up!

I can't remember the last time a movie messed me up the way Up! did. We're talking full on blubbering, sometimes laughing while blubbering... for the entire film. Even now when I hear the theme song I feel myself getting a bit farklempt. I love this movie more than I can express, so when I saw that National Geographic had reconstructed the exterior of the house, attached helium balloons and flew it 10,000 ft in the air for an hour, I nearly fell out of my chair with excitement. I seriously almost teared up at the sight.

Also, fans of Up! have you ever seen this? When I saw these engagement photos last year I was thoroughly jealous that they had beaten me to it, but they're so charming and lovely I can't stay angry.

sunday sweets {banana bread}

{I swear I took more pictures of this while baking, but it appears they have disappeared from my camera. Perhaps someone deleted them while uploading beer pics?}

ANYWAY, I'm going to start a "sunday sweets" post for each week, and I will try to actually post them on Sundays from now one. Yesterday I noticed all of the bananas in the house were past their prime. I'm not sure if we did this on purpose though because this is the BEST banana bread you will ever have. Seriously.

What makes this recipe amazing is it's more like a banana bread pudding. Even if you bake it longer than you should, the inside is still incredibly moist. I came across this particular recipe in an issue of Saveur, which can carry some intimidating recipes, but I promise this one is super easy.

Ingredients:

Butter for greasing the pan

1 cup flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

2/3 cup chopped pecans {optional, I don't use them}

3 very ripe bananas, mashed {I don't mash my bananas up completely so there's still some small chunks in the bread}

Heat oven to 350°. Grease a 9" x 5" x 
2 3⁄4" loaf pan with butter and dust with flour; set pan aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Whisk together sugar, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, egg, and egg yolk in a medium bowl until smooth. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. Add pecans and mashed bananas and whisk gently to combine. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean, 60–65 minutes. Let cool for 30 minutes before slicing and serving.

Enjoy!

have a great weekend.

{the sartorialist}

Gasp. Those shoes.

three buns

I wear my hair up for work pretty much everyday so I'm always looking for new ways to get it out of my face. I love this tutorial for three twisted buns on a cup of jo today. So cute!

h&m at home

This makes me really angry that we don't have an H&M in Savannah. It also makes me angry that their online shop excludes North America, but I can't stop myself from browsing anyway. The patterns and products are so cute and, in H&M fashion, they're really affordable. Perhaps not after paying shipping from the UK but before that, really cheap.

backyard beauties

We're in the process of planning our backyard renovations for the summer and {even though i won't need anything for a bit} I can't help but search for ways to decorate once we've finished. I stumbled across these whimsical tea chairs and just about fell out of my seat. I love the french garden feel of them. I must have them, along with a tiny matching table, macaroons and tea cups. Then I can have a french garden tea party complete with white gloves, dresses and hair feathers. Good idea right?

lavender honey ice cream

{via kitchen fervor}

It's shocking that I haven't posted this recipe already. It's also shocking that as I was making this the other day, I forgot to take pictures. I really need to get better about remembering to do that. Luckily I could this lovely picture, which I think will do the trick, even it's not violet colored like my ice cream is.

This is my all time favorite ice cream. EVER. It's so amazing that it may or may not have inspired the name of this blog. Making ice cream takes time. If you are an impatient person like myself you may have trouble with it, but I assure you it's worth it. Homemade ice cream is so creamy and dense you'll never be able to go back to store bought. To make this recipe you will need an electric ice cream maker. We have this one and I really like it, totally affordable too.

I found a recipe for this online, but Jacob and I both like Alton Brown's ice cream recipes so we kind of melded the two. Be warned, this is not healthy at all, but if you're going to eat ice cream and you want it to be delicious, you might as well go all out.

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream

3 cups half-and-half

8 large egg yolks

2/3 cup mild honey {add more based on your own taste}

2 tablespoons dried edible lavender flowers

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Bring cream, half-and-half, honey, and lavender just to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, then remove pan from heat. Let steep, covered, 30 minutes.

Pour cream mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and discard lavender. Return mixture to cleaned saucepan and heat over moderate heat until hot.

Whisk together eggs and salt in a large bowl, then add 1 cup hot cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Add vanilla. Pour into remaining hot cream mixture in saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 170 to 175°F on thermometer, about 5 minutes (do not let boil).

Pour custard through sieve into cleaned bowl and cool completely, stirring occasionally. Chill, covered, until cold, at least 3 hours.

Freeze custard in ice cream maker. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Yum!