It’s March! A new month! Spring is inching ever closer! I am feeling so much better today. No fever, and I SLEPT last night, which is everything. I still have no voice to speak of (ha, unintentional pun!), which is more annoying than I anticipated (our house has a lot of stairs and I tend to holler at people rather than walking to where they are which is EFFICIENT) and this infection has fully settled in my chest, so I am coughing at ALL TIMES. (Do you have a go-to cough drop/cough syrup? I have been drinking a LOT of green tea with honey but I think I need to pull out the big guns.)
I am feeling a little KEYED UP, I feel so much better, is what I’m saying. Like maybe I’ve had a full pot of espresso or a fistful of cocaine instead of three sips of my normal tea and zero cocaine. So I guess… Prepare yourself for even more exclamation marks than usual. (I added an exclamation mark after that sentence, then deleted it. It looks mean, now. Mean!!!!)
Let’s have some Friday bullets, shall we?!
1. With all of my Feeling Better Verve, I am making muffins. We had some sad bananas on the counter (we have the Proverbial Banana Problem of either going through bananas more quickly than we can supply them or ending up with an entire bunch slowly liquifying on the counter. So the first order of business is banana chocolate chip muffins, which are in the oven as I type! I have still not gotten around to making the apple cinnamon muffins I mentioned a while back, but I have left all the muffin making ingredients on the counter (which makes me itchy) AND I have already washed all the muffin making equipment (bowls, measuring devices) to prompt me to make Batch 2 as soon as the banana muffins are done. Why not make them simultaneously? Why not, indeed! It is because I have only one set of silicone muffin cups and they are currently in service. Clearly, I need to get another set! These muffins are intended for the freezer – I mean, that’s my intent for them; I can’t speak for the recipe writers – and I find I prefer to reheat a naked muffin rather than try to disrobe a frozen muffin in a paper wrapper. This reminds me that I would love a better muffin freezing solution than the one I have (Tupperware rectangle). Surely Amazon has a product that is designed for this highly specific need? YES! Do I need a muffin fresh storage container just for this purpose? Yes, I think I do!
2. The only problem with making muffins is my oven. I think I have mentioned before that we have two ovens (!!!!!) and that neither of those ovens heats properly (womp womp). For instance, my banana chip muffins required a baking temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I set the oven to 450 degrees. When it had reached approximately 325 degrees, my oven alerted me that it had come to temperature. Yes, I get it, we’re all eager for muffins. (I only know the “real” temperature because we got a thermometer to put inside the oven.) This would be sort of okay if the oven held a consistent temperature difference – like, if I set it to 450 but it reliably stayed at 350. (Although that would be problematic for dishes that require a temperature of 450, because the oven dial only goes to 525.) Except, no, it does not do that. It slowly continues to heat. This is true of both ovens! BOTH! I hate it, thanks. Let’s be clear, though: I do not want to replace the ovens. Especially because one of them is a Big Fancy Oven that costs more money than I care to imagine. But I also can’t go on like this. I suppose what this means is Another Phone Call!!!! Woo!
3. It’s that time again: I need new walking shoes. I don’t know WHAT I do to my shoes, but at some point, the vertical section of shoe that wraps around the back of your heel inevitably fails. And by “fails” I mean there is a big hole through which the plastic starts poking painfully. Do I have horns sprouting from the backs of my heels? I am contemplating ordering another pair of Brooks Ghost shoes – they are what I was using, and I liked them. They are also a lower price on Amazon than I’ve seen them. But maybe I just want a cheapo pair of Asics? These are the shoes I wear around the house all day every day and I like them just fine.
4. We keep inching our way toward finishing Carla’s room renovation. Well. Not really a “renovation,” per say. We have painted the walls and bought a bunch of decor and are now trying to make her space usable. In this house, she has ample space: an enormous bedroom PLUS an enormous craft/toy room. It is The Dream, truly. Unfortunately, we haven’t figured out yet how to make them workable for what she likes to do. (“Crafting all over her bedroom” is NOT THE ANSWER.) The craft room is a big mess right now (but behind a door so I don’t have to see it!!!!). We want to get her a drafting chair so that it’s easier for her to work at her crafting “table” (which is a door balanced on top of several storage units). We want to move one of our couches into that space (we got a new couch for the basement, so now we have too many couches), to give it a cozier feel. She also requested a second bean bag chair. And we want to organize everything so that all the paper and foam and pompoms and markers have A Specific Home. (Do you think we need a label maker for organization purposes? I’ve wanted a label maker for a long time but haven’t made it past putting various label makers in my various digital shopping carts.) It’s a big project and we’ve been limping toward the finish line for a long time. Will this be the weekend we complete it?!?! Probably not, but a girl can hope!!!!
