Banana Bread

½ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp. ground allspice
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. grated lemon peel (optional)
¾ cup ground walnuts (optional)
1 ½ cups mashed bananas (approx. 4 medium bananas)

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 9x5” loaf pan.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until blended. Set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, allspice and nutmeg in a bowl. Add lemon peel and walnuts. Stir until combined.

Slowly add dry mixture and bananas, alternately, to butter, sugar and egg mixture and mix until well blended. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for approx. 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert from pan and cool completely on rack.

Chocolate Layer Dessert

Can you tell I'm pregnant and majorly craving sweets lately? This is a staple at our family BBQs (thanks to my cousin Dusti) and probably my favorite dessert ever. Perfect for any end of summer BBQs you are bringing a pot luck dish to.

1st layer:
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup flour
1 cube butter

Mix together and pat in a 9x13” baking dish. Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes. Let cool.

2nd Layer:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup cool whip
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese

Beat and spread on cooled crust.

3rd Layer:

1 small package instant chocolate pudding
1 small package instant vanilla pudding
3 cups milk

Beat together and spread on top of cream cheese layer. Top with cool whip and chocolate shavings.

Gooey Chex Mix

My good friend made this and brought it to share with us in Bear Lake a few weeks ago, and I have been craving more ever since. Again, make sure you have someone to share with or you will eat the whole batch yourself! This is a fun snack treat for kids!

1 cup butter
1 cup light Karo syrup
1 cup sugar
6 cups rice chex
6 cups honey grahams
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup cashew halves
1 cup coconut

Mix all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

Stir butter, karo syrup and sugar in a pan and boil for 3-4 minutes. Pour hot mixture over dry ingredients. Mix well.

Spread mix on wax paper and let sit for 1 hour (or don't, I start munching as soon as it is mixed!).

Caramel Popcorn

Our Young Women had a little recipe swap tonight, and it made me realize what a slacker I have been about posting recipes. When you never feel like cooking (thank you pregnancy) you don't think about recipes much. Anyway, this caramel popcorn is a family favorite and really easy to make. But, be warned, it is utterly addicting, so make sure you have somebody to share it with if you don't want to eat it all yourself!

5 quarts popped popcorn
10 oz. bag of mini-marshmallows
2 sticks (1 c.) butter
1 1/3 c. sugar
½ c. light Karo syrup
½ tsp. vanilla

Pop popcorn. Mix marshmallows with popcorn. Mix butter, sugar and Karo syrup in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Add to popcorn and marshmallows. Mix together and form into balls/shapes/etc or be lazy like me and eat it straight from the bowl!