Exciting News!!!

Hey y'all!  Our family has some exciting news!  We're are so blessed to announce that we are soon to become a family of four!  That's right, we're expecting again. :-)

Gavin is now a big brother!  Baby Wright #2 should be arriving early this winter.

We appreciate all of your prayers!

"Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies at the gate." Psalm 127:3-5

Strawberry Banana Bread Recipe

Hey y'all!  Normally when we have fresh fruit, it gets eaten up super fast, but the other day we actually had some extra strawberries and bananas that were getting overly ripe and needed to be used up really soon.  This is an awesome recipe, because it tastes soooooooo good and has turned out amazingly, delicious, and moist every time that I've ever made it.

This is one of those recipes that I have written on an old sticky note and just in my pile of recipes, but I'm not exactly sure where I got it.  I think it may be one that I wrote down from one of my grandma's or great-grandmother's, but anyway it is really good and always a favorite around here!

 Ingredients

4 (very) ripe bananas

1/3 cup melted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup self-rising flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup diced fresh strawberries

Recipe

Preheat oven to 350.  With a potato masher, mash the bananas up real good.

I set some of the mashed banana aside and fed it

to Gavin, and he LOVED it!  He's such a good little helper.

Now, mix the melted butter into the mashed bananas, and stir in the sugar, egg, and vanilla.

Lastly, stir in the strawberries and pour batter into a buttered bread pan.

Bake for approx. 1 hour.  Let cool on a rack.  Best eaten still warm.

That's it!  And it is quite delicious for a

yummy breakfast, a snack, or at any meal.

What are some of your favorite recipes for using up over ripe fruit?

Wild Edibles // Violet Ice Cubes

Hey y'all!  We're so excited that spring has finally arrived and with spring comes all sorts of wonderful things like wildflowers!  Gathering wild edibles is something that our family loves to do.  We really like learning about what is edible and the the different ways that you can use all of the many different plants that are all around us.

One of my (Alice) personal favorites is the violet, which is a pretty little flower with tons of different uses.  Although, what I'm showing you in this post isn't exactly a very filling way of using this plant, it is a very fun way to dress up your table this spring! :-)

First, as with any wild gathering, you'll want to make sure you properly identify the plant.  The violet is very easy to spot and fortunately is in almost every yard around here (northeast Alabama) in great abundance.  The five-petal flower has a very delicate, purplish blue color (pictured above) and has quite distinctive, heart-shaped leaves (pictured below).  Both the blossoms and leaves are edible, very delicious, and can be prepared many, many ways.

There are about 450 different varieties of Viola in North America and all of them are edible.  Pictured below is another variety that we have a multitude of in our yard as well.  As you can see, this variety has a more solid and deeper purple colored flower.  Its leaves are slightly different, but is still that distinctively violet heart-shape leaf with branching, parallel veins.

To make these cute violet ice cubes, the first

thing you'll need to do is go gather up some violet flowers.

Tip: to wash your flowers, simply rinse them

gently and pat dry with a paper towel and lay flat.

Then fill up your ice tray(s) with water and, very

gently, lay and submerge each little blossom.

Place the ice tray(s) in the freezer.

This is such a pretty way to decorate up any event

like a baby shower, tea party, little girl's birthday

party, or just as a fun addition to your table at home.

You could also get creative and try this

with a bunch of other edible flowers too.

I hope to post some more ways that we use the

violet really soon, so be sure to check back often. :-)

What kind of wild edibles do y'all like to gather?

What are some of the ways that y'all use violets?