Banana Date Cookies from Great Grandma's Kitchen

My great-grandpa Efeard, great-grandma Annabelle and grandpa George Bradley, Christmas 1942

Last year, I was given a box of my great-grandma's and great-great-grandma's recipes and cookbooks.

Great-great grandma Tresa Baker and son Harold, 1904

I know!  Totally a blessing, right?!!

I've been kicking around the idea of doing a series on Great Grandma's Kitchen where I share some of the more unique recipes they kept.  This morning, I was visiting Rachel at Bubbly Nature Creations where I discovered her Heirloom Recipes Blog Hop---the perfect place to link up these inherited recipes!


Please visit her blog hop at the end of this post and be inspired! You might even want to share your own Heirloom Recipes!

Although our family does not have any major food allergies that cause us to have to limit certain ingredients, I still like to be on the look out for wheat, sugar and egg-free recipes.  That way, I have something to either serve to our friends who are avoiding these groups, or offer to my kids for another healthy alternative.  Even better when I can find a recipe that uses up old bananas as we always seem to have a bunch! (Get it?  hee hee)

This recipe was featured in the March 7, 1979 issue of The Oregonian newspaper.  Nutritionist Pat Fitch put together this milk, egg, wheat and sugar free recipe which relies on fruit for sweetness.  It does contain nuts, which some have allergies to, but these can always be omitted.

I changed it up a little bit, substituting applesauce instead of oil (only healthy fats allowed in these cookies!) and adding cinnamon and nutmeg.  You could use several different purees in place of oil---pears, squash and pumpkin are all great substitutes.  They turned out excellent!  Very soft and dense.  They remind me of Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookies that I used to buy when we lived near Seattle.

Banana Date Cookies


3 bananas
3/4 c. applesauce or other fruit puree (or 1/3 c. oil)
1 c. chopped dates
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. oats
 

Mash bananas and use a spoon to mix in all other ingredients. 

Let the mixture stand for a few minutes so the oats can absorb some of the moisture. 

Drop onto a cookie sheet.  I use a Pampered Chef baking stone so I don't oil it but you might want to oil your cookie sheet a little since there's no oil in the recipe.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove from sheet and cool on a rack.

Let me know if you try them out---I'd love to hear from you!

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Antique Plate Hanger for the Homemaker's Uniform

   
Today I want to show off this cute apron hanger I made for my two pretty pink aprons.  Armed with my hot glue gun, it only took me a couple minutes to put this together.  I just grabbed a pretty antique saucer, glued an antique glass drawer pull to the middle, and glued a pretty vintage-looking button to the middle of the drawer pull.  I glued some ribbon to the back for a hanger and even fixed a pearly embellishment to the nail in the wall!

On it, I've hung this patchwork apron that I won in Connie's giveaway at Living Beautifully, along with a pink apron that I purchased from Mrs. White at The Legacy of Home---she hand-stitched the whole thing! 

I love wearing aprons around the house---not only are they practical for shielding against grease splatters, soap suds, and baby spit-ups, but they also serve as sort of a homemaker's uniform!  When I wear my apron, I know it's time for business and it motivates me to focus on the things that need to be done around my home for my family's sake.  You will not find me sitting here in my bed, snuggled up with my blanket and writing---with my apron on!  Ha!

A Treasured Heirloom: Homemaking Link-Up Weekend

Welcome to this week's Homemaking Link-Up Weekend!  I spent some time yesterday rearranging some of my decorations and things and wanted to share with you all one of my most treasured heirlooms!

My great-great grandmother, Cora Jean Lasiter Bradley, made this for her son, Efeard, in the early 19-teens.  Efeard was the father of my grandpa George.  Recently, my mom had the chance to meet grandpa George's step-sister who passed this quilt on to mom---and mom passed it on to me two years ago when I had our son, Liam Bradley.

Aren't there some neat fabrics in here?

I have been keeping it in my bedroom so it didn't get messed with, but today I decided to move it out to the living room for everyone to enjoy!

Have you heard my GOOD NEWS yet?  Head over to my announcement post to check it out! 

Also, as a reminder, I'm teamed up with Anitra from The Mama Zone in a fun twist on the old-fashioned bloggy giveaway!  Please visit my Hop & Hunt for all the details and enter to win some of my yummy homemade carmels!

Please join the link up and show off your favorite posts!

Linking with: 
Coloradolady's Vintage Thingie Thursday
Beverly's Pink Saturday 

Vintage Whimsy St. Patrick's Day Art

I've been planning out this fun St. Patrick's Day art piece all week long.  This morning, I got it all done!

I started off by printing a St. Patrick's Day song that I borrowed from Online Sheet Music.

I decided it would be fun to make the paper look sort of vintage.  While you may be thinking it's a super easy thing to whip up something like this real quick, I was actually met by many obstacles!!

Soy sauce made it look too dark..and smell really bad!

Here's my attempt at using peppermint tea...

Finally, I decided to just work on my frame while I was considering what to do with the paper.  First, I sanded the frame to remove the glossy stain.

Then I spray painted the frame with Krylon Satin Ivory.

By this time, I had given up on traditional methods of "antiquing" paper, so I decided to just wing it.  Using some products I have purchased from Close To My Heart over the past couple of years, I came up with this:

This is the beginning of my new trend, Vintage Whimsy.  Remember, you heard it here first!  Ha!  But this was only the beginning...

I had to crumple it up a bit and burn all the edges.  I must say, that's my best burn job yet!

