watermelon baby stroller

Last Saturday we had a surprise baby shower for soon-to-be mommy Mae or whom we fondly call "muffin." Too lazy to bake sugar cookies or cake, I decided to try my hand on making a watermelon baby stroller.  Luckily i found a perfectly-sized watermelon at Safeway: large and oval-shaped.

I drew the cutting lines for the watermelon with a permanent marker the night before the party but carved it an hour before we left the house to maintain its freshness.  I used orange, lemon and grape for the wheels and stuck them to the watermelon using a wooden skewer (toothpick is not enough to hold them together) and i created the handle using the extra piece of watermelon.  I hollowed out the watermelon with a big spoon, sliced them and threw them back on the "stroller" and added red and green grapes and strawberries.  For the baby i grabbed a lemon, drew the outline of the baby's sleeping face and framed it with a chinese cabbage.

And here's the result:

Isn't that pretty?  I just fell in love with that baby sleeping in the stroller