Novella's Banana-Nut Cake

Banana-Nut cake was a specialty of Mikesha’s grandmother, Novella Roberson. Over the past decade or so, Mikesha has taken up this part of her grandmother’s mantle, and Banana-Nut Cake is becoming a tradition at Williams-Row Thanksgiving dinners.

Ingredients for Cake
1½ cups sugar
⅔ cup shortening
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp buttermilk
3 mashed bananas (ripe or overripe)
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup chopped walnuts
2 eggs

Ingredients for Icing
¼ lb butter, allowed to warm to room temperature
1 lb powdered sugar
2 mashed bananas (ripe or overripe)
½ cup chopped walnuts

Cake Directions
Preheat oven to 350°.
Cream sugar and shortening until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, beating lightly.
Stir in mashed bananas.
Sift in dry ingredients and stir to moisten.
Add vanilla and stir.
Bake in two 8-inch round pans at 350° for 25 minutes or until set.

Icing Directions
Make sure butter is at room temperature.
Cream butter and powdered sugar.
Mix in bananas.
If not thick, add more powdered sugar to reach desired consistency.

Note: This icing recipe never does get thick like butter-cream icing, it’s usually pretty runny or “gloppy”.  Meringue powder (from the cake decoration section) can help stiffen the icing somewhat.

Household Police

We had just finished dinner, and Hadleigh, 2 years old at the time, and Karson, 4 years old, were chasing each other through the house. As Hadleigh chased Karson, he ran through the hallway and shouted, "Stop in the name of Jesus," and guess what? She stopped! Nothing like pulling the Jesus card when you want something done.

There Is No Two

Here's a couple of funny things we overheard today

The two three-year-olds are arguing because they'd seen a toy commercial and both of them wanted it...

Kid1: Dad, Karson wants the same thing that I want!
Me: It's OK if you both want the same thing.
K1: No! I don't want him to want it!
Me: What if we bought two of them?
K1: There is no two.
Me: Well, what if I bought seven of them?
K1: There is no seven. Sorry!

---

And at dinner time...

5-year-old: I don't want no mashed potatoes.
Mikesha: I don't want any mashed potatoes.
5yo: Me neither!

Kalebisms

My six-year-old, Kaleb, came up to me and said, “I need you to save up $1000 for my band.”

I replied, “I think you need to save $1000 yourself.”

Kaleb came back with, “Well, can you at least help me save $1000 with your money? I need a sound system for my band.”

---

A little later, Kaleb said to Kyle (my 17-year-old), “Kyle, we should save our money to buy my guitar.”

Kyle said, “Kaleb, why am I saving my money?”

Kaleb said, “Ok... I guess you can use my amp.” (He doesn't have an amp, but I wonder if he's thinking about that sound system.)

---

The other day, Kyle said something about needing a personal trainer to help him get in shape. Kaleb said, “OK, fine, I'll do it.”

Kaleb climbed up on a box and said, “We're going to start with some push-ups — get down and give me 20.”

Kyle did a couple but then said he was done. Kaleb said, “Good, ‘cause I'm done too.”

Row Recipes: Chocolate Cobbler

Chocolate Cobbler,
originally uploaded by
ginnerobot.

a.k.a. Hot Fudge Cake
a.k.a. Chocolate Pudding Cake
a.k.a. Devil's Float

I first heard about Chocolate Cobbler this past Wednesday on the Pioneer Woman's site.

All the ingredients were things we keep on hand; so I made a mental note to try it sometime.

Thursday, my Comcast internet connection wasn't very comcastic, and I found myself with extra time on my hands -- enough time to try out the recipe.

Mikesha said it was "ridiculous" -- meaning ridiculously tasty.

The dessert was so good that we decided we should make a larger version on Friday for our family night.  And so we did.

And then tonight, after we spent most of the day painting our family room, we decided we needed a little something to reward ourselves for our hard work, and so we made another one.

One dessert, made three days in a row.  Ridiculous!

