Banana Bread

With a few overripe bananas on the counter I thought today would be as good as any to try a recipe from scratch! I'm one of "those" people that makes banana bread from a box...oops. Now that I'm outed I figure I should share with you guys a recipe I tried this morning for some homemade banana bread. It's quite delicious and if you've never attempted to make it from scratch before I highly encourage you to do so! It's insanely easy and just makes you feel much better than just opening a box, mixing it together, and throwing it in the oven! The buttermilk really makes the bread moist. Slather some butter on it right out of the oven and enjoy :)

Buttermilk Banana Bread

(*Yields two loaves)

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

    5-6 very ripe bananas  
              

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare two loaf pans by buttering and lining with parchment paper

Sift or whisk flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add pecans if using, then set aside. 

In a separate bowl, cream sugar and butter. Mix eggs, one at a time, then add the bananas. Add dry ingredients and buttermilk, alternating until incorporated. Try to end with the dry ingredient addition, and be sure not to over mix.

Bake in buttered loaf pans for one hour until toothpick comes out clean.

Our Week In Photos

In an effort to blog a little more in the future I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and start sharing our days in photos with you lovely people! As most of you know we are heading out soon to bigger and newer things, so hopefully these type of posts will continue to get a little more exciting between now and then ;)

This week we...

Went and played in the river...

Enjoyed spending some extra time with daddy...

Investigated some scary shrubbery...

Got some exercise and swam in the river...

Barked at a train...

Found out there were camels in Del Rio at one
point or another (who would have thought?)...

Had to take a bath because we were extra stinky
(and obviously not too excited about it)...

Found a cool new "hiding" spot...

Got sick :(....

Enjoyed each others company :)

Love,

The Etheridges

Playing Catch Up

Well, the hubs is finally back home after a month long TDY, meaning things are back to normal around the Etheridge household! It's so nice to get back into the routine of our daily lives, as mundane as they may be sometimes, and to have another warm body around the house. It's funny how you know you miss someone when they are away but you don't really realize how much until they are back with you again. Thankfully this will also be the last time we are apart for an extended period of time for a good while, something I'm very much looking forward to enjoying ;)

So happy to have him home...and to
get some Chick-fil-a :)

It was great timing for the love of my life to get back home as we were able to meet up with some friends in San Antonio the weekend he returned. I met up with the hubs on Friday and we decided to spend the night in "the city". We were also fortunate enough to get to reconnect with a long time friend, who was not only the hubs roommate in Colorado but also one of our groomsmen. For those of you that don't remember, he was one of those awesome people that helped pull our wedding together at the last minute and was also honored enough to walk Winston down the aisle as the ring bearer! Anyways, it was great to be able to meet up for drinks and hang out at one of our favorite piano bars in San Antonio called Howl At The Moon. If you're ever up there you should check it out, it's pretty neat!

We also got to meet up with these goons and their mustaches
for lunch on Saturday!

We were also very blessed to be able to celebrate Easter together this year. I decided I'd got all out this time around and make an Easter basket for my sweet husband, as a welcome home gift! I think this is a tradition I'm going to continue though from now on. It was so fun to hunt around town for things to put in his basket and I love giving him gifts, so all in all it was a fun new tradition we've started.

I also got some Easter goodies! Pajama pants.
What more could a girl ask for!

Our Easter was pretty great as we enjoyed getting to spend some much needed time together. We've also been catching up on The Bible on the History channel (thanks Damian for setting it up to record ;)) which was a neat way to continue our Easter day celebrations. To end the evening there was a pretty neat hail storm. It doesn't rain/hail here often, so when it does it always gets everyone pretty excited.

The crazy hail storm

Everyone was excited about the rain!

It sure is great to have my sweet husband home and I'm looking forward to spending some time with him in the next few weeks before things get crazy around here again and life starts to pick back up. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter holiday!

Love,

The Etheridges

P.S. He shaved the mustache...thank goodness Mustache March is OVER! 

Road Trippin

After many weeks of anticipation I headed up to NM to see one of my sweet friends whom I had lived with while living in Colorado a few years back. She had her adorable baby girl this past summer and I hadn't had a chance to meet the little munchkin yet, so I jumped at the opportunity spend some time with my sweet friend and her husband. They were so kind and welcomed me into their home for a few days while I got to know little Reen and catch up on life. It was so much fun to experience being around Reen as she's in a stage where everything is so new and exciting to her. I could certainly see why her parents grow more and more in love with her with each passing day.

Little Reen was beyond precious

Hi there!

So happy to have been able to spend time
with these two before we left TX.

One fun thing on the agenda for the weekend was going to pick up their Bountiful Basket, which is a super cool concept! Basically, it's a food co-op where you order from a list of whats available from your local farmers and pick up what you've ordered about about a week later at a convenient local location. At the one we visited they had fresh baked homemade bread and fresh fruits and veggies for this weeks picks! Check out their website to see if there's one in your area. It's a great way to support local farmers and get fresh fruits and veggies from you neighborhood, not sent in from who knows where!

"The Haul"

The drive too and from NM was actually pretty enjoyable! It was mostly backroad Texas Highways, so there were few cars to meddle with on the roads, other than the occasional oil company truck running from rig to rig. I got the idea from a friend, who has been traveling a lot on the road lately, that I should try a book on tape for my long journey (8 hours total each way) and I'm so glad I did. It really helped me stay focused on the drive and stay awake, something I'm generally terrible at after 2 hours in the car. I chose to try out Stephanie Meyer's "The Host" and really enjoyed listening along as I made my long treck out of state.

The usual scenery along the drive 

On they way home the winds were really rough,
creating pretty bad dust storms. Gotta
love West Texas...

