Blissful Baking: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Since it has been a little rainy and humid (okay, the weather kind of sucks :/) lately, I have gotten in some time to bake. One of my favorite things to make year round is banana bread. It makes such a good grab n’ go summer breakfast and is something that requires little effort to make.  

Recipe:

1 1/4 cups of sugar

1/2 cup butter (softened)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed (very ripe) bananas (approx. 3-4 medium)

1/2 cup buttermilk 

1 t. vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 t. baking soda

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans because it was all I had :p)

1/2 semisweet mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Mash bananas in a bowl. I used a potato masher because I found it was easiest. Mix together wet ingredients and then slowly add in the dry. 

Don’t Forget to grease your pan with butter or vegetable shortening. After this, to ensure my bread would not stick to the pan, I put a bit of flour in my pan. I gently tapped my pan allowing the flour to coat each side of the pan. This trick really does help!

Bake for about 1 hour or until golden brown (and checked with a toothpick). Let cool for about an hour and enjoy!

Can someone please send some nice weather my way?
-Bree

Blissful Baking: Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Finally! My sophomore year of college is done and I now have my whole summer ahead of me to dedicate time to this blog. I hope to have more DIY projects in the future. :) Anyway, one of my best friends is came home from college today, so I decided to surprise her with a little treat. She loves red velvet and I realized that I have never made any homemade red velvet sweets. Why not start now?

I found this amazing recipe by Tide and Thyme. I found it really interesting because the recipe calls for baking soda and white vinegar in the batter. I guessed that it meant my cupcakes would be fluffier and THEY WERE. This is the best cake batter recipe I have ever tried to date. 

-Bree

Music Monday: Still Into 'Paramore' ?

Paramore - Still Into You

April has been a good month for me so far. One thing that notably made it a good month was the release of Paramore’s fourth self-titled album. It was released on April 9th and is available on iTunes.

Anywho, ever since the music video for this song came out I have been obsessed. The song is called “Still Into You” and all I can say is that it’s very fun. Just watch it and see for yourself... you will not listen to this song only once. 

Still Into You by Paramore

And since I am a complete Dweeb, I went online ye ol' internet in search for Hayley’s wild fashion - particularly her jacket and tee. (I could never pull of those tights, even though they are friggin awesome). I stumbled upon the same style of top she is wearing, but in green, at Topshop: here.

and her jacket is: here and I believe I found the ‘melting’ tights: here. 

Have fun dancing - Bree

Blissful Baking: Cinnamon Belgian Waffles

 Cinnamon Belgian Waffles

Today I am a bit of a hypocrite. I went online and searched for a recipe to make Belgian Waffles. I found a recipe for plain Belgian Waffles, but I decided adding cinnamon and cinnamon chips would be most appropriate. : )

To begin, get out your waffle iron and preheat it. (Mine is so old... I like to call it ‘Shocky’, even though it doesn’t shock me when I use it and isn’t like, 50 years old.. Any HIMYM fans out there?). Then, I mixed all of the dry ingredients together. In a different bowl, the recipe called for mixing the egg yolks, butter, buttermilk and vanilla together. After you’re done with that, you add that the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Don’t throw away the egg whites! Those go into the batter, too. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into the batter. 

(The original recipe also called for 1 cup of buttermilk, which I don’t have, so I substituted 1 cup of milk and 1 tsp of lemon juice. I added in a little bit of cinnamon in with the dry ingredients and threw in 1/2 cup of Hersheys cinnamon chips (ground) into the batter.) 

And then spoonful by spoonful, I put them in the iron. They took about 7 minutes until the steam subsided and they were ‘golden brown’. It really depends on your waffle iron. Bon appetite! 

-Bree

Music Monday: What Am I Listening To?

Norah Jones - Happy Pills

I adore Norah Jones. Her voice is simply astonishing. Her music (as I like to describe it) blends together eerie, blues-y, and classical styles- perfect to listen to on a rainy day. This song is not my favorite of hers, but I really have been loving the music video. The style in the video is reminiscent of the late 50’s or early 60’s and tells the story of Norah’s character getting revenge on her cheating lover through the use of numerous flash backs and flash forwards. The ending scene is my favorite. It jumps back and forth, from the past and the future. At one moment, it’s the future and Norah’s character is riding her horse through the woods, stopping at a certain spot by the lake and then, FLASHBACK we see her pushing her lifeless boyfriend in his car into the lake. It’s almost like a murder mystery story, but we already know ‘who done it’. One thing I’m still curious about is why there are japanese subtitles in the video… Anyway, If you guys ever have time, be sure to check out other songs by Norah Jones... because she's just pure awesome! : )

Happy Pills By Norah Jones

That's all for now,

 Bree

Blissful Baking: Vanilla Macaroons

Vanilla Macaroons

I’ve always wanted to make homemade macaroons and have been searching for the perfect macaroon recipe book/recipe. I tried looking online, but I’ve always been a bit apprehensive with online recipes. Occasionally, I stumble onto a ‘failed’ recipe (I follow it to a T and it still doesn’t turn out right) and it just drives me nuts. I feel like all my hard work and time I put into making my creation is somewhat wasted. I’m a very indecisive person and couldn't decide on what recipe book to get, so I’m so glad my wonderful cousin Sam (The Sunflower Maiden) got me Macaroons: For the ideal bite-size treat as an early Birthday present. Guess I've gotta start somewhere?

