Banana Muffins

What do you do when you have extremely ripe bananas?  Make banana bread of course!  Over time I have accumulated so many random cupcake liners so I decided to use some of them up and make muffins instead of banana bread.  The muffins turned out very moist and were a nice treat in the morning with my coffee.

Valentine's Day Cookie Grams

I realized that I haven't posted in awhile mainly because I have been so busy with school.  I also took on a big project for Valentine's Day that involved baking 375 sugar cookies!  Last year I joined a Pharmaceutical Fraternity on campus and I quickly became involved as our chapters Historian since I enjoyed taking pictures.  Before I knew it, I also found myself as the fundraising co-chair.  Looking for ways to raise money for charity my fraternity decided to hold a Valentine's Day Sugar Cookie Gram Sale.  Of course when the question arose of who was going to bake the cookies there was no question that I would volunteer to do it.  When the word got out that I was going to be baking the cookies, people started buying 10+ at a time.  In all we sold around 375 cookies and made a profit of $300 that is going to be donated to Doernbecher Children's Hospital.  Here are some pictures of the process!

Chicken and Dumplings

I don't know about where you live but here in the Portland area it has been FREEZING!!!  Last week, due to an inversion, we were in the 20s here while the snowboarders were enjoying temperatures in the 50s on the slopes.  School even got delayed for 4 hours due to freezing rain and ice on the roadways.  Needless to say I have been craving something warm and comforting.  I have never had chicken and dumplings but when I came across a recipe to make it using my crock-pot I decided I just had to try it.  It turned out great and was a perfect meal to warm me up during the cold nights last week.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Growing up as a kid, whenever we had pancakes in the morning, my dad was in charge of cooking them.  He was such a perfectionist (I wonder where I get it from) and always made sure that they were perfectly golden brown. We always made our pancakes using bisquick, and it wasn't until last year that I experimented with making buttermilk pancakes from scratch.  Even though I made the batter I still made my dad cook them, since I am still scarred from one of the first times I made pancakes for my boyfriend and they were raw in the middle (he still ate them though so kudos to him!)  When I was home for winter break, my parents wanted me to make my buttermilk pancakes again and this time I actually cooked them myself!  Sure there were a few choice words that flew out of my mouth when I didn't flip some of them perfectly but they turned out just fine and I'm pretty sure this was the first time ever my dad was able to sit down and enjoy them instead of being the last one to the table.

Savory Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Tartlets

The holidays have come and gone, and 2013 is underway.  I don't know about you, but I definitely indulged in many delicious things this holiday season.  When it came time to ring in the New Year, I wanted to make sure we had something yummy to nibble on while we waited for midnight to roll around.  These savory tartlets hit the spot and were pretty simple to make.