Banana-sweetened oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (recipe)

ALWAYS want cookies but have been listening to programs on NPR about the dangers of sugar. Ack! (Dr. Robert Lustig on Diane Rehm Show)

The sugar is apparently not so bad for you when it is “packaged” with the fiber and stuff it came with in the fruit, so bananas seemed like a good substitute.  When I looked up recipes online for cookies without added sugar and cookies with bananas, many of them have other “weird” things in them that I don’t have easy access to (without ordering ingredients from the internet) or other substitutes that I don’t want to use (agave syrup, which another article says is bad for you, sheesh;  or splenda, which nobody really knows about yet).  Anyhow, tried these and they were pretty darned good.  Yay!  I am sure that they would be healthier if I left out the chocolate chips, which have more sugar in them, but that would make me want to cry…!

This is my adaptation of my FAVORITE cookies. The recipe is the one from the 1970′s era box of Quaker Oats, with some changes.  I often put dried cranberries in the “original” cookies, but I haven’t tried that with the mashed banana yet.

Recipe:

1 stick melted butter

1/4 c canola oil

3 mashed ripe bananas (this replaces 1 c brown sugar and 1/2 c white sugar in the original recipe)

2 eggs (this replaces 1 egg plus 1/4 c water)

1/4 t. nutmeg

1-2 t. cinnamon

1 t. vanilla

3 cup oatmeal (I used quick oats)

1 c flour

1 t. salt

1/2 t. baking soda

Mix up in the order given.  Add 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Mix and scoop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake in 350 degree preheated oven about 12-15 minutes. About 3 dozen cookies.

Crocheted Pinwheel Sweater in progress

I’m past the armholes now and pondering how to continue, with help from my fb friends

Fast “Golden Harvest” Yeast bread, started in bread machine & baked in oven

I’m using MOSTLY Mark Bittman’s recipe for fast yeast bread http://simplycooking.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/fast-yeast-bread/
but I’ve put extra ingredients in the dough (the idea for adding canned pumpkin came from a recipe in “Breadtime Stories” with mashed squash in the dough), mixed it in my bread machine on “rapid” cycle until it stopped for the rise, put the dough in an oiled BIG loaf pan with the top also sprayed with oil and let it rise in the warm oven (heated to 200 and then turned off, before I put the bread in) for 25 minutes. Took it out, let the oven heat up to 425 for 5 minutes. Brushed the loaf with water and sprinkled with kosher salt, put in the oven for 15 minutes… then I’m going to turn it down to 350 and bake 15-30 minutes longer.

1 cup milk, warmed
4 T butter, melted
1/2 can pumpkin, warmed (I put those first three things together in a pyrex cup in the microwave)
1 egg
~2 T honey
~1.5 cup oats
1 t salt
2 t yeast
~3.5-4.5 cups all purpose white flour (started with 2 cups and kept adding about a half cup at a time as the bread machine was mixing, until it wasn’t sticky anymore)

This came out quite yummy, fairly tall, pretty golden colored.

The second time I made this bread, I divided the dough–about half I used to make a monkey-bread cinnamon-bun thing in a round cake pan, dividing half of the dough into a bunch (24 or 32?  I forget) little pieces, dipping each in butter and sprinkling with cinnamon sugar–the other half of the dough I baked in a smaller loaf pan (a one-pound loaf, I think).  My husband thought the bread was very good with gjetost (brown Norwegian whey cheese).  It was good for sandwiches and yummy with Nutella spread on it and also good hot with butter to go with homemade soup.

Crocheted pinwheel sweater

crocheted pinwheel sweater in progress…

I am working on crocheting a “pinwheel” sweater like the one I knit a couple of years ago.  Unfortunately, I am not as skilled with making crochet-stitches/patterns that come out looking the way I see them in my head, so the nice little ridge/hole things (like on the shoulder of a raglan sweater) that I like so much on the pinwheel/circular sweater are not coming out the way I want.  At least not yet.  Maybe I can perfect them in the future.

I am using a fat “M” hook and Bernat Mosaic yarn.  The yarn is very nice (not scratchy or awful to work with) acrylic and has LOOOONG color repeats like Noro, but is machine washable.

