud of myself, too.

Top Half - After:


Bottom Half - After:

We do still need to repair the drywall at the base of the stairs, but like I said before, it's very far down on the totum pole. Maybe we'll tackle it next winter, but I do know I'm not about to attempt drywall on my own at 32+ weeks pregnant, thank you very much. Crazy? Yes. Nesting? Yes again. Stupid? No. I'll wait until T is ready to help me.

I still have a few things I want to do (like put a few more pretty things on top and make some kind of small chalkboard labels for my baskets) and a few things I want to buy (I may replace one of the hanging baskets with a sign or wreath - and I want to find a small wooden step ladder to attach to the wall under the shelves to store our most worn shoes so they aren't in the doorway). But all in all, I'm very pleased with what I've accomplished so far.

Any ideas or suggestions on finishing it up would be greatly appreciated!

Now, make sure you head on over to The Inspired Room to see the After Photos!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was almost any other day in our house. I called my Mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day and that was about it. T and Monkey let me sleep in a little, but our handyman was coming to install the tile in our bathroom, so if I wanted to shower before he got here I had no choice but to get up early.

We did spend the afternoon together as a family, but that is normal on Sunday. T grilled surf & turf for dinner for a special meal - and informed me what my present is.

The dear sweet man is giving me hours of back breaking labor to fix this:

THIS is the flower bed in front of my house and what it looks like in the spring. It looks so bare and like such a great blank slate, right?

Not really.

This is what it looks like later in the summer. It's not terrible, but it's much more overgrown for my taste. I've been trying to weed it and create a nice cultivated look since we bought the house five years ago. It all just keeps coming back.

T told me to dig out the plants I want to keep (I do like some!). He will then dig out the rest of the bed. I have a small budget to haul in fresh loam and to pick out and buy new plants with! I'm so excited by this prospect. I've been trying to figure out exactly what I want to do. I have a feeling I'll be spending quite a bit of time at the nursery.

Work begins sometime next week because this weekend (weather and interior projects permitting), I'm taking off for a belated Mother's Day girls weekend with my Mom. We're taking off on Friday for the night, just the two of us, for a small antiquing/junking road trip we've been wanting to take for years.

I'll tell you all about it next week!

Fiddleheading

T went fiddleheading on Saturday. We spent some of the afternoon cleaning them by hand. We finished cleaning them on Sunday night. And what you see here is a nice batch of fiddleheads covering my kitchen table, drying out after being prepped for freezing. So far, we have 6 meals worth in our freezer (about 3 gallons total).


We joined him last night to pick some more (the photo above is Monkey's attempt at photography - I think we need to get her a camera for Christmas because she loves taking pictures). We got between 1 and 2 gallons - and I'm hoping T has them clean when I get home from work today so I can handle the freezer prep and freezing tomorrow.

For those of you whom don't know what fiddleheads are, click here for more information. There are even a few recipes at the link. You just might be seeing one of them in the future!

Yum yum!!