Crazy weather over the center of the country. Be safe and let’s have playtime for as long as our computers stay on! Musica included. Because I just made the cutest thing. And the glory of blogging means I can show you! Look ↓
I told Kellee at the studio that I was making cupcakes and she said, “You should have your own toppers . . . I’m going to send you the dancing chickens!” Of course, I thought, why didn’t I think of that! The Dancing Chickens!
So she made me this little cupcake kit, complete with polka dot cupcake liners, and sent it to me in the mail. ♥
All these little dancing chickens, in a do-it-yourself cupcake topper kit!
I loved it! Playtime! So I pulled up to the kitchen table, got my scissors and some glue, and followed Kellee’s directions. I cut these things out on the little lines she put on them, folded them in half — so the chicken is on both sides . . .
I cut around each dancing chicken with my scissors, leaving about 1/8″ of white space around them. I separated the two pieces; dotted one side with a little glue, added a toothpick, and glued the two sides together. And, you know what I’m going to say . . .
Look what I made! Now I love them so much I want to poke them into everything!
One thing leads to another, so I baked my favorite springtime bunny food, carrot cupcakes!
Poked in my chickens, and they started dancing all over the kitchen!
Then they danced into the living room! Cupcakes are getting very fancy these days in case you haven’t noticed; these aren’t the fanciest I’ve seen, not by a looong way, but must they be cuter than this? Isn’t this cute enough? OK, how about this?
Ridiculously cute!
Whenever I get anything new, I have to run it around the house to see how cute it looks in all the different places.
And you know what else? These Carrot Cupcakes actually taste better than they look! They’re good enough for any wonderful tea party, for any quilting group or book club, for any church meeting; they’re especially charming for Easter Egg Hunts . . . they’re chockfull of fruit and nuts; there’s pineapple in there! Light, moist, not too sweet, with a smooth cream-cheese frosting.
So I danced right over to the phone, called Kellee, and asked her to make more dancing chickens for our web store. Because I could not show them to you without giving you a way to do it yourself! And, as you can see, I had to show them to you!
I asked her to include the Cupcake recipe in the package with the toppers, so she’s doing that too! Yes, I took about two hundred pictures of them! Joe walked through the kitchen on his way to the 
barn, looked at me with my camera about three inches from the cupcakes, rolled his eyes in the best possible way — the twinkle in them said, “I love you anyway.”
In about a week and a half, I’ll show you how I made these Carrot Cupcakes right here on the blog. Which taste just as good with or without toppers by the way! You might also enjoy seeing some of the fancier toppers we found for our web store! We have a Peter Rabbit Cupcake Kit; we have ←adorable Pansies with a Picket Fence; we have a set of British cupcake toppers! Something for everyone! It’s a whim-whimsy world in the springtime! ♥
Yes, thank you, I hear you saying, for the recipe you’re not giving us. Is there anything we can make NOW? Oh, yes there is.
For the last couple of years, I’ve written a column for a sweet little newspaper called The Country Register (mostly because of the hardworking people who work there: *Hi Barbara*Hi Merle!*Hi everyone!*). In the March/April Springtime issue, which just came out, I promised their readers I would put my recipe for Banana Fritters on my blog . . . so here it is! It’s a perfect weekend breakfast or tea-time snack, easy, homey, delicious, festive, and even make-ahead. ♥
OK, so here goes: to make Banana Fritters, first get out a medium-sized mixing bowl . . .
Put in a half cup of self-rising flour.
Add a tablespoon of granulated sugar . . .
. . . then, a quarter cup of milk;
. . . break an egg into the bowl and add two teaspoons of melted butter
♣ ♣ ♣
Whisk it all together. Put the batter in the fridge until ready to use (or use immediately).
♣ ♣ ♣
Depending on how many fritters you want; cut as many as three ripe bananas into 1/2 inch pieces. One banana will serve two easily. The batter keeps for a couple of days in the fridge.
Dip the banana pieces and thickly coat them in the batter.
Heat two cups of canola oil; test it with a spoonful of batter . . . if it doesn’t brown, wait until it gets hotter; if it browns too fast, reduce the heat.
The oil should bubble up. Hey! It looks like a lobster!
I think I should put it on Ebay!
You want your oil to be hot enough to cook quickly, but not so quickly that you can’t keep up with it. You don’t want to be like Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory!
