It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella= best combination ever

Banana Bread

Somebody (not me) got a little ambitious about eating a banana every day and bought in bulk at the grocery store. You know what that means!

Black bananas

Which became Banana Bread muffins!

yummmyy

I found this simple recipe and I already had the ingredients. I had egg beaters instead of eggs and rolled the dice and substitute them, and it turned out fine! I had no idea you could do that. If you aren't too lazy to go to the grocery store like me, you should definitely add walnuts. I put brown sugar on top because I felt like it.

Here is the recipe:

Banana Bread Recipe

Prep time: 5 minutes

• Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

A Very Oxford Birthday

Joe started his two week nighttime class on his birthday, so we had a lunchtime celebration! We went to eat at City Grocery since we have never been...

Bday boy!

Shrimp and grits... (ehhhhh)

After class Joseph got to eat his favorite meal..Little Caesars hot and ready pizza. News flash: the pizza was NOT "ready", and it now costs $6 instead of $5!!! BUT it was still delicious.

Racking up on presents

Sugaree's caramel cake

Over the hill!

Joe the balloon... he turned out to be super creepy.

Happy 26 to Joseph! Uncle Bill sent a mega box full of jalapenos and peppers straight from Chatham, AL! there will be many poppers in our future...

Here are a few select pics from the MBA Birthday Bash. Two of our bff's had a bday in the same week as Joe, so there was a celebration on Saturday night. I learned not to trust anything called "summer beer." It might be tasty, but is obviously just a sneaky name for rocket fuel..

Of course Meredith made some bday cups! We had the party in her party room, and went to Burgundy Room afterwards. Good times were (obviously) had by all!

Bday boys: Joe, Tim, and Dan

Little Lady

Is this the cutest little dog you have ever seen??????

Fanciful Food Finds

And now I will introduce my new favorite food to you, the very exotic dragon tongue bean!

It's an heirloom type of snap pea, and it changes colors when you cook it. Pretty similar to a green bean, except there are no strings, and they taste a WHOLE lot better.

We got them at the Taylor Farmer's Market this Saturday because we thought they looked crazy, and I am so glad we did! I need a lifetime supply of these things. We grilled them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic and added fresh basil after they were done. The grill-y taste was amazing. If you can find some of these, buy them!!!!

heavenly

Another find at the farmer's market, a pearl cucumber:

Here it is next to a lemon cucumber... haven't tried that one yet.

It is a really light green color, and is just a little tastier than a regular cucumber.

It also had a lot more seeds. It was delicious!

We made a vinaigrette with Joe's beer mustard that the canning lady at the market makes and I loved it! Much better than regular old Dijon.

Don't have a pic of the beer mustard, but here is my purchase from the canning lady... spicy sauerkraut! I will put it on my doggies

Oh yeah... those steaks were pretty good too!!

Best.Dinner.Ever

If only every meal was this delicious! I think I need to be a farmer.

The Final Countdown...

I'm sure that you have all marked your calendars (or bought your midnight viewing tickets) for the last Harry Potter movie ever on Friday! I think Joe has been waiting on this day for the last ten years... His official wand is out, and he keeps asking me if we can dress in costumes to go to the movie theatre. He is what you call a hardcore fan of wizards.

O M G

As many of you know, I was completely in the dark about 'Arry and all of his crazy adventures until last year when I got invited to go to Hogwarts with the Granades! I crammed in all of the movies and read the first book in a few months, and look at me now:

STUPEFY!

Hogwarts is awesome, they even have a wand shop like in the movies where you can go and get your very own special wand!

Giddy as a school girl

Me and you-know-who being spooky

Brrrrrrrrr! (J/k, it was 110 degrees!)

Can't wait to see the new movie! The previews look SUPER scary! I'll be sure to snap a pic if Joe dresses up like Ron Weasley. Cheerio!

Kosher Monday

Someone (named Joseph) got the hankering for some good ole Jewish latkes tonight. I had no idea he was serious about making them until he went to the grocery store and bought the potatoes. He was not messing around. Of course, I documented his cooking.

Shredded potatoes

Frying his latkes

I got a pan, I got a plan

We googled a recipe for "tasty latkes"

They may not look beautiful, but they were quite tasty!

Aftermath: Joe's apartment smells like Captain D's. And so do we. Although it was a nice cultural experience, I do not recommend making your own latkes.