stale bread

I had a leftover half loaf of italian bread from the bakery ; it was way too stale to eat (crouton like state). So instead of tossing it I made:

Caramelized Banana Bread Pudding

1/3 cup craisins (or raisins)
3 Tb. dark rum
1 Tb. unsalted butter
3 med. bananas, halved lengthwise then sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
4 Tb. dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
3 Tb. granulated sugar
1/3 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups cuped french bread

In a small bowl, combine craisins and rum. Let stand 10 min. Drain, reserving rum and craisins separately.
In lg. bowl whisk milk,eggs, granulated sugar, cinnamon ,vanilla and reserved craisins. Stir in bread cubes let stand 15 min.
Preheat oven to 350.
In med. skillet, melt butter over med-high heat. When frothy, add banana slices and cook, stirring frequently until lightly browned, 3 minutes or so. Remove skillet from heat and add brown sugar and rum. Return skillet to heat and cook until rum evaporates about 30 sec.
In large baking dish sprayed with pam, spoon in 1/2 the bread mixture, then 1/2 banana mixture. Repeat to use all. Bake until puffed and golden; bout 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temp.

The Sweetest Place on Earth

D and I had the day off Friday for the holiday weekend, so we decided to head up to Hersheypark. They offer a "preview" evening-if you present your ticket for the next day you can enter the park after 7:30 pm and enjoy the park for free. So we headed up Thurs. evening after work. We had a great time, despite the rainstorm that happened. We did several inside rides that we may not have normally chosen. We took the Kissing tower ride which is a several hundred feet elevator type ride which rotates giving a birds-eye view of Hershey and the amusement park; it was neat to ride in the dark. The coasters all shut down with the rain but started running again in the last hour. S took her first big roller coaster ride on the superdooper looper- in the dark. As the name implies it has a loop. She loved it-and a rollercoaster monster was created.

The next morning we were in the park at opening and stayed until closing. We only had one brief rain shower and the weather was otherwise wonderful with partly sunny skies and temps in the upper 70's. The kids enjoyed going on the coasters repeatedly as the lines were not long 15-20 minute wait at most. As always, the people watching was interesting and quite amusing at times! We went to Chocolate World which smells deliciously chocolate-y and took the factory tour ride which completes with a piece of chocolate. Longest line of the day was for the cars, which took almost an hour. As we stood there D and I both recalled this type of ride always moves slow in every theme park. Last few rides of the day were spent on the Comet a huge classic wooden coaster and the infamous superdooper looper-5 times in a row. We left happy and worn out! We made our drive home and colapsed into bed a little after midnight. A fun time was had by all.

new door

Better pic of completed project:

New Door

We decided it would be nice to have a roof over our heads coming in the house and a new front door was long overdue. As with all home improvement projects, it seemed to take a long time to get done. Construction is completed, now comes the re-landscaping work!

Yummy Snack

Got this recipie from a co worker. It is an easy "dump" recipie with one surprise ingredient.

Yummy Black Bean Salsa

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
2 cans shoepeg/white corn, drained
2 cans ro-tel diced tomatoes with cilantro
3 green onions chopped
1 8 oz. bottle zesty italian dressing

Combine all in a very large bowl. Serve with chips. I couldn't find the tomatoes with cilantro so I used tomatoes with green chiles and chopped up some cilantro from the garden and added it in.
D even put this on top of his grilled chicken burger and loved it.
You know it must be good if I actually ate the black eyed peas.

1st Hickey?

12 year old boy +ziploc suction device:








And this is my contribution to the gene pool.

Sign of Spring

This weekend we had beautiful weather. Saturday was 73; which led to a flurry of activity in the gardens. The front beds got a much needed raking and lo and behold a treasure was found-crocus popping up through the leaves! Sunday was 63 but overcast; today is in the low 60's with 30 mile/hr gusts of wind. Raking was just not an option. Two of my small roses had new green growth and leaf buds; and the japanese maples also are budding at the tips. Especially since it is light later in the evening ( with the time change )we all have spring fever.

