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Friday, October 29, 2021

Inner Squirrel Party! A Blog Takeover by Stormy

I'm as surprised as you to find my blog taken over this morning by Stormy, who I recently discovered is my "Inner Squirrel". So without further ado, meet Stormy!

Meet Stormy!

Hi, I am Linda's Inner Squirrel "Stormy", and welcome to the Inner Squirrel Party, hosted by the imaginative Darlene at Creative Latitude! Darlene has a giveaway on her blog, yummy nut-filled food, and an introduction to other Inner Squirrels of Bloglandia, so be sure to visit these links!


If you know Linda, she has always considered herself like "Doug" from the movie "Up", easily distracted by projects other than what she should be working on. But she was wrong. I have been her purposeful Inner Squirrel since she first learned to quilt back in 2010! And "Doug" is not a name I would choose anyway.  Stormy sounds so much better!


When Linda finds herself drawn to projects blogged about by other creative people or photos posted on Instagram, she calls them "Squirrel-spirations" She is partly right in that bloggers and photos do inspire her, but I am the one who urges her to do more than just be inspired. In fact I claim responsibility for all the "squirrel" projects on this blog!



Let me give you an example of how this works. Back in September, when she posted on Instagram a photo representing the First Meteorological Day of Fall, she found herself drawn to the riot of colors in the photo, especially that unexpected purple. I knew that she loves Fall, so I began urging her to "make something with those colors". She resisted until she saw a mention of this blog hop on Wendy's blog Pieceful Thoughts. I persuaded Linda to email Wendy for Darlene's email address to see if it was too late to join the blog hop. Long story short - Darlene said welcome aboard! Then it dawned on Linda that she needed a project and that the blog hop was a mere two days away (wow, my skills of persuasion are strong!) So good Inner Squirrel that I am, I reminded her of that pretty leaves photo, and so she began thinking . . .


Again, I reminded her that a couple weeks ago, she saw some pretty, scrappy leaves on Diann's blog Little Penguin Quilts. Then she read that the pattern was from Carole at My Carolina Home, and it was part of an Autumn Jubilee. Did someone say "Autumn"? Linda was all over that! So armed with the pretty leaves photo and the free leaf pattern from Carole, away she went with a project for this post.


These blocks are the start of a pretty quilt, and it will be because Linda listened to me, her Inner Squirrel. Carole has instructions on her blog to add a scrappy nine-patch star and accent fabric to these blocks, so I will push Linda to get it done!


So you get the idea how this works, right? I am a very persistent Inner Squirrel, and if she wants to call me "Doug" or "Squirrel-spiration", you will know what my name really is! 



As you may have heard, I like nuts, and Linda is kind of nutty in my opinion. She is a weather nut and claims to be a trained storm spotter, yet she has never chased a tornado. She is a math nut and claims to have a degree in math, yet her quilt-math ability is non-existent. And she says she like nuts of all kinds, yet she really only likes nuts in her pecan pie and not in other baked goods. Say what? However, she does like this recipe with chunky peanut butter as an ingredient, and since peanuts are MY favorite nut, and this is HER favorite banana bread recipe, we decided to include it in this post!
 

Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips
Makes one loaf

1-1/4 cup unbleached flour
6 tablespoons white sugar
6 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed or whizzed in food-processor
1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 tablespoons plain fat-free yogurt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips tossed in 1 tablespoon flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray; add a strip of parchment paper to bottom of pan for easy removal.

Combine flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl. In another bowl mix bananas, peanut butter, yogurt, egg, vanilla, and oil. Fold in flour mixture and stir until no streaks of flour remain, then gently fold in chocolate chips. Scrape batter into loaf pan. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out with few moist crumbs. Cool in pan on wire rack 15 minutes; carefully remove from pan and allow to cool completely on wire rack before slicing.


Hi it's Linda again, and I hope you enjoyed learning all about Stormy! Please take a minute or two to visit these links and meet the other lovely Inner Squirrels - Gertie, Winnie, Samantha, and Sally!

15 comments :

  1. What a fun post! Glad I played a little part in the squirrel-spiration! (My day kinda unraveled yesterday, so my post is kinda dull). Nice to meet you, Stormy!

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  2. Stormy, I love your name. . .it is definitely better than Doug! Your leaf inspiration photo made me want to get Terry to start a new project. She's at a retreat today so I'll likely have to wait until she returns. Your recipe looks delicious. I've printed it and left it on the kitchen counter for Terry. Perhaps, it will take her a few more days to notice there are no more pecans. . .Best wishes, Gertie

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  3. Your recipe looks fabulous! Stormy, you are sew creative. Keep it up!

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  4. Oh, of course your inner squirrel is named Stormy, Linda! I'm so glad Stormy pushed you to make those pretty leaves - they are great! Squirrel-spiration is running rampant around blogland, I think!

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  5. Stormy it was wonderful to hear about your life influencing Linda. What fun that Wendy led you to the party. Your collaborative effort is ending up in creating a pretty fall quilt. Thank you for sharing a favourite recipe. It looks very tasty. I think I will need to get Carol to make one for me to try since I love peanuts. πŸΏπŸ˜„

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  6. LOVE those beautiful Leaf blocks!! Peanut Butter Banana Bread sounds like a great treat for a Squirrel Party, Linda. Too bad I just made Great Pumpkin Dessert last night!! :o((

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  7. I never thought to name my squirrel, but as you can see from my October Goals list, that d*^# squirrel took over my month! LOL.

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  8. Ohhh that cake sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing!!

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  9. cute post! Squirrels are so tempting..... Hugs

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  10. Stormy, you did a fine job steering Linda to a lovely project. I’ll have to see what my inner squirrel’s name is!

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  11. Oh Stormy, I think you could be my new best friend! I'm so happy you joined our Inner Squirrel Party. You did an excellent job explaining the role of an Inner Squirrel. I'm going to have to drop a few hints to Darlene to make your yummy Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips for me too! Definitely perfect Inner Squirrel food!

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  12. Stormy, thank you for reminding me how lovely the leaf blocks on MY Carolina Home are. My inner squirrel seems to have ignored them so I will have to remedy that and pull some fun autumn fabrics from my stash to get them started..

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  13. Cute post. I love the purple among the leaf colors, too. Great choice.

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