fabric friday: 09-02-11: Giveaway Winner!

I'm pleased to announce the winner for the KnollTextiles nail polish giveaway!

And the winner is......

Emily! Who had a pretty funny story to tell...

There were 11 entries and I used random.org to generate the winner.

Thanks for all who entered! Congrats, Emily!

weekend update: August 26-28

Friday my mom, sister, niece (the 18 month old), aunt and cousin celebrated my mom's birthday with dinner and dessert at the Olive Garden.

On Saturday I spent the day baking my mom's birthday cake and ruining frosting. Josh and I stopped off at the grocery store to pick up some whipping cream and my mom finished off her own cake because I just couldn't handle it anymore!

Almond-White Cake (recipe HERE - they call for 1 T almond extract,
I only used 1/2 T and it was perfect in my opinion)
with seedless raspberry jam, whipped cream, raspberries and almonds.

Saturday night I met Kristen and Staci at Molly Brannigan's for some appetizers and then we went over to Coconut Joe's/Boardwalk.

Sunday Josh and I went to church, took a trip to the library, got gelati's at Rita's, took naps, I read my books and we had a yummy dinner of chicken with homemade BBQ sauce.

Erie Blasco Library

Up the stairs to the fiction section

New books: Specials & Extras from The Uglies series
and The Oracle of Stamboul (it looked cool, so I grabbed it!)

Hope you all had great weekends. Yay for Labor Day 3-day weekend coming up!!

Bloggers Bible Club?

Lately I've been really feeling the effects of not reading my Bible like I should - and feeling the guilt, though not really doing anything to change it. I had a kind of serious break down this weekend over something ridiculous and I've been struggling with envy/jealousy a lot lately as well, not to mention a general lack of guidance for my career path. I know that my lack of Bible-reading isn't the reason these things are happening, but I'm sure it isn't helping.

I know I don't talk a lot about God or my faith on this blog. It's not that I want it to be a secret, it's just that I've tried to keep a focus on this blog, and it has always been an outlet for my other passions - food and design - while I felt like my God-passion was satisfied through church on Sundays, being in the worship/praise band and occasionally attending small group.

I've always had Christian girlfriends, but as I've been growing up I've noticed most of these friends are no longer my age and are at different stages of life - most are my sister's friends or have kids. The small group I attended with my sister went through it's own changes and is full of married friends now with kids. Most of the friends Josh and I have at church that are our age are in small groups already, and due to his more hectic work schedule, it's hard for us to meet regularly with others.

I've been meeting new blogger friends recently across the globe and it got me to thinking. Is there some sort of Blogging-Bible-Club-Study any of you are a part of or is it something you might be interested in? I'm not even sure how it would work, so I'm definitely open to suggestions. Maybe a certain portion to read weekly and it can be posted about (if you want) or discussed via email? Or maybe even a new blog that anyone in the "club" can contribute too and discussed in the comments?

Please let me know your thoughts or if you have any suggestions of reading plans that you may follow. I know as we get into fall and then winter...that seasonal depression is going to kick in and I need to be prepared and motivated before that gets here!

Don't Forget!

Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY! Closes Thursday, September 1! Check the post for more details.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Another delicious recipe from How Sweet Eats - Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread.

My favorite breakfast is whole wheat toast, peanut butter, chopped bananas and dark chocolate shavings. Yum. This bread (toast it with some peanut butter) might be my new favorite breakfast food.

Yum.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Banana Bread
(recipe adapted from How Sweet Eats. ingredients below reflect the changes I had to make due to not having all ingredients required on hand)
makes one loaf

~ingredients~

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature (I was out of butter so I used canola oil, though I would suggest not substituting unless necessary)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chocolate chips
~instructions~

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and set aside.
2. Cream butter and peanut butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. 
3. Add egg and vanilla, mixing until combined. Add bananas and mix. 
4. Add dry ingredients slowly, mixing until just combined. 
5. Stir in milk, adding more one tablespoon at a time if batter is not wet enough. 
6. Fold in chocolate chips.
7. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray and pour in batter. Bake for 50 minutes, or until knife inserted comes out clean. (it took over an hour for my bread)