Mom’s banana bread

Posted on by aurorameyer

My mom didn’t make banana bread very often because she doesn’t really like bananas, but my dad, sister and I did, so when she made it, it was a great day. I was pretty surprised at how easy this is to make. It’s perfect for a cold late winter day.

Mom's banana bread

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Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups and 1/2flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar –
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar (if it's lumpy it's ok)
  • 3 teaspoons and 1/2baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla you can add a bit more if you want!
  • 1 egg
  • 3 very ripe bananas you can use two if you prefer less banana flavor

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan with butter or Crisco. No need to flour the greased pan. Mix the wet ingredients into a bowl, adding the milk last.
  • Mix the dry ingredients. If your brown sugar is a little lumpy, that's ok! It will add pockets of caramel notes.
  • Mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together.
  • Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 55 to 60 minutes until the top is brown and a toothpick comes out clean and the sides start to pull away from the greased pan.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

My opinion: This makes your whole house smell amazing. It’s delicious and one of my most favorite breakfast foods. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can add chocolate chips, dried fruit, nuts, peanut butter (if you add peanut butter reduce the oil by one tablespoon). The options are endless!

Homemade Butterfingers

Posted on by aurorameyer

Homemade Butterfingers
These are some of the most amazingly delicious homemade candies I’ve ever had. Ever. I am not a huge fan of the traditional Butterfinger candy bars and will never eat another again now that I’ve tasted these. C and a good friend of hers made these and the recipe is theirs. It’s probably best that I still think these are super complicated or else I might only eat Butterfingers for the rest of the time candy corn is available in the stores.

Ingredients:
Equal amount of candy corn and peanut butter (You’ll want to use slightly more candy corn than PB). Get the honey flavored Brach’s candy corn. It’s the best.
1 or 2 packages of Chocolate flavored Almond Bark.

Directions:
Melt candy corn in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir until it’s melted. Stir in peanut butter with melted candy corn. Spread it out on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Try to be even. Refrigerate or freeze it for 10 to 30 minutes. (Longer is better!) Take the baby poop looking cold candy corn/ peanut butter mixture and cut it into squares. Follow package directions to melt Almond Bark and pour it over the cut pieces. You can do this on a new sheet of wax and refrigerate again. Keep the bars cold, trust me, they are better that way. Plus, it keeps the candy corn and peanut better from melting a little and making a mess on your fingers.

My opinion:
Other than what I said above, just take this fair warning: you’ll never want to eat store-bought Butterfingers again. Ever.

Easy Butterfingers

Homemade Butterfingers by Aurora Meyer on aurorameyer.com

Homemade Butterfingers

These are some of the most amazingly delicious homemade candies I’ve ever had. Ever. I am not a huge fan of the traditional Butterfinger candy bars and will never eat another again now that I’ve tasted these. C and a good friend of hers made these and the recipe is theirs. It’s probably best that I still think these are super complicated or else I might only eat Butterfingers for the rest of the time candy corn is available in the stores.
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Prep Time 5 minutes
Freezer Time 30 minutes
Servings 12 squares

Ingredients
  

  • Equal amount of candy corn and peanut butter You’ll want to use slightly more candy corn than PB. Get the honey flavored Brach’s candy corn. It’s the best.
  • 1 or 2 packages of Chocolate flavored Almond Bark.

Instructions
 

  • Melt candy corn in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir until it’s melted. Stir in peanut butter with melted candy corn. Spread it out on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Try to be even. Refrigerate or freeze it for 10 to 30 minutes. (Longer is better!) Take the cold candy corn/ peanut butter mixture and cut it into squares. Follow package directions to melt Almond Bark and pour it over the cut pieces. You can do this on a new sheet of wax and refrigerate again. Keep the bars cold, trust me, they are better that way. Plus, it keeps the candy corn and peanut better from melting a little and making a mess on your fingers.

Notes

My opinion:
Other than what I said above, just take this fair warning: you’ll never want to eat store-bought Butterfingers again. Ever.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Buckeyes

Posted on by aurorameyer

I’m sort of from Ohio, so while other people call these peanut butter balls, I call them Buckeyes. (Note: Just because I’m sort of from Ohio does not mean I love Ohio State. In fact, I don’t. I much prefer the Mizzou Tigers.) This recipe is from Fitness Magazine.

Ingredients:
1 16-ounce jar low-fat, low sodium smooth peanut butter (about 1 3/4 cups, I did this by weight)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
6 cups confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar)
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
4 1/2 teaspoons shortening
Toothpicks and waxed paper

Directions:
Place peanut butter and butter in the large bowl of a sturdy stand mixer. Beat on medium speed until very smooth, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until smooth.
Roll mixture into 1-inch balls. Arrange balls on waxed paper-lined trays or baking sheets. Cover and chill for 3 hours or overnight.
In a small, heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips and shortening over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Keep warm over very low heat. Remove about one-fourth of the peanut butter balls from the refrigerator. Use a toothpick to hold a peanut butter ball and lower it into the chocolate, leaving the top exposed so that it looks like a buckeye. Allow excess chocolate to drip off.
Place ball, undipped portion up, on waxed paper-lined tray or baking sheet. Repeat with remaining peanut butter balls until all are dipped. Chill for 30 minutes, or until firm. Store in the refrigerator.

My Opinion:
I used the entire jar of Smuckers Natural peanut butter. To get it re-emulsified, I used the bread hook on my mixer. Luckily, I didn’t toss it in the dishwasher because I needed it to help incorporate the powdered sugar into the peanut butter. Even then, I only managed to get four cups of powdered sugar into the peanut butter. So don’t fret if you can’t get all six cups in. As for the chocolate dipping, FORGET IT. I just spooned the chocolate over the peanut butter balls. Dipping them just made a huge mess and caused more frustration than good. They didn’t look perfect, but tasted just as good.