Tuesday, September 11, 2012

CPS...and muffins, of course!

So I spent most of my Saturday fearful that a neighbor was going to call CPS and my minis would be taken away from me.  You see, I walked into the living room on Saturday morning and I saw this......


And this.....


Now, you may be thinking that looks like innocent minis watching Saturday morning cartoons.  Well, it's not.  Mr. McGhee won't let our minis watch cartoons on Saturday morning, rather he insists that they watch this show.  If you haven't heard or The Wildman (or Turtleman, as his faithful fans like my minis refer to him as), you may be thinking that this is another educational show (ala the crocodile hunter) that Animal Planet airs to educate our youth.  You are mistaken, if that is your impression of The Wildman.  The Wildman is a backwoods Kentuckian who catches trouble-causing rodents, reptiles, and animals with his bare hands.  The show includes segments such as "hillbilly hygiene" and I am fairly certain that the Wildman uses swear words, although I have a hard time understanding what he is saying most of the time.

So, yes.  I am concerned that my sweet minis are going to be taken away from me and placed in a home where they adults make more appropriate choices in television programming.

And since I was stressing about this, I do what I always do when I am stressing.  I make muffins.

Banana Muffins

  • 2 cups flour (I used white whole-wheat)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 1/3 cup mashed overripe bananas (I used 8 bananas, which I believe is quite a bit more than the recipe called for.
1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Put muffin liners in your muffin pan, or grease your muffin/bread pan.
2.  In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.
3.  In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.  Stir in egg and mashed banana until well blended.
4.  Stir banana mixture into flour mixture, stir just to moisten.  DO NOT OVERSTIR!  
5.  Pour batter into prepared pan.
6.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin/bread comes out clean.  Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan (I never do this....oops!)

**You can add vanilla extract and additional spices (cinnamon, etc) to the banana batter, if you chose.  I normally do, but I was such a nervous wreck over the Wildman debacle that I forgot.  The muffins were still tasty.  I did, however, remember to throw some chocolate chips into one of the muffin pans.  I wanted my minis to remember me fondly.**

Here's my batter, chock full of bananas.



Here is my muffin.  


These are a good, basic banana muffin.  My minis love them.  They keep well for several days and are perfect to stick into lunchboxes.  These muffins shall not be consumed during brain-cell sucking television programming.