Beat the Monday Blues | June 8

Hey all. Just checking in to say that I hope you're having a great day, despite the fact that it is a Monday and - therefore- sucks inherently just a little bit. Here are my finds from the weekend to brighten your day.

FOR YOUR NEXT CRAFTERNOON

Crushing hard on this DIY instagram frame from ling yeung b. I don't have a ton of wall space in the new apartment with those windows (no complaining!), but the wall along the stairs in the entryway is conspicuosly blank...

TRIED AND TRUE RECIPE 
We made these lemon ricotta pancakes for Mother's Day a few weeks ago and I can't stop thinking about them. I'm not even a ricotta fan, but these pancakes were phenomenal. nom nom nom

HOUSE GAWKING 

This renovated brownstone. I swear - it speaks to my soul. And what it says is "Come live in me, you know you want to." And I do. Very much. Make sure to check out the little girl's nursery!

BREAKING NEWS

 If you haven't already - stop everything and go check out the Studio McGee Home Collection. If you follow Studio McGee (and you really, really should) then you've probably seen peeks of these fabrics in some of the recent reveals.

AND A GIFT FOR YOU

Dream Green DIY has these amazing FREE modern botanical printables- she did them herself believe it or not! So grateful that she's generous enough to share!

I'm back, baby (and with a great recipe to share)!

I know you've heard it all before but... I'm back. Recommitting to the hot and cold relationship that is my blog. Every time I think I'm ready to turn away, I miss writing too much! I miss the community! So, this time, I'm back and I'm promising I'll change. If you give me another chance, I will try harder than ever before to not disappoint. I've got a few (hopefully good!) posts planned out over the next few weeks, and I'll prove to you that this time I mean it when I say I'm blogging again.

For now, let's start off nice and easy. I wanted to share this recipe I made a few weeks ago - lamb meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce. We give it a full 5 Stars.

 

picture *borrowed* from NYTimes site (give me a break - I hadn't recommitted yet!)

Layne is the one with the real knack for picking out recipes between the two of us, and when I selected this one it received a raised eyebrow and a tight lipped shrug (Layne-speak for no good). But then he tasted it and took it all back. Score one for Meg! 

My main recommendation is to make twice the amount of sauce it recommends - with all the reducing it has to go through, you'll want more of that delicious pasta sauce in the end! We also added some garlic to the sauce, because what's a tomato sauce without garlic? 

This is definitely making it into the Fletcher Family Cookbook. Especially because our other standby meatball is Geoffrey Zakarain's recipe, and ooohhhh myyyyyy gooooosh. They're delicious - don't get me wrong - but SO labor intensive and time consuming. Plus, these lamb meatballs are baked instead of fried. 

Win. Win. Win!

Bangin' Banana Bread - MmmmMMmmm

So... we let some bananas get a little too ripe. We've all been there.

When this would happen growing up, my mom would always throw them in the freezer and make some banana bread in the next couple of weeks. I followed suit and decided this weekend that I should give it a go. I had actually never made banana bread before, but I looked around and combined these two recipes, both from Your Cup of Cake (Recipe A, Recipe B). 

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup ripe bananas, mashed (I used 3)
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs beaten
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 340 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray, then line with parchment paper. 
2. In a small bowl, use a fork to finely mash the bananas. 
3. Pour milk into a liquid measuring cup at just under 1/3 c and add lemon juice to the milk. Let sit at least 2 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, beat the eggs. Add oil to the eggs and beat again. Add the milk and vanilla and beat again. Add the mashed bananas and - you guessed it - beat one more time.
5. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together. Then, stir in the brown sugar. 
6. Slowly add the dry to the wet, mix until just combined. Fold in the pecans. Add the batter to the prepared loaf pan. 
7. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes (or until it passes the clean toothpick test). 
8. Remove from oven, let sit 30 minutes, and serve!