5. Speaking of things I keep wanting to buy but haven’t yet, I am feeling lately like I NEED a stick blender with a cup attachment. Probably I don’t, considering I already have an immersion blender (which I cannot find! they all seem to come with cup attachments now!) and a regular blender, which came with a smaller cup I use for making dressings and single serve smoothies. But it looks so useful! So many delicious recipes on Instagram are made with one of these guys!
Okay, if I continue in this vein I am going to spend too much money and wear out my 1 key. By the way, the muffins are done (and I have left the oven on, set to 375 and the temperature seems to have evened out at 350), my child is awake (and off from school today, whoo five day weekend!!!!!), and I need to go make muffin batch number two!
Tell me something you want to buy but haven’t yet done so.
Just this week I made a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread, posted a photo on IG, and someone said she’d never had chocolate chips in banana bread. I was surprised.
I like Brooks Ghosts, but tried a pair of Asics *some name* and was disappointed. After about a month I gave the Asics to Goodwill and bought another pair of Brooks. FWIW
As someone who refuses to eat bananas, I cannot see how a person could stomach banana bread without chocolate chips?!?! I mean, I don’t eat them even then, but at least I sort of get the appeal.
That is a very good point, Ally. I will have to think about this more. I love my Asics… but I do ONLY wear them around the house.
Nom nom muffins! Our Banana Solution is that we just pop them in the freezer when they get to banana bread stage. That way I can time my muffin baking around when we want muffins instead of when the bananas want to be made into muffins.
The kitchen doodad that I’ve been going back and forth on for YEARS is a vegetable chopper. The argument against is c’mon it’s not really that big a deal to chop up an onion, etc and would it really work any better than a knife, yada yada yada. But I feel like a few times a year I come across someone raving about their particular new vegetable chopper and the prices are always reasonable…seriously I just need to buy one already.
Oh Birchie. We have SO MANY bananas in the freezer that I cannot fit anymore in there. SO EMBARRASSING. That’s why I had to use these up immediately. Perhaps there needs to be a “bananas in, bananas out” rule in our house to avoid this situation?
I have Thoughts on the chopper. I was Instagram Influenced into buying one last year and a) have used it two or three times and b) it is already broken. And yet I still crave a a veggie chopper???? So I guess I’m saying, follow your heart to the veggie chopper Birchie!
Yes! You want a label maker! Pick it out by pricing the cost of the refills and the ease of obtaining the refills. I use mine allllllll the time.
Jen, as usual, you have excellent advice.
Well, now I definitely want to make muffins. Did you end up making the apple ones? I think i might make them this weekend.
So did you do one wall in black for Carla’s room? I’ve been thinking about that ever since you posted about it. I think it would be cool for my daughter’s room, especially since she already has a lot of turquoise in her room. I’m looking forward to seeing your finished product.
Glad you’re feeling better!
I made the apple muffins and they are so good!!!! (I did swap out 3/4 cup of flour for flaxseed meal, which I loooooove.)
We DID paint one wall of Carla’s room black! It looks super cool. I want to do a follow up post but it is not ready yet.
Silicone muffin cups!!! Well, that’s genius and worth many exclamation points! I need to look into those!
I laughed so hard at the thought of horns growing out of your heels! What a great image! I don’t have any advice on shoes. I have the hardest time finding shoes I like.
I’m glad you’re starting to feel better!
The muffin cups are so great! Highly recommend. I throw them in the dishwasher after I remove the muffins. Easy peasy!
Shoes are as difficult as jeans. Sigh.
Muffins are such comfort food! Are beanbag chairs back in? I had one many decades ago. 🙂 I wear Brooks Ghost when I rarely run and Keens for walking. My feet are wide so they are the most comfortable.
I don’t know if they are “in” but Carla loves the one we got her for her bedroom!
Keens for walking! I need to look into this.
I can’t wait to see pictures of Carla’s finished space. How exciting.
That oven fiasco sounds truly horrendous. And you cook so much at home. Oh, Suzanne! I think I would lose MY MIND EVERY DAY trying to work around something like this. I hope it gets sorted one way or another and requires very few phone calls?! <3
Those muffins look amazing and I'm so glad you're feeling better. I don't have a go-to cough drop but actually have found I prefer white mints over anything else. They don't leave a horrible taste in my mouth like many cough drops. We have some of the numbing throat spray and I tried it ONCE and it tastes like melted plastic. Whatever is in there can't be good, so I've not used it since 😐
The oven situation is not the best!!!!
I like the idea of white mints! Very smart.
We got the numbing throat spray for Carla a while ago and she HATED it/refused to use it. So the last time (not this time) I had a sore throat, I tried it, and it was HORRIFIC. I, an adult, cannot stand it. Why was it marketed for children?!?!
