-20 Degree Magic

What do you do when it's -20 degrees outside and your poor heater can't keep the house warm?!  You bake!

For my first magic trick I will turn this... 

Into this....

Banana Nut Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog)
Batter:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.   Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened and then add in the walnuts, mix. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

Spice Sprinkle
2 Tablespoons white Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
mix the spices together in a small bowl.  Sprinkle each UNcooked muffin with a generous amount of the spice mixture.
Bake 15-18 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean.


Let cool and then ice with Cream Cheese Frosting...or leave unfrosted and eat with a generous tab of butter!

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/4 cup softened butter

4 ounces cream cheese

1/2 pound powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients on high until soft and whipped. I like to really whip the icing, it makes it really fluffy! Put in a plastic bag, snip a small hole in one corner and pipe onto muffins.  

Enjoy with a cup of coffee and hopefully by now the house has heated up a few degrees!  Ta-Da!

Sticky, Yet Oh So Sweet!

Remember the sweet and sticky parts of life I was talking about...ya, this about sums it up!! Even though she is covered in sticky raspberry applesauce, she sure looks sweet!!  It's so good of La La Ren to help illustrate my point for me!

Celebrating the Sweet & Sticky of Life!

Welcome to Peanut Butter Jelly Jam!
I am excited to embark on this adventure as a Mommy Blogger.  I've been an avid blog reader for several years and decided to take the plunge into these uncharted (for me) waters. I'm a thirty-something Stay at Home Mama to 3 "Peanuts" and am an uber-supportive (most of the time!) Wife to my Entrepreneur Childhood Sweetheart (we met in Sunday School when we were 5!).  I have a degree in Elementary Education and Psychology, (both which help tremendously in the everyday as a wife and mother!) I love to craft, I try to sew, Cooking is great (except for all those dishes!) and I love to throw parties!! We tend to celebrate the everyday and are always looking for an excuse to have some fun! As we go along, you will notice a few things about me, such as I love to use (parenthesis), commas, exclamations!!...dot dot dot... and hyphens--and I'll probably make up a word or two!!  I'm excited to share my life and adventures with those of you who stumble into our Sweet & Sticky World!!