Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

St. Valentines Day is a day of giving. Or so I'm reminded every time I enter a retailer. I succumb to marketing like the next yummie mummie (my new brand), so I have been making goodies for the gals to bring to school.

Today I'll be dropping off some Whole Wheat Banana Muffins (altered recipe from Cooks Illustrated).


1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon table salt (I omit)
6 large very ripe bananas (about 2¼ pounds), peeled (I only had 3)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 large eggs
¾ cup packed (5¼ ounces) light brown sugar (I did half white and have brown sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped (optional)
2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375 and fill mini muffin tins with cupcake holders. I use an icecream scoop to fill the mini muffins.

First mix wet ingredients and then add dry.

Mix just until blended. I also completely omitted the part where you cook the bananas (stew them for more flavor). See recipe above if you want to try it out!

And Voila - I decorated with Chocolate Chips. This is for a class of 1-2 year olds so I omitted nuts.

Funny Expressions

"Mom, I made a wish that everyone would love me tonight", says E. "Really? And what does that mean, exactly?", I ask. "You know. That my family is nice to me and loves me with all their heart".

E asks L to look at her wrinkly hand after bath time. L tries to lick her hand. E giggles and giggles that L doesn't understand the difference between "look" and "lick".

Sadly on November 19, 2012, L stopped saying "MO" for no. She now says (or yells) no.

L still spits when you ask her to spin in a circle. Although she also spins.

Every night L asks "Yaya go? Papa go?" (referring to my parents).

And... L still screams to have Yaya when she's p'd off at me!

In other words, they are two major monkeys.

Paris at home

Since we couldn't live in Paris and drink café au lait daily at some quaint Parisienne boulangerie whilst munching on flaky pastry... (and gaining about 20 lbs), we have brought a taste of Paris to Seattle.

It's 2013

It's 2013 and I'm still thinking about sending out Christmas cards. Maybe if I start now, I'll get them done by next December!

This was a low-key holiday for us. Family was scattered, with at least four who were sick with a flu of sorts. I still got the decorations out and filled the house with Christmas, took my eldest to the Nutcracker and baked up a storm with both kids.

Here's the year summed up with three of my favorite things.

1. Baking (or receiving baked bread).
2. Family chaos.
3. Travel (especially where there's sunshine).

I hope you had a fantastic end to 2012 and an even better start to the new year!

Lee's Fruit Bread, (figs, dates and nuts) wrapped in cheese cloth and soaked in rum before fermenting for 2 weeks at room temp.

E on a boat in Chelan

Me and the Goof Goof

L in her new hat

Peanut butter balls. Yes!

Band-aid nosed L with daddy

More baking!

Breakfast Sans Paul

Whilst Paul was away in Paris, the girls had to make due with "mama-cook".

"Dad's the best cooker", says my oldest monkey. 

I can make anything, I assure her. So she requests an Oven Dutch Baby for breakfast. Well, just to prove my baking prowess, I also made pumpkin muffins a la Moosewood the next morning (which turned out a little rubbery) and a pear gingerbread cake from the same Moosewood cookbook that we ate after dinner - warm out of the oven. Now that was scrumptious!

Singing Your Own Song

Tonight after picking up the girls from school, my eldest was super excited about her choir practice and was singing her warm up for me. It went something like this:

Do, a deer, a female deer
Re, drop of bowling sun
Meat, a name, I call myself
Fa, a long long way to run
So, a needle na na thread
La, a note to follow So,
Te, a drink with cambon bread

Reminds me of my childhood when my sister, brother and I had to pray aloud every night.

Our father, who wart in heaven.

I had no idea what that meant, but I knew the words by heart!

Homemade Bread and Butter

Mom and dad spent a couple of weeks with us and, on their last day visiting, mom left a surprise in the kitchen.

It has been another crazy day in the life of the Olivier clan. How wonderful to come home from work to the scent of freshly baked bread. Mom had been busy. Helping us with laundry, organizing our drawers and baking bread!

Although rushing to get to our aunt's for dinner, the girls each had a slice of bread with butter. It was still warm enough that the butter seeped into the bread. Delectable.

Dad! Mom! Come back!