I got a bill for $0.34 from my doctor. Then I got a second notice. Then a third. I just kept waiting for there to be a larger bill but it never came. So I got an evil final notice from them and interest making it almost a dollar. Which I then paid in all in pennies to them through the mail…five cents at a time. I’m fun when messed with.

I am still crazy busy so this is another quickie post. These are muffins, but not really. More like cupcakes without frosting. But I like to call them muffins so that they seem more legit to eat for breakfast.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup sour cream
6 ounce unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 fully ripe bananas, pureed
¾ cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9-x-5-3-inch loaf pan, or three mini loafs, or 16 muffin cups.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

Using a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat the butter on high speed until soft and creamy, about 1 minute. Slowly add the sugar, 1 TBSP at a time, beating continuously on high speed. It should take 5 to 10 minutes to add the sugar. The mixture should be light, fluffy and creamy white in color. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Add the eggs, one at a time. Be sure each egg is completely incorporated and scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding the next.

Add one third of the flour mixture to the batter and beat until it is just incorporated. Add one third of the sour cream and mix until just incorporated. Add the flour and sour cream in two more additions, mixing until addition is incorporated before adding the next. Fold in the bananas and chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes for large loaf, thirty minutes for mini loafs and 22-24 minutes for muffins. Cool in the pan on a rack for 5-10 minutes, then remove from pan and set on rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. Will keep for one week in fridge or 3 weeks in freezer.

Source: Adapted from The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard

So Furbaby Friday features a pet that isn’t mine. My week(end) started off by cat sitting for two cats, one of which loved to sit in the tub and have the water drip.

Watching the kitties resulted in a bottle of red wine, which was greatly needed this week.

I also dog watched…but for a completely different person which resulted in free bacon wrapped steak. Steak and red wine are your friends. We actually got these grilled off without a hitch. Minus the fact that we cooked these right at dusk when all the mosquitoes were out…and then came inside. We spent the whole night playing Whack-A-Mole but the mosquito version. Trust me, the take home version of the game is not fun. Leave large itchy welts. Sigh. Good steak though.

Told readers I was holding my breath until someone got me a stuffed unicorn (I may have been watching Despicable Me). Guess what showed up in the mail from one very nice ex?

Found this. You think I would have wanted it but it seems wrong, and not in a good way seems wrong. What are you feelings on this?

Made cupcakes for kiddos. Chocolate with Nutella-Chocolate Buttercream. Yum.

And spent my night scorekeeping hockey to pay for my own hockey tonight.

Wow, I had no idea it had been so long since I posted. Sorry about that. If I thought last week was crazy this one beat it with a crazy stick. But it’s all good, just all busy. So consider this a drive by post of sorts.

When I was at the Winco last I ran across some caramel and vanilla swirl marshmallows. I had no idea what I would do with them but I knew something would be done. So why not throw them into Rice Krispie Treats for the team. Add some caramel bits and some left over Golden Chocolate Oreos and Double Stuff Oreos’ and you had some happy teammates. These got very enthusiastic thumbs up.

Caramel-Vanilla Swirl Oreo Rice Krispie Treat Madness

6 TBSP unsalted butter

16 ounces marshmallows (Caramel and Vanilla Swirl variety)

20 ounces Rice Krispie Cereal

8 ounces caramel bits (or chop up caramels if you can’t find the baking ones)

15 Golden Chocolate Oreos, chopped

15 Double Stuff Oreos, chopped

Butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan. Or be lazy like me and spray it with non-stick baking spray. Set aside.

Over low heat melt butter in a large pot (I like to use my stock pot because I am a messy person).

Once butter has melted, add marshmallows and continue to cook over low heat while they melt.

It may take a little time. Don’t turn up the heat to try and make it go quicker, you could end up with burned marshmallows or your treats could end up too hard once they firm up.

When most of the marshmallows have melted and they resemble marshmallow crème with a few lumps, remove from heat and add the cereal, caramel bits, and cookies.

Using a wooden spoon, stir, stir, stir some more, until all the cereal is fully coated and other parts of the pot are not hogging all the marshmallows (so evenly coated).

Pour into prepared baking pan. Take a rubber spatula and either spray it with non-stick spray or simply get some water on it (I just put mine under the faucet real quick). Using the spatula, press the cereal/marshmallow mixture down into the pan, attempting to create a flat, even surface.

Cover with foil and let sit for a few hours to firm up.

Take foil off. Place wax paper down that is a little bit longer than the baking pan. Flip the pan over onto the wax paper. Cut into squares. Some would say 2-inch. But whatever size you would like works. You can also use cookie cutters to make them fun shaped.

This week was brought to you by the letter C, as in crazy. Some of the crazy I will keep to myself, the other I will share. If you follow me on FB or Twitter than you may already know these examples, but not everyone does.

Crazy number one: I was at my local grocery store when a boy who could be no more than 7 asked me if I was wearing a bra. I looked at the mom and she said “he’s taking a survey”. For the record I was indeed wearing a bra (I mean it’s not like I was Wal-Mart shopping where bras are optional ). While I was amused by this, the kid did actually have pen and paper. This actually kind of fuelled a debate on FB, which was not my intention, I just thought it was funny and wanted to share.

My favorite crazy was at Winco this week. If you are not familiar with a Winco basically it’s a cheap grocery store that like Costco doesn’t take credit cards. It has a whole lot of people on food stamps in there and all types of people (I’m being politically correct here). I was going down the liquor aisle (just passing through) and there was a woman, her very LARGE (I mean LARGE) husband and their cute daughter sitting in the cart. I’m seriously thinking that child was adopted or stolen because she was far too cute to belong to them. Anyway, the little girl shouts hi to me super loud and waves. So I say hi back. Only to have the woman turn around and should at me “don’t say hi to my husband, bitch”. Ummm. The man could have had his own zip code. And while he might have been a perfectly wonderful person, I can assure you I am more than willing to be hands off with that.

One thing I don’t not want my hands off of are these Ginger-Pear Jam Shortbread Bars. My mom makes some of the best jam and this is one of her creations. I’m going to guess that you don’t have this as an option so I would just use plain pear or even peach jam and add a pinch of ginger to the mix. I also threw in some caramel pieces that were left over from something else, but truthfully, I am not sure I would use them again. They made these hard to eat when you got to that part. Live and learn .

Hope your week was less crazy. I have a feeling in the weeks to come my life is going to get more crazy than less. Oh well, roll with it, eh?

Ginger-Pear Jam Shortbread Bars

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
6 TBSP Ginger-Pear Jam (or just pear or peach if you can’t find…unless you know my mom and can get some from her.  )
About 25 caramel pieces (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place oven racks in the bottom third and top third of the oven. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil, making sure the foil is tucked into all the corners and that there is at least 1 inch overhanging the top of the pan.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

Combine the butter and sugar in a medium-size mixing blow and cream together with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir in the egg. Stir in the vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture.

Use a spatula to smooth half the mixture in an even layer across the bottom of the pan. Place the bowl in the freezer, along with the bowl containing the remaining half of the shortbread dough, for 15 minutes to firm up.

Remove the pan from the freezer and spread the preserves in an even layer on top of the dough. Pinch off pieces of the remaining dough and scatter them evenly over the jam. Sprinkle caramel pieces if using.

Place the pan on the bottom oven rack and bake for 20 minutes. Transfer the pan to the top rack and bake until the top is light golden, another 5 to 10 minutes. Let the pan cool completely on a wire rack.
Grasping the overhanging foil on either side of the pan, lift out the squares and place them on a cutting board. Cut into 16 squares. Jam and shortbread squares will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days.
Adapted from Epicurious.com