I’d like to congratulate beanienva and HapEGrlLovnLife, winners of Sonoma Syrup Co’s vanilla bean extract! I know you’ll enjoy them!
I can’t believe we had 88 qualifying entries! That’s a record for the little kitchen. 
A couple of changes around here, I have deactivated the Echo comments because sometimes I really want to email a commenter back but couldn’t unless the commenter typed their email address into the comment field. That also created confusion for giveaways (some entrants didn’t leave their email address or twitter handle so there was no way to contact them). So no more Echo comments and if you have a gravatar account, be sure to use that email address so your icon shows up.
I have been slacking on blogging here because there has been a lot of things going on…I posted the news on my other blog. If you’re interested in things nerdy, pets and volunteering and just whatever, feel free to subscribe to my whateverjulie blog, which I just started in May. I’m thrilled to announce that I was chosen as an Energizer Keep Going® Blogger. What does that mean? I will be participating in the Susan G. Komen Tampa Bay 3-Day for the Cure (it’s a 3-Day walk – 60 miles total) in October and my participation will be sponsored by Energizer. I will be blogging, facebooking and tweeting about my training and also during the event. So if you’re interested in keeping up with all of that as well as product reviews and possible giveways, please hop on over to whateverjulie.com. As you may know from my past post, I am passionate about supporting the mission to end breast cancer forever and I hope you’ll join me on this journey.
With that, I hope to have a couple of posts up this week including that giveaway for a CSN Stores gift certificate that I promised before.
This has got to be the best banana bread I have ever had! I was browsing the Frosted Cake ‘n Cookie blog when I found the tutorial for the graduation cake I recently made and found this recipe for her Aunt’s cinnamon banana bread. I just had to try!
It’s very moist and the cinnamon adds a different taste to your regular banana bread. This recipe says it makes two 8″x4″ loaf pans but I don’t own any in that size. I do own a 9″x5″ one. The first time I made this recipe, I made a 9″x5″ loaf pan as well as 7 muffins. If you want all muffins, this recipe makes about 20-24 muffins. Be sure to store in a tightly sealed container to ensure it stays moist. I personally prefer making the loaf as that’s how I prefer banana bread but if you want to make the muffins, they taste the best right out of the oven (of course let them cool for a few minutes or you’ll burn your mouth!).
I have made this recipe twice and shared with my co-workers…they loved it! Thanks to Julie from the Frosted Cake ‘n Cookie for posting this recipe! If you have never visited this blog, you should really check it out. She makes tons of beautiful cupcake toppers complete with tutorials.
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I’m happy to announce the winners of the special giveaway I had last month.
The winner of the Promise Me book is…
Heather Silver
I learned that the statistics for estimated new cancers for women in my state (Florida) is 117 out of every 100,000 women.
In the earlier post, she said she would give the 2nd copy to her mom who is a survivor.
Congrats, Heather! I emailed you earlier today so please email me back with your shipping information.
The winner of the pink ribbon tea towel is…
merrin24
I would love to win this for my mom,she is an inspiration to me, and she loves books,and I know she would love this one too!!!!
Congrats to merrin24, I emailed you as well. Both of you, please get back to me within a week or I will have to choose new winners.
In other news, please check out my other blog (that I recently started) at whateverjulie.com. I will have other Komen-related giveaways later this summer on that blog.
I recently won a gift card to CSN Stores at Renee’s blog Flamingo Musings. I’m really excited, CSN Stores has tons, I mean tons of products from housewares, kitchen appliances, pet products to furniture. I can’t wait to share with you what I’m getting…it’s going to be awesome! I’m also going to be hosting a CSN giveaway on this blog so keep a look out!
In the meantime, you should go over to An Opera Singer in the Kitchen for Noelle’s CSN gift card giveaway worth $40 (ends today June 20th). Also, another blog having a giveway is Half Baked (the cake blog) and enter into their CSN gift card giveaway worth $50! (Ends June 24th.)
Disclosure: I’m getting one entry into each of the above contests for posting links to these giveaways. Hope you’ll enter too!
What are Viet Fajitas? Obviously not the technical term for this dish but this is the term my husband coined for this dish. The Vietnamese name for this dish is: 
I remember when we were dating and going over to my Mom’s house for dinner. I was trying to describe this dish to him and I probably said something like it’s stir fried beef that you roll it up in rice paper along with rice noodles, lettuce, other veggies and herbs. The beef is sliced thinly across the grain and marinated in a oyster-sesame mixture. After leaving my Mom’s house, he said, you should have said they are like fajitas and I would have gotten really excited.
Besides pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup), this dish must just be one my favorite Vietnamese dishes. I have many memories of crowded dinner tables…the table full of condiments and a butane powered camping stove. My Mom would stir-fry the beef right there and everyone around the table passed around ingredients. We rolled up our viet fajitas up and ate them as we rolled them at the table. BTW, my Mom even calls them Viet Fajitas now.
What made it even more like fajitas, my husband added his own twist to it suggesting we add peppers and onions to the stir fry. He really likes the taste of the peppers and onions but I remain true to eating them without them. We often will stir fry shrimp as well. I have to be honest, I do not usually measure when making this dish but I did the last time I made this dish as a guide for you. It’s super yummy and I hope you try them sometime!
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I recently made a graduation cake for my cousin, Wendi. I wanted to try a cake that resembled books and I went looking for a tutorial online. I found a wonderfully detailed tutorial at The Frosted Cake ‘n Cookie. Wendi loved the cake and I’m so glad!
I used a 10×10 pan because I didn’t have a 13×9 pan. I cut four inches on one side to make it 10×6. I think next time I would try the 13×9 and cut it in half like Julie from The Frosted Cake ‘n Cookie did.
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