By the way, we made the regular 8x8 version the first time. That's much too small when you have 10 people in the house.

The following is our 9x13 version:

Chocolate Cobbler

Ingredients
2 cups self-rising flour (or 2 cups all-purpose flour + 4 tsp baking powder + ½ tsp salt)
7/8 cup coca powder, divided (into 6 Tbsp and ½ cup)
2½ cup sugar, divided (into 1½ cup and 1 cup).
1 cup milk
2/3 cup melted butter
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 cups hot tap water

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°

Stir together the flour, 6 Tbsp cocoa, and 1½ cup sugar.

Stir in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.

Spread the batter into a 9x13 baking dish.

In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, 1 cup light brown sugar, and ½ cup cocoa.

Sprinkle the sugar and cocoa mixture evenly over the batter.

Pour the hot tap water over everything. DO NOT STIR! (Yes, this looks weird; weird enough to call in the kids and show them just how weird it looks and say, “Can you believe this is going to turn into something good?”)

Bake for 40 minutes or until the center is set. (This took 40 minutes Friday, but 45 minutes Saturday -- maybe the weather was different?)

Don't bother trying to stick in a knife to see if it comes out clean -- it won't -- there's way too much gooey goodness inside. Just look (or even prod with a finger) to see if the top of the cobbler in the center is firm. You should notice that some chunks of cobbler will be a little higher than the surroundings. These will be little ‘islands’, similar to cake-like brownies, which should spring back when prodded.

You won't know this yet, but those ‘islands’ are floating on a sea of chocolate sauce that somehow formed all over the bottom of the pan. This is magical stuff!

To serve, allow to cool a little (or not -- it's that good!), then plate up a good-sized spoonful (or two) of cobbler, ladle the chocolate sauce from the pan bottom over the cobbler, and add a scoop (or two) of vanilla ice-cream on the side.

Be careful! It's addicting!

What?

Kaleb was reviewing his list of "sight words" -- words that don't necessarily conform to phonic rules and, so, have to be learned through memorization.

He asked, "What does 'h-e-r-e' spell?"  I replied, "here."

He asked, "What does 'w-h-a-t' spell?"  I replied, "What?"
He asked again, "What does 'w-h-a-t' spell?" I replied, "What?"
He asked a third time...

I could have kept it going a lot longer, but Keaton spoiled my fun. "Kaleb, w-h-a-t spells what!"

Lion's Choice

Whenever we travel (even if it's to Indianapolis), we rarely eat at a Wendy's or Burger King or any other restaurant that we have in our home town.

In Indianapolis or Kokomo, we'll often drive through Rally's, as Lafayette, for who-knows-what-reason, does not have one.

In St. Louis, our fast-food stop of choice is Lion's Choice.

We first met Lion's Choice when we broke for lunch during the 2008 Teen Talent Expo in St Louis, and we fell in love with it for three reasons:

1. The roast beef - still served a little red, like most Prime Rib is served.
2. The horseradish sauce - with plenty of punch to it -- not at all like the watered-down, made-for-the-masses horsey sauce found at another roast beef chain.
3. The 15¢ ice cream cones - or 25¢ for a chocolate-dipped cone.

We liked Lion's Choice so much that we timed this summer's trip to convention so that we could stop at Lion's Choice on the way. And then, on the way back, we ate there again.

This past Sunday, I (KC) had to go to Joplin for some business. Guess where I stopped for lunch... the Lion's Choice in Eureka.

Shortly after I ate, I got a call from my Father-in-law, who was driving to Branson. He said he had just finished lunch in Sullivan, MO... at a Lion's Choice.

Yesterday, I walked in the family room carrying my Lion's Choice soft-drink cup that I hadn't thrown away yet. Keaton saw it and exclaimed, "You ate at Lion's Choice? No fair! You always eat at the good places!"

I then showed Keaton my Jack-in-the-box cup, but that's another story.

Keaton did ask, however, if we might be able to go to Missouri for lunch!