I am so glad you are feeling better!
Thanks to your earlier mention of muffins, I made cranberry muffins earlier this week. SO good! But I ended up giving most of them to a friend who suffered a recent loss.
Now, I’m thinking I should finally try to perfect that lemon poppy seed recipe. We shall see.
The only thing I have been on the hunt for lately is clothes. I tore through my closet like a mad woman recently (had to free up some hangers, don’t you know) and now I have more hangers than clothes.
Oh Gigi, I bet muffins from you were such a comfort to your friend.
I am also on the hunt for clothes. I’ve bought a bunch of stuff recently and had to return it all because nothing looked good. Boo.
Ugh, our oven is the same (but it’s an old oven and we rent, so I don’t see a replacement in our future unless it fails completely) but it will NOT hold a temperature. It’s either too cool or too hot. But your muffins came out great! 🙂
I have an immersion blender from Cuisinart and I love it but don’t use it very often. what are all the suggested uses on IG?
I am also in the market for new running shoes. I am Brooks girl, was thinking of getting Ghosts again (I tried a couple of different models but my favorite one was discontinued), and Sarah (SHU) suggested Asics Nova Blasts. So I am intrigued to try those.
I have never had chocolate chip banana muffins, and I’m not sure I want chocolate chips in my banana muffins. I KNOW, I AM WRONG. I love chocolate, but I don’t want it in muffins. (Unless they are chocolate muffins…)
I’ve never seen individual muffin things like those, do they go in your muffin tins? They’re so cool!
I’m really glad you’re feeling better, that’s good news.
I used that numbing spray last year when I had COVID, and I hated it. I hated it slightly less than the sore throat though, so I used it.
I had an oven like that for awhile, VERY frustrating. I hope you can get it fixed.
OH MY GOD YOUR OVEN, SUZANNE. I am having weird secondhand stress about your oven! Why why why is it behaving like that? Also – you have two ovens! I love my new oven but very annoyingly it only has two racks, and often when I’m roasting veggies I have three sheets of them because we are giant eaters around here, but I can only fit two, so it’s a whole thing. This is where a second oven would really come in handy. Your kitchen must be HUGE. Oh, here is a blog post idea – a tour of your new kitchen?
My comment sounds like *I* am on cocaine but like you, zero cocaine, and only one cup of coffee.
I am shocked – SHOCKED – that J has never had chocolate chips in her banana muffins. I always put them in there. I have like three different banana muffin recipes and there are always, always chocolate chips involved. If the option for chocolate chips is there, why not take it?
Carla’s room sounds like a dream, honestly, how fun is that?
I hope you don’t have horns sprouting out of the back of your feet, but maybe you do. I mean, what else is the explanation? Good luck on your shoe quest, I know it’s hard for you to find good ones. FWIW I have a lot of Skechers Go Walk shoes which I like, but then again, I don’t really have issues with my feet or fitting shoes. Good luck!
I have never thought about a stick blender with cup attachment, what are they used for, do I need one as well?
Yum! Those muffins look so good! I should get some silicon liners like those! I have metal pans and use paper wrappers but I think silicon is way better.
Wow that oven sitch is annoying. I don’t think ours heats to the temperature it shows. I should put a thermometer in and check it. I always have to bake baked goods longer than the recipe calls for!!
My husband’s aunt has two ovens and two dishwashers and she acts like we’re slumming it because we only have one of each. I am envious of your second oven, but wish one of them worked better for you!
I have an immersion blender with a cup attachment. It’s a Cuisinart and we got it as a wedding present, use it at least once a week, and it’s still going strong.
I need to buy a yoga bag. Or maybe I don’t. I’ve been using this same system for years now and didn’t need a bag just dedicated for yoga.
Those banana muffins look so good! I don’t like bananas as a fruit but I loooove banana bread/banana muffins/etc. But because I don’t like bananas on their own, it means I never BUY bananas to make my own banana muffins. Sigh.
I really need new walking shoes, too. Mine are so, so old and the last few times I’ve walked a lot in them, my feet have hurt for DAYS afterward. Not great!!
We have a similar problem with our oven and we also have a thermometer for it. We might be replacing it with a convection oven soon.
I had a banana chocolate chip muffin from a coffeeshop near my house recently and it was really good, excellent ratio of chips to muffin.
I’m so glad everyone is feeling better!
I wish I was one of those people who see sad bananas and are inspired to bake, but I am not. Luckily, I can use my sad bananas to feed our stag horn ferns or add them to my compost; no baking involved. LOL. Have I shared enough how bad I am at baking?
That being said, having an oven that can not achieve or stay at the correct temp makes matters even worse!
Carla has two rooms and many choices of where to craft! What a delightful problem and I know you two will figure out what works best.