I started with a short chain, slip stitched it into a circle, crocheted 8 sc into the center of the first circle.  Mark beginning of round, but spiral continuously around– Next round, 2 sc into each stitch.  Next round, *sc, 2 sc” around.  Then *sc, sc, 2 sc” around.  *sc, sc, sc, 2 sc” around.  I think I got up to about 5 sc stitches and then 2sc.  Then I marked the circle into 8 wedges and did increases at each wedge-marker.  When I got to about where the marker was, I did a ch-1 and then the next stitch I sc through only the back loop, then continued with sc-ing around.  I took this photo when it was almost time to make the armholes for the sleeves–it is almost as wide as my shoulders.

My previous posts about the knitted circular sweater make with Noro Kureyon and Plymouth Boku yarn  http://goodnessgraciouswv.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/noro-circular-sweater-the-saga-begins/

http://goodnessgraciouswv.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/noro-circular-sweater-continued-and-finished/

Also found this post http://thelaughingwillow.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-version-of-pinwheel-sweater.html
where she crocheted a similar sweater! 

Might try this DROPS one sometime, too  http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/us/pattern.php?id=5501&lang=us

Hand-crocheted hats–great gift ideas! :)

I have been crocheting “sock monkey” and owl hats with earflaps for a little over a month.  They are pretty fun and I get lots of compliments. 
Anyhow, they are for sale!  Most of the hats are $20 each.  I can do them on request or you can buy one (they are a little more expensive in the CommonGround Shoppes in Huntington, WV’s Heritage Station downtown–because they take a cut) that I have made already.  Not much on my etsy shop at the moment, but you can visit my Facebook page, if you do facebook.  I’m Goodness Gracious WV.  Comment here or there and I can make arrangements with you–whether  you are local or need me to mail them someplace.  Shipping would be about $3 for first class USPS in the US, more for Priority Mail.
Some  pictures of hats I’ve already done:

“traditional” sock monkey hat for tween/adult

“traditional” infant sock monkey hat with red trim

infant sock monkey hat with pink trim

“grass” green tween/adult sock monkey hat; amber owl hat (tween/adult); infant sock monkey hat with pink trim

Izzy Hadala’s visit & press! :)

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x875077668/Florida-teen-talks-respect-at-anti-bullying-assembly

Florida teen talks respect at anti-bullying assembly

October 27, 2012 @ 12:00 AM

BILL ROSENBERGER

The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON — It wasn’t the type of clothing Izzy Hadala wore or what neighborhood she lived in that caused students to tease her. It was a birth deformity caused by a rare genetic disorder, ectodermal dysplasia.

For Hadala, a 14-year-old from Orlando, Fla., that means she is missing some teeth, fingers and toes. But her condition is leading her to become a national spokesperson for anti-bullying. And on Friday, she brought her message to Cabell County.

Hadala spoke to students at Huntington Middle and Southside Elementary schools, sharing her story and encouraging students to embrace their differences and view one another for what’s on the inside.

“I didn’t want people to see me as different or someone with a disability,” she said to the middle school students. “Because I don’t have a disability. I can do the same things as anyone else can.”

Hadala also read from her book, “First Day Speech,” about a boy with a cleft lip who decides to start his kindergarten year off by telling his new classmates all about the deformity on his face. It’s what she has done on the first day of school since first grade.

But some kids still teased her, making for many days of feeling uncomfortable and going home and crying. After finding a supportive group of friends through church, it became easier for Hadala to embrace her condition.

“You shouldn’t be ashamed of what you look like,” she said. “It’s those differences that make you unique.”

Hadala’s visit was sponsored by the parent-teacher organizations at both schools, along with the school system’s central office. Teacher Teri Booten, a member of the middle school’s Respect, Protect and Connect Committee, said she saw Hadala on “The Today Show” on Labor Day and talked to the committee about bringing her to Huntington.

“We thought it would be great to have a middle school student talk to them,” Booten said.

Several student members of the committee asked Hadala questions about her condition, experiences and how to deal with bullies. Eighth-grader Josh Eastman said her presentation serves as both proactive and reactive to bullying at the school.

“It’s prevalent. You see it in most of the classes in one way or another,” Eastman said. “Her message was really powerful … I think it will make a lot of difference in people’s lives.”

