Banana Bread

My MIL has a really good banana bread recipe but I don't have it with me.  So, I looked up a banana bread recipe at allrecipes.com.  I looked through a couple of the "best" banana bread recipes and used a combination of a couple to make the banana bread from saturday night.  I thought it turned out well.  The kids loved it, and around here, that's pretty important.

Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar (I used 1/2 white, 1/2 brown)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed banana
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp, salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar.  Beat in eggs and vanilla and then add bananas.  Mix flour, salt, and baking soda then add to mixture. Bake in greased bread pan at 350F for 1 hour.

No Waste

We ended up with lots of bananas and one bundle of carrots from saturday's trip to Taman Safari.  Saturday night I made banana bread with the leftover bananas.  Sunday night I threw the carrots into a curry beef stew.  I thought it all tasted really good.  DH and the kids concurred. 

We had enough bananas for 2 loaves of banana bread. 

Curry Beef stew

I'll post the recipe that I used for the banana bread in another post and you can find it under the Recipes page.  I won't post the recipe for the curry beef since I used a sauce packet that I bought at the store. All you have to do is cut up the meat and vegetables and add the sauce packet plus water.  Not only did we enjoy some great food over the weekend, it was also a good feeling to know that there was no waste! 

Sense of Wonder

While we were at the coast in May, my daughter found a toad.  She asked me to catch it for her.  I told her the toad would probably pee on her and that it would be scared and maybe we should leave it alone.  She insisted that she really wanted me to catch the toad for her.  I relented and caught the little fellow.  I put him in a little bucket and told my daughter that she could look at it.  She stared at it in the bucket and then decided she wanted to pick it up.

Here is what happend after she picked up the toad.

In retrospection, I am actually very glad that she insisted that I pick up the toad for her.  I was just mezmerized by how interested she was in that little toad.  She focused so intently on it, and I could tell that she was just fascinated by it.  I can't remember the last time I found something so interesting that it just captured all of my attention.  I honestly think that as adults we really have lost that sense of wonder.  Children just seem to naturally have it.  When was the last time you experienced a sense of wonder regarding something as simple as your garden variety toad?

Happy Father's Day

So I thought it was okay to post about the Father's Day craft early since I was certain that DH rarely reads my blog.  Well, as it turns out, I was wrong about him not reading my blog regularly.  DH said that he had already read the blog and so he knew what the kids had made him for Father's Day.   I actually wanted to be mad at him that he actually read the blog and ruined the surprise, but really I couldn't possibly be upset with him.  My husband actually reads my blog!  I knew he checked our family blog regularly.  I just thought he wasn't interested in my Conservation blog. 

I must admit that I did think that he could have at least pretended that he hadn't read the blog so that it would have seemed like it was still a surprise.  You have to know DH though.  He's just very honest. Also, really, it is my own fault for making the assumption that he wouldn't see the blog before Father's Day.

Anyways, I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Father's Day.  I am so grateful to have a wonderful father in my own life.  He is also just the very best grandfather.  My kids adore their Yeh-Yeh (Grandfather in Chinese).  My dad is turning 71 this year!  I can't believe how the years have flown by.  I am also grateful for DH.  He is a good man, and a great father.  I am so blessed to have these good men in my life.

My Dad and the girls.

DH and our youngest daughter

Thai Green Curry

Here's our family's favorite version of Thai Green Curry Chicken. 

• 2 Tbsp. Thai Green Curry Paste
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1/2 of small or medium yellow onion (chopped)
• 3 to 4 small potatoes cubed
• 1 cup of chicken cubed
• 1 cup of frozen mixed vegetables

Saute garlic and onions in oil.  Add chicken and stir-fry.  Add potatoes and mixed vegetables.  Add 2 tbsp. of Thai Green Curry paste (more if you want it spicier) and continue to stir-fry.  Add 1 can of coconut milk.  Simmer until potatoes are soft.  Serve over hot rice.

Father's Day Craft

The kids wanted to make something for their Dad for Father's Day.  I was trying to think of a craft idea that would be relatively simple.  I came across a Silhouettes Craft online and thought that Silhouettes of the kids would be a great Father's Day gift from each of the kids.