It's Twins!

Bugsy (left) and Dopey (right).

Our 2 1/2 year old hampster, Shadow, died overnight; the kids immediately decided they wanted a new one. We packed up Shadow (who is awaiting a thaw to be buried); cleaned out the cage and headed out to our pet store. The kids saw Bugsy 1st; he is a friendly white dwarf hampster and his eyes are, well, buggy. Dopey kept hiding under the water bottle holder (don't pick me!!). After discussion with our very nice and knowlegdable employee, it was decided to get two hampsters who will live happily together (we hope). They have been very busy today checking out their new home.

From Surf to Snow

We took a long weekend trip to Florida to see D's parents. Temps were in the mid to upper 70's during the day, which beats the heck out of the 20's we were having at home. We took full advantage of the wonderful temperature and sunshine; walking to the beach, fishing, swimming in the pool, flying kites. We went to the beach every afternoon; only the crazy northerners (us) were in the freezing cold ocean! The kids had a lot of fun building sand castles and collecting lots of shells to bring home.

We flew home to a couple of inches of snow with the threat of winter weather advisory overnight. This morning, we have another layer of snow with a crunchy coating of ice over the top. The kids predicted correctly, no school today. Unfortunately, the coating of ice on top of the snow made it impossible to sled, much to the kids dismay. Luckily D left his car at the top of the driveway or he would not have made it out to work. He had a time just getting to the car and slid trying to walk uphill on the driveway and ended up having to crunch through the grass until he was close enough to the car to grab onto it.

The temperature is supposed to get up into the 40's and it is now drizzling as predicted. Everyone should be back to work and school tomorrow, much to their disappointment.

Weekend Update

Saturday at noon we said, wow, it's 5 times warmer now than when we woke up this morning. Not often you can say that. It was 3 when we woke up; 15 at noon. I know compared to others, that's warm. BRRRR.

Sunday we took the kids skiing for the first time. Everyone took a beginner lesson which was a scheduled 1 1/2 hours (to get the hang of things and stay safe). Usually MLK holiday weekend is packed, but according to the ski patrol it was a very low attendance day (maybe cold temps or the ravens/steelers game was responsible). A. had a really hard time getting the hang of it and was down more than up. He ended up continuing on to a second lesson and finally had success. Everyone was famished by lunch. After lunch we hit the beginner slope for some confidence and then the boys were off to the next level slope. D. cut across to a more advanced slope, but joined back up for the ride to the top. S. and I stayed on the beginner slope all afternoon. S. was proud to say she made six trips down without a fall!

The resort we were at had snowboarders on the same slopes with the skiiers and we had a great time watching them (especially from the ski lift). There were some spectacular wipe outs! Lots of people laying in the snow laughing.

Everyone was wiped out by the time we made it home and A. is covered in bruises; but everyone is looking forward to going again this season.

Today we are off from school because of the holiday and we are enjoying watching our first accumulative snowfall. So far, about an inch. The kids are thrilled and out sliding down the hills!

Out of the closet

Linen closet, that is! Sunday I cleaned out the overflowing linen closet and removed two large trash bags of items to be donated to charity. Then I neatly folded all the towels and matched up the sheet sets with their corresponding pillowcases and loaded everything back in to the closet. It looks so pretty-I wonder how long we can keep it this way?

Monkey Bread

This mornings special treat was monkey bread (pictured at left). Thanks for the bread baker, Grammy! Even the chief food snob, D, had to admit it was very tasty.
We had a very nice holiday break. Santa ( and all his many helpers) were good to all of us this year. The big hit this year was the Wii. Dance, Dance Revolution has been quite fun and aerobic for all!
Tomorrow back to school and work for all of us. Today we finished taking out the real tree and getting the multiple boxes of decorations packed and ready to go back to the attic until next year.