The Wild Ramp KickStarter Campaign

Many of my friends are “Friends” of The Wild Ramp, which is a new local-producer grocery at Heritage Station in Huntington. More about that:

in the Herald Dispatch

more in HD about an upcoming conference

on WV Public Radio

Anyhow, one of my friends, who is a volunteer and all that stuff (and also has a cool blog about bicycling and going car-lite A Simple Six ) asked if I might like to design one of the possible t-shirts for the Wild Ramp’s Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the business (it is a non-profit and is run by volunteers).  We are still waiting to hear from the Board members and I think there are other artists also working on this project, but this is my design

my design for the Wild Ramp

It is, really, mostly their logo, but I have rendered it in glue gel and soy wax-resist batik with procion dye.  I draw a “template”, but each shirt has to be hand-drawn by me with the resist material, dried overnight, “painted” with a second resist (melted soy wax), chilled, then dyed for several hours, then washed and dried.

These two shirts are on their way to be displayed or something at the Wild Ramp.  I’m pretty sure they don’t want me to sell any yet, as the plan seems to be that if you give enough money you get a t-shirt as a reward gift, like with public broadcasting.  After the Kickstarter thing is complete, they might be selling some in the shop. Or I will sell some and give a portion of the proceeds to the Wild Ramp. It isn’t worked out yet.

But, hey, if you would like to support this great new, growing (ha ha ha, get that little garden-type joke?) endeavor to increase the availability of fresh, local food to Huntington AND increase opportunities for local growers, producers and artisans to find a market for their stuff, hop on over to the Kickstarter proposal and consider making a gift!  Thanks! 

Pumpkin Cheese Pie with Ginger Snap Crust

I wanted pumpkin cheesecake a couple of weeks ago, but, well, I overthink EVERYTHING and wanted it to be “exactly right”.  So, there was a whole internet search… Found lots of recipes, but I didn’t want to make a BIG cheesecake (guess who would eat it all?). I wanted it to have cottage cheese in it as well as cream cheese.  I wanted it to be fairly pumpkin-y.  This is what I cobbled together:

Crust: couple handfuls of ginger snaps and a handful of walnuts and 2 tablespoons of butter. Crunched up in mini-food processor and pressed into Pyrex pie plate.

Food processed 8 oz of cottage cheese smooth.

Mushed up with electric mixer:
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 c brown sugar

2T flour
Vanilla
Little orange extract
Spices: cinnamon, ginger, cloves
Then add half of 15 oz can of pumpkin. Add the smooshed cottage cheese. Add 2 eggs.

Pour into the pie crust and bake at 325 for 50-75 minutes until center is set.

(ooops, I can’t find the picture of the slice of pie. gratuitous picture of my giant orange cat instead)

So, I have been silent here…

Apparently, I divide my focus when I post on several Facebook pages, including my own Goodness Gracious WV page and sell things at artisan markets and Art Walk and Etsy and … whoo!  I have had some things at The Common Ground Shoppes at the Heritage Station in Huntington, too.

I will make a little effort to post here, too! (Sorry, you’ve missed all sorts of recipes and pictures of tshirts and descriptions of “new” batik techniques while I have been silent!)
I’ll start with the easiest thing. Photos of some batik t-shirts:

green sea turtle, pink owl, purple hedgehog batik onesies

And some patchwork satchels:

bright-colored, hand-made, lined patchwork satchels with long cross-body strap and snap closures

so you can see the strap better…

And a crop of handspun yarns:

Wool yarns, all handspun by me
Sortof clockwise from upper left: fat grey & grape shetland (3.5 oz, 100 yds, $20); fat berry blue & black Dorset/Suffolk & Jacob wool (90 yds, $15); 3 skeins berry Dorset & soysilk (78 yds, almost 2 oz, $18; 90 yds, almost 2 oz, $20; 102 yds, just over 2 oz, $22); fat natural grey Coopworth wool (78 yds, 2.5 oz, $15); fat cherry Dorset/Suffolk and Jacob (90 yds, $15); two skeins approx. worsted hazelnut superwash merino wool (225 yds, 3.5 oz, $25; 210 yds, 3.5 oz, $25)

 

Free pattern for the Crocheted Flower Hats!

Read the previous post for the fun info and more pictures…

Grace’s Super Fast Hat Recipe