I took profile pictures of the kids with my digital camera.  I uploaded it into Photoshop Elements 9 and made the background white and filled in the profile with black.  I didn't have any dark paper or cardstock otherwise I would have printed out the images, placed them on the dark cardstock, and carefully cut out the images. 

Profile image taken with digital camera.

Flipped the image in Photoshop elements and filled in profile with black.  After printing, I smoothed out the margins with a black marker.  I'm new to Photoshop Elements so I wasn't sure how to smooth out the edges.

I cut out the images and had the kids paste them onto backing cut from a cereal box.  Then I made a frame for each image also from the cereal box.  The kids pasted the frames onto their pictures and then decorated their frames.

 We also printed some online cards that the kids colored.  The kids will give their gifts to dad on Father's Day.  I love the silhouette images of the kids.  I think the silhouettes would be a great gift for Moms, Dads and Grandparents for birthdays and other special occasions.

Save a Wet Cell Phone

I saw this article on Yahoo! News today about saving a wet cell phone.  It reminded me of my own wet cell phone experience.  One morning, I threw a bunch of clothes in the wash.  For whatever reason, I decided not to check the pockets...I guess it's because I normally do and there usually isn't anything there.  My kids are actually really good about not sticking things in their pockets, and I am too. Anways, after a complete wash cycle, I discovered my cell phone at the bottom of the machine after I had taken all the wet clothes out to transfer them to the dryer.  I knew that I had left my cell phone on too because I rarely turn it off.  I wondered what the chances were that a wet cell phone could be saved.

I googled how to save a wet cell phone and found all sorts of crazy ideas from baking the phone in the oven to putting it inside a sock and throwing it in the dryer. I sheepishly admitted to washing my cell phone on facebook and my friends said they heard that putting the phone in a bag/container of rice might work to dry out the phone.  This was just before Thanksgiving last year.  I took the battery out of the cell phone and placed the battery and the phone in a container of rice.  I made sure the phone and battery were completely covered by the dry rice grains. 

We left home for Thanksgiving so I think my phone stayed in the rice for 4 to 5 days.  The article in Yahoo! News recommended leaving the phones in rice for 24 to 48 hours.  When I got back from Thanksgiving, I put the battery back in the phone and turned it on.  Nothing happened so I put the phone on the charger and it said the battery was bad. 

I called verizon to see how much a new battery would cost for my run of the mill LG flip phone.  They said roughly $50.00.  I sent DH to radio shack and they wanted $50.00 as well.  I didn't want to spend $50.00 if my phone wasn't functional so I looked online to see if anyone had the battery for cheaper.  I got a genuine LG battery off of Amazon for around 5.00 and I got free shipping.  I did have to wait a few more days to see if the phone would function though.

After I put in the new battery and charged it, I turned on the phone.  The phone worked exactly like it had before it went through the wash.  I tried out all the functions and everything worked...even the camera function. I was so impressed!

So let me give you one more reason to try the rice thing before throwing something like a cell phone out the door.  For Christmas, my kids got Zhu Zhu pets.  The first thing my 2-year old did at bath time was to take 2 of the new Zhu Zhu pets and throw them in the bath.  They stopped functioning of course.  My husband took out the batteries and the motor box in each Zhu Zhu pet.  He put everything in rice for a couple of days again.  After he reassembled the Zhu Zhu pets a few days later, I put in some fresh batteries and amazingly, the little critters came back to life.

So the moral of this story is, try to salvage the things that you can.  Only consider throwing something out as a last resort.  As far as cell phones, batteries, and chargers, the EPA has a page about ecycling cell phones.  Places like Best Buy and Office Depot will accept old phones.  They do not have to be functional.

Here's my run of the mill LG flip phone.  It's not on because I can't use it in Jakarta and haven't charged it in 3 months.  It really does work :)

One of the 2 resurrected Zhu Zhu pets that made the trip from the U.S. all the way to Jakarta! I can't seem to locate the other one...I wonder where the kids have stashed it?