The Adventures of a German Girl

Every time we go grocery shopping, there will be at least 4 bananas in the cart - because bananas are healthy. I just don't like bananas. The smell drives me crazy. The texture is weird. So most of the times, they get not eaten and sit there until they turn almost black. I was about to throw them out yesterday and then thought, I just bake some muffins with them. With lots of sugar, bananas aren't so bad after all. :) Ingredients 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 2/3 cup sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large) 1 large egg 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted 1/4 cup milk 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips 1/4 cup slivered almonds Directions Preheat oven to 350°F. Line twelve 1/3-cup muffin cups with muffin liners. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Mix mashed bananas, egg, melted butter and milk in medium bowl. Stir banana mixture into dry ingredients just until blended (do not overmix). Stir in chocola

For Valentines Day I made a pillow for Brian. Since he doesn't read my blog I can give you a nice idea for your sweetheart! :) I first sewed a red pillow case with zipper. Then I downloaded a graphic off the internet (pdf) and re-did all the words in photoshop to fit to my page and make the quality better (Thanks BJ for all of your help). I bought Sew-In colorfast fabric sheets and printed the design in grey on the sheet. Once washed, dried and ironed I sewed it on to the red pillow with red threat to match the pillow. Wrapped it in cellophane, put a bow around and there it is.. My Brian's Valentines Pillow. I'm linking up to:                                                                            

Heart shaped sugar cookies on a stick I made those last year for Brian, but thought I will share with you this Valentines "Season". First I made sugar cookies from scratch: Ingredients 3 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 cup sugar 1 egg, beaten 1 tablespoon milk Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough Directions Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough

Only 2 more weeks until the Superbowl begins. If you are planning on bringing something to a party, check out my superbowl cookies !   They were really easy to make and a huge hit last year. The ice cream cake would be a cool option as well, and for $9.00 right now available at Aldi .

For Christmas I made myself a big present. I ordered a silhoutee CAMEO. I'm still totally new to it and I need some more time to play with it. I ordered white self adhesive vinyl and finally finished my idea of a Laundry Wall Decal.    Several months ago, I ordered some self adhesive vinyl, but without the CAMEO the vinyl ended up in a drawer somewhere.   This was my first attempt. Printed and sketched papers, scissors, vinyl... NOT GOOD   Now with that fabulous toy of mine it was "almost" easy. I used Garamond as font and went 9inch in width and 76 inch in length. (Speed 8, Thickness 12) I had to cancel the job several times since my vinyl moved in the middle of the process and the letters were messed up. Not sure what I did wrong though. Finally, when everything was cut, I peeled off the negative space of  the vinyl from the backing. All that remains are the letters. Now you should use some transfer tape, which I did not have. I took a ruler made

For a going away party I was asked to bring dessert. I had cheese cake in mind, but when getting all the ingredients out, I didnt feel it and decided on the spot to go with cupcakes. I still had a strawberry cake mix in the pantry, mixed it together, folded in some white chocolate morsels and baked all 18 cupcakes at 350 for 18minutes. While the cupcakes kept rising, I put together cream cheese (8oz), 7 tbsp softened butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract, mixed that in my kitchen aid, sifted in 3 cups confectioners' sugar and mixed it together by hand until smooth and creamy. I used a star tip on my piping gun and completed the cupcakes with some gold shimmer sprinkles.  Perfect cupcake for a sparkling girl! We will miss you Alex - but wish you all the Best in San Diego!! I'm linking up to:                                                                                    

..for a full week. I will be leaving this afternoon for New York for one of our textile  tradeshows, check it out! :) www.TexworldUSA.com Internet is not complimentary in the hotel and really crappy in the convention center, so I assume I will be offline for the week. Wish me luck that I will survive the cold temperatures New York has to offer right now (30F during the day, 19F during the night) but also that our exhibitors and attendees stay happy and won't give me a hard time. I can't wait to come back next Thursday with a hopefully full weekend of REST. Stay warm. Carina

This post is only for meat lovers. While searching for a butcher shop yesterday, we stumbled into the most incredible international farmers market, which is actually right around the corner from us. I haven't seen that many veggies, fruits and international goodies in a long time. That store is awesome and for sure  The meat and fish department is amazing. They have everything you can even think of cutting up from an amimal. I wouldn't eat most of it, but my interest in seeing all of those weird things, was stronger than anything. We bought thinly sliced short ribs (which we were not able to find in any grocery stores around here) Brian's mom introduced me to Korean BBQ - Kal-Bi, it is so delicious, you need to try it! Very easy to make too. KALBI are short ribs, cut on the cross-section. They are thin 1/2″ slices of ribs that are marinated in soy sauce, brown sugar, pear juice, garlic, ginger and sesame oil, but you can also use the marinade that comes in a jar. B