Kitten did not approve of me leaving her
at home for two days.

All in all it was such a fun trip and I'm so glad that I made the long journey to see my friend and her newest little addition before we moved away from Texas! It's so much fun to see people grow and prosper as they start families. Although that's not in the cards yet for Mitchell and I at this exact moment, I know when that time comes it's going to be one super fun and exciting adventure ;)

Until next time,

The Etheridges

Good Times With A Good Friend

My sweet friend decided to head down this way to visit me this weekend! It was so nice to have her here and show her around good ole Del Rio, which took about 10 whole minutes. None the less, we spent the day doing girlie stuff like watching chick flicks, something I don't get to do often while hanging out with the hubs and his friends, and just catching up. With the lack of good dining in the area we decided to stay in and cook a delicious meal, chicken pot pie, and then share a glass of wine while watching, you guessed it, more chick flicks. She was so sweet and didn't complain once about the lack of entertainment I had to offer and we enjoyed picking up right where we left off ;) We then went to Chinto's this morning for their famous super breakfast tacos (seriously, if you are ever in Del Rio, for whatever reason that may be, you have to try them) which were an all around crowd pleaser. It was sad to see her go, but I'm so looking forward to moving a little closer to her in a few short months!

In other news I decided to try out a new, healthier, dinner option the other night. When we were planning our wedding and met with the caterer, one of my favorite items on the menu was a strawberry pecan spinach salad. Sadly, we weren't able to serve this to our guest for obvious reasons, but I remembered how delicious it was and decided I would try a recreation of sorts! When I was in San Antonio the other day and visited on of my favorite places, Trader Joe's, I picked up some insanely awesome fresh strawberry and thought this was as good a time as any to try it out! Apparently it's a pretty traditional southern dish and super easy to make! I also added some oven baked chicken to it that I had marinated in balsamic vinegar and seasoned with salt and pepper. Nothing fancy, but still delicious! Enjoy!

Spinach Salad With Strawberries and Pecans

Ingredients:

8 ounces of spinach 

1 1/2 cups of cleaned and sliced strawberries

1/2 cup of pecan halves, lightly toasted

2-3 oz. of goat or blue cheese crumbled (I used feta)

1/4 cup of canola oil

2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. sugar

1/8 tsp. each of onion and garlic powder

Toss spinach, strawberries, cheese,  and pecans. Combine all other dressing ingredients until well blended. Drizzle lightly over salad mixture. 

*Serves 4-6

Kitten had her lady parts removed this past week.
She was obviously thrilled about the
car ride home...driving to Florida is going
to be SO much fun...not.

Bowling! Love this girl.

Love, 

The Etheridges

Weekend At The Ranch

This past weekend was eventful around our house! On Friday night one of my best and dearest friends  had her assignment night, or Drop night as you've heard me refer to it before. Her and her husband found out that they will be joining us in Florida as their first assignment as well! I could not be more excited or feel more blessed that the Lord placed us together again as we continue on to the next stage in our husbands careers. It was so much fun to relive the excitement of drop night with her and remember all the wonderful (and awful) emotions that go along with it!

On Saturday we headed out to a local ranch here in Del Rio, called Trash Rack Ranch, with some new friends. Earlier in the week we were propositioned with a stay there for a very discounted price , so obviously we were in! The ranch is owned and operated by the sweetest couple who host hunters from all over the country who come to hunt exotic game on their 100+ acre properties. Although we didn't hunt while we were out there they were amazing hosts and cooked us some awesome food and drove us around their property after we were able to see the animals feed off the feeder before dusk hit. George, the owner, made us some killer steaks for dinner and then we spent the rest of the night hanging out around the campfire making smores and playing board games. We were invited by some classmates of 13-14, who are about 7 months behind the hubs in their UPT training here at Laughlin, so it was fun to make new friends and enjoy the gorgeous desert scenery.  It was a total blast and I am so glad that we chose to take the plunge and try something new.

Some of the animals that live on the property...
including "Hooker" the pet goat
featured in the forefront of the photo.

Del Rio can be beautiful, you just have to
know where to look ;)

The awesome steaks George made for us! 

Hanging out by the bonfire

Such a fun night

Love,

The Etheridges

Derby Days

This past Saturday we decided to partake in one of the newest forms of entertainment here in Del Rio, the Women's Roller Derby Tournament. Yes, you read that right, we went to an actual meet between two women's roller derby teams and watched them compete at the Del Rio civic center. It was actually a ton of fun, and not surprisingly a BYOB event if that gives you any inclination as to the classiness of it ;) It was fun to have something to look forward to this weekend as a last "hoorah" for some of our friends that are heading out of Laughlin this coming week! It was certainly a once in a life time experience, and we weren't about to miss out on something this interesting!

I thought the Del Rio ladies had
a pretty creative team name!

Other than our exciting evening out on the town on Saturday we have been enjoying some quality time together before things start getting hectic. Over the next few months we will be moving twice, going through some intense training, and life will all around be much more chaotic than it has been since we moved here over a year and a half ago! By the time we officially PCS away from Laughlin we will have been here for almost 2 years, which is insane to me! It's crazy how time flies. 

As far as Valentines Day went we stayed in and cooked a meal together, which we do every year! We always make one of our favorite meals and enjoy a quite night in. We personally enjoy that more than fighting the crowds and trying to eat out somewhere in town. My sweet husband bought me the customary bouquet of flowers and a beautiful framed poem with the other half of his wings that we broke on graduation day! 

A few more photos from our weekend ;) I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday! 

Kitten loves chewing on glasses...

The most delicious spread from Trader Joe's!
It's fantastic on waffles and pancakes in place
of butter! 

Love,

The Etheridges