My husband bought me this great scrapbooking paper last Mother's Day so I used it to cover the cardboard frame backing.  Since it wasn't quite long enough to cover the whole piece of cardboard, I added some of this neat vintage lace to the top and bottom.  A friend from Holland sent it to me at Christmastime.

Then, I glued the sheet of music to the cardboard piece and began adding embellishments.

This cute little Irish girl got the Stickles treatment in Gold and Diamond.  I found her and her brother at Salvation Army a few days ago! They're vintage Dennison...I just love them!

I cut this little clover from a shamrock template I found online and added some more Stickles and a cute embellishment that my husband put in my Christmas stocking!  I also added more of that lace from Holland in each corner.

All done!  I wonder if I should do another one featuring the little boy cut out that matches her?

 

Fall Decorating, Fruit Cake and Homemaking Weekend Link-Up

The other day, I let our almost 10-year-old son, Michael, take some photos around the house.  As I was going through my pictures from the week, I found all the ones he'd taken.  There's shots of all the family, a few random things, and then a picture of each of our fall decorations!  I thought that was pretty sweet!  Here is a picture he took of all the kids' pictures. Michael is the second from the left on the top.

 

 So, since he took the time to take them, I'll feature them today for my Holiday Weekend Link-Up!  Here is an adorable Thanksgiving feast set that I bought for a really good price from a local artisan at our city's annual holiday bazaar.  Mom and I are getting excited about going to it this Saturday---I wonder what treasures we'll find this year?

 These scarecrow and fall picks replace the pink cherry blossoms I did have filling this pretty blue jar.

 I bought this cute turkey the first year that Jamie and I were married.  His plea of desperation, "Send Out for Pizza" has always cracked me up!

 This cute little scarecrow is resting on a shelf between my vintage cookbook collection and my vintage collection of O. Henry books.  That little brown recipe box belonged to my great-Grammy Annabelle.

 After looking through the pictures, I thought it would be fun to sit and go through some of Grammy's recipes.  Here are a few that I thought were neat:

 The one at the top left is a letter from her friend, "Your Loving Friend until the end, Doris"  It's a recipe for Mrs. Peabody's Prize Sponge Cake.  Doris asks Grammy, "So Dearest, who are you going to cook it for, the future?"  Ha!!  The second on the left is a recipe for Hood River Unbaked Cookies.  I'm sure my mom can tell me more about this one so I'll update if she's got anything to add.  The newspaper clipping is from November 10, 1982 and gives instructions and tips on making fruitcakes for the holidays.  The small index card on the left is a recipe for Date Marshmallow Log that is pretty much the same thing in a different form as the Top Secret Ancient Family Thanksgiving Recipe that I posted a couple weeks ago! 

Speaking of fruitcakes, here's a recipe for Mrs. Bradley's Dark Fruit Cake.  Mrs. Bradley was Grammy's mother-in-law---my great, great grandmother.  What a GREAT recipe to have! ;)  Is anyone interested in having the recipe?  If so, let me know in the comments and maybe I'll post it in a day or two!

Well, it's time for another Homemaking Weekend Link-Up!  I'm so excited by all the interest in the link-up and I'd love for anyone interested to link-up her homemaking posts today!  You can do more than one a week, if you'd like, and please make sure to take a button and link back to this page so others can visit as well!  The button is at the top of my sidebar!

One more thing, have you entered my GIVEAWAY?  Please do!  Have a great weekend!!

Also linking with:         








Learning to Live a Surrendered Life and:

Antique Store Finds

Yesterday was my husband's day off and he was so sweet to send me out to have a little quiet time at the antique store...yay!  Here's what I found:  

This little book, The Lively Little Rabbit was one of my favorites when I was little.  I bought it to put in baby Liam's first Easter basket this year!  I also found these sweet mouse shakers.  We needed new shakers and I thought the kids would think these were pretty sweet!  They're not vintage...but cute even so!

A few months ago, I saw a blog where a lady hung vintage hand mirrors all over her bathroom wall with plate hangers.  I thought that was such a creative idea!  So...I'm trying to collect a bunch to make my own little wall display.  I found the brush and mirror as a set so bought them both but would gladly trade the brush to anyone who might have a mirror they want to swap!

I'm also trying to collect a bunch of mini shaker sets to put at individual place settings for a fancy dinner.  (There are 10 of us so far so I'll be collecting awhile!)  The ones on the right on the little tray are not vintage...but cute!  I had to put the little hat pin holder in this picture because I saw three others throughout that store and all of them were marked as "salt shakers".  In fact, this one was only $2 because the vendor thought it was missing it's partner!  Ha! When I went to pay for it, the store owner said, "Oh, it's still got a little salt in it!"  I said, "Someone really used it as a shaker?"  She looked at me funny and said, "Yessss...."  I told her it was a hat pin holder.  Two holes = salt shaker.  Three holes = pepper shaker.  TWELVE holes = hat pin holder.  That would be some SERIOUS salting otherwise...Ha!

Here are a few sweet things I found for crafting.  I plan on decorating the little bottle to resemble Alice's "Drink Me" bottle as it's the same shape.  The one little earring will make a cute embellishment on something.  I LOVE my two glass bottle stoppers and am hoping to collect many more.  I also found these two Eiffel Tower pendants (not vintage) for crafting embellishments.

Visit Coloradolady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday! I'm also linking up with Blue Creek Home's Treasure Hunt Thursday and Thrifty Groove's Thrifty Things Friday for the first time this week!