So, I read the introduction and choose the first recipe in the book: Vanilla Macaroons. Simple and sweet, these macaroons were easier to make than I thought they would be.

Recipe:

1/4 cup ground almonds (stores don’t normally carry ground almonds, so make sure you have a food processor on hand)

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 extra large egg whites

1/4 cup superfine sugar (cane)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

Filling:

4 tbsp unsalted butter (softened)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup confectioners’ sugar (optional: sifted)

Instructions: Place the ground almonds and confectioners’ sugar in a good processor and process for 15 seconds. (I did it a bit longer than 15 seconds because my food processor  is ancient and there were still some big pieces of almonds. I would do it until the pieces are very, very small). Sift the mixture into a bowl. (This step also helps with getting out the big pieces of almond). 

Place the egg whites in a large bowl and whip until holding soft peaks. Gradually beat in the superfine sugar to make a firm, glossy meringue. Beat in the vanilla extract. 

Using a spatula, fold the almond mixture into the meringue one-third at a time. When all the dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, continue to cut and fold the mixture until it forms a shiny batter with a thick, ribbonlike consistency. 

Pour batter into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch plain tip. Pipe 32 small circles (make sure they are only about 1 inch wide) onto the prepared baking sheets. (I used parchment paper, but you could also use a silicone baking mat). This is an important step: Tap the baking sheets firmly onto a work surface to remove air bubbles. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. (I accidentally missed this step and that's why some are cracked!) Preheat the oven to 325F/160C. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. (I checked mine after 10 minutes and decided that they were done). Cool for 10 minutes. Carefully(!) peel the macaroons off the parchment paper and let cool completely. 

To make the filling, beat the butter and vanilla extract in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth and creamy. (This stuff is so yummy!) Use to sandwich pairs of macaroons together.

Tada! You’ve made homemade vanilla macaroons! :) See, that wasn’t so bad!

I decided to steep one of my favorite teas from Teavana, Earl Grey Creme, which paired very nicely with these bite-sized treats. 

Until next time,

 Bree

Just going to include this picture because I think it looks cool. 

Treating Myself

Mini Sephora Haul: Treating Myself to Unnecessary Beauty Products

I have been working a TON lately and this past month hasn’t been that great for me. I’ve been under a lot of stress, so to deal with the stress I thought I would treat myself to some goodies at Sephora online. (Okay, not the best way to deal with stress... and I kind of splurged, but I have been waiting to buy some of these products for a long time)

Here’s what I bought:

Clarisonic/ Mia2™ Sonic Cleansing Brush Brightening Blossom with Boscia

I’ve heard a lot about Clarisonic working wonders and becoming a main part of people’s beauty routine. My skin is bipolar. Seriously. Sometimes it’s dry, sometime’s oily, sometime’s both. (The weather here doesn't help!) I try to use products that combat the problems, but feel like nothing works with my skin. So, I keep on testing out different products, seeing if I can find my ‘holy grail’. My skin has been awful this month, so I finally gave in and bought it. I decided to go with the limited edition Mia2 that came with a couple Boscia products. (It was only 10 more dollars and I’m a sucker for deals, so why not!) The thing that kept me from buying this product would be the price. I’m so excited to try this!

Perricone MD Nutritive Cleanser 

This was a bit of an impulse buy. It was one of those items I saw just before checking out and couldn’t resist adding it to my ‘basket’. I read some of the reviews on Sephora, saying that it helped minimize pores, clarifying, and improves skin texture and tone. People even said that the Clarisonic worked well with it. SOLD. I just want to find that cleanser that works every time- my go to cleanser. Never in my life I thought I would be buying a cleanser this expensive. Hopefully this works for me and it won’t be $39 bucks down the drain!

Make Up For Ever HD Invisible Cover Foundation

I have used Clinique foundation and powder ever since I began wearing makeup at 14. I’ve found that it works well on my super sensitive skin. The only problem is that they don’t have very many color variations. I have fair skin with pink undertones and have found that all of Clinique’s foundations have yellow undertones that always seem to make me look tanner than I actually am. (I have the lightest color in the Acne Solutions foundation) I’ve heard many great things about the Make Up For Ever HD Invisible Cover Foundation, and decided it’s time to try something that actually works for my stubborn skin tone. I bought the third lightest shade, which is 115 Ivory. 

So excited to try all of these products! It’s always 

good to treat yourself once in a while. : )
Bree