Using a slotted spoon, turn the fritters to brown them evenly and remove to paper towels to drain.
Sift over a little powdered sugar; they taste best lightly dusted. That one in the middle is getting too much!
Yes, that one right there↑ has too much sugar on it for me; powdered sugar just came flying out of the sifter and I wasn’t ready! The trick is the mix of flavors, a delicious balance between the cooked banana, the crisp batter and the sugar. Mmmmm. Yes.
The miracle of the lobster, goes to Joe! I’ll put the recipe at the bottom of this post, but you can see how easy these are to make! If you have the batter in the fridge and someone pops in, you can make a little miracle yourself!
Have a wonderful weekend girls. Go outside and play if you can; take deep breaths of springtime air (if it’s there); go check out antique stores or flea markets; look for daffodils or cherry blossoms, or walk in the snow and be cozy inside with Banana Fritters and a good book. Bye for now!
Here’s the recipe!
B A N A N A ♥ F R I T T E R S
- 1/2 c. self-rising flour
- 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
- 1/4 c. milk
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp. melted butter
- up to 3 large bananas
- 2 c. canola oil
- powdered sugar
Whisk together first five ingredients. Cut bananas into 1/2 ” chunks. Heat oil; put in a drop or two of batter to check for correct temperature; batter should brown not so fast you can’t keep up with them. Dip bananas in batter, drop into oil, don’t crowd the pan. Cook, turning once; with slotted spoon, remove to paper towels to drain. Sift over powdered sugar to taste. Serve warm. Also nice with maple syrup for breakfast.
First off, we’ve been hearing from our girlfriends who’ve been using the photo of my house in the snow as their computer wallpaper — they’d like a springtime view! Me, too, so here we go! Pink weeping cherry trees bloom out back here in April; it doesn’t get more spring-like than this! If you’d like to open your computer every morning to this scene, it’s really easy; take a look at our 
The next little thing is Really Little! You might remember that Judy and Kellee discovered this miniature book in an antique store and gave it to me for Christmas? So darling! Such a perfect gift! How could I not fall in love with it!?
I sort of put my little book wherever I am; sometimes it lives on a shelf in my studio where I can see it every day (just out of the way of my CAT who would dearly love to play soccer all over the house with that little book before eating it); but here’s where it is right now — in the 
The next little thing is this: Krista contacted me from her home in California; the Betsy-Tacy Rose Chintz teacups are in a box on their way to her. She wanted me to tell you how touched she was by all your interest and support! Me too! Loved this giveaway and all the great comments it spawned! 
Here’s another little book you’ve asked about; it’s my Dinner Party Diary; only 5 ¼” x 3″ — it’s the one I told you about last week. I’ve been writing in it for almost twenty years! I suppose if I would have thought about how long I would be keeping this book, I might have chosen a different style or size for it; but I really didn’t plan it! I just started, and then I just kept adding to it. Over the years, despite it not being the most beautiful book in the world, I’ve grown attached to it. The first entry is dated Sept. 23, 1993 — it was an autumn party in the garden under the rose arbor where I wrote that we had lemon chicken with mashed potatoes, and “leaves fell on the table.” (My darling wonderful 
I never tried to make this book perfect . . . I love stickers, so I used stickers; it turns out I always used a black pen, so there’s a cohesiveness to the look of it. I didn’t care if my handwriting was perfect, it’s not a book for publication (who knew there’d be such things as blogs and I would end up showing people!?! Should have made it cuter!!!); it’s been just for us and for the memories. And you know, it would be a wonderful thing for someone to find in an antique store in fifty years, is what I’ve always thought. 
I always tried to include the names of my guests, describe what we had to eat and drink, what flowers and table settings I used . . . any little details that I wanted to remember. Country Living Magazine still has a few photos from this shoot on 
I’ve felt the need to leave strict instructions in some of my other diaries!
I shouldn’t be reading about baked bananas and ice cream right now. Or grapefruit and avocado salad! It’s too early, and I’m holding out for a bowl of hot Cream of Rice cereal with fresh blueberries when I get done here!
And here is my latest entry, the one I showed you the other day. It’s a little thing to do, this kind of diary, but as years go by, it turns into a big thing. You can see how much fun it can be! And it’s never too late or too early to start writing down the breathings of your heart. If you’re one of the 
