Trying out Bobby Flay's Banana Bread Waffles with Banana Fosters sauce

Yesterday, while through my Facebook feed, I came across the video for this recipe. I shared to my Facebook page, thinking "I'll save it for later but in all reality never make this recipe" kind of moments.  We all have them right?

As luck would have it, last night a loaf of banana bread landed in my hands thanks to a good friend and the church Fall Festival cake walk.

Here is the link to the recipe.

Of course, I skipped the step of making my own banana bread.  The sauce is easy to make with its 5 ingredients.

I did not use dark rum, instead I used Pyrat Rum which is a little lighter in color then a dark rum.  This particular brand of rum is also infused with a hint of vanilla and orange.   I felt those flavors went nicely with this recipe.

Here's my finished dish.  This is decadent brunch dish that would be amazing for the upcoming holidays.  I served this with turkey sausage links.

Costume Building- Sans from Undertale

This past week, our home has been in full Halloween mode.  I have been busy working with my children to get everyone's Halloween costume finished and ready for the big night. With 4 children, I try to keep all costumes on a budget between $20-$25 each.

My oldest son decided that he wanted to be Sans from Undertale.  I admittedly don't really know a lot about the game.  All I can really tell you about Undertale. is that it is an 8 bit style video game.

So this is Sans.

The clothing was simple enough.  My son already had a white t-shirt, black basketball shorts and a dark blue hoodie.  The problem was how to make the head.  We discussed face painting, which would have worked and been simple enough... but it's Halloween, go big.

I had an idea on how to make the head; so the challenge then was to find a beach ball. You would think that we would have had one around the house somewhere but no luck.  We asked several friends if they had one we could have, no luck.  

 If you ever find yourself looking for a beach ball out of season, forget the $ stores. I tried every dollar store in town,  So my advice here is:  Try Target first! 

My local Target still had pool items and beach balls were .99.  I picked up 2, just in case we are ever need another one for costume building. 

The beach ball got covered with 3 thin layers of papier mache.  I allowed a little bit of dry time between each layer, so it took about a day to get the ball covered.  It sat for another 24 hours to make sure it was completely dry.

After the ball was completely dry, I cut the holes for the nose and eyes.  I made them larger because I wanted to make sure that he had enough visibility, Then I did a layer of masking tape on the inside and outside of the head.  I did this because I wanted to re-enforce the head piece,

I then used newspaper and tape to shape the cheeks.  Once I was happy with the cheeks, I covered the entire head with another of paper.  When that layer was dry, I cut the mouth and re-enforced the edges with masking tape.  

The whole head was then painted with 2 layers of gesso and then white acrylic paint.  I used window screen mesh and black tulle for the eyes, nose, and mouth backing.

What you won"t see in the pictures that I am posting are the teeth and eyes.  I used a large hole punch on white adhesive vinyl to make the eyes and then cut the vinyl to make teeth pieces.

I did pick up a few other items at a local dollar store. Luckily, I went at the right time because most of their Halloween items were 2 for $1.  I found a pair of skeleton gloves and pink slippers which the character wears sometimes.   I also got a pair of white knee socks that we will use to cover his legs.

Overall, this costume was fairly inexpensive cost wise to make.  The head took about 3 days to complete.  As I said, we used clothing my son already owned.


     Here is the materials cost:
Beach Ball- $1
2 rolls of masking tape $6
Gesso-  regular price 8.99/ with coupon 6.99
black tulle 1.50
window screening- free, had scrap pieces
skeleton gloves - .50
pink slippers - 1.00
socks- 1.00

My son is thrilled with his costume this year! That is the main thing for me, I want them to have fun and enjoy Halloween.  He was really involved in the building of the head and did help with a lot of the  painting.

Be sure to look for my other costume posts.  My youngest daughter decided she wanted to dress like a cat from the Broadway musical CATS, my oldest daughter is going to be a unicorn, and my littlest guy is going as a Ghostbuster, complete with a vintage proton pack that we have been working on restoring.

Trying to come back to blogging

In 2010, I started my blog because I thought it would fun.  It was fun! I got excited when I got new followers or someone would comment on a post.  It was a great feeling!

For 2 years, my blog grew and then I kind of abandoned it.  I had a lot happening in my life. The short version is this; We had our 3rd child, I struggled with depression, I had a miscarriage, then I got pregnant again and had our 4th child .

  My last pregnancy was extremely difficult. Weekly trips to the maternal/fetal specialists took their toll. I was not emotionally ready to be pregnant again.

 I cried every week before my appointment because of fear something was wrong.  I cried every week after my appointment in shear relief that every thing was ok. And, I cried a lot inbetween appointments.

Finally,  I had a beautiful, healthy baby boy and afterwards, I struggled with depression again.

With all of that going on, I just didn't feel like writing anything.   I have made some attempts at posting little things, they were half hearted and really weren't anything worth typing.  

But, I have decided to try again.  Will I post everyday? Probably not.  My goal is few times a week.  I think that is a reasonable goal.   I will post the things that I enjoy and things that make me happy.  Hopefully, some of you will enjoy them too.

 Thank you to those who have stayed with me. To those who left, that's ok.  I will gain new followers.   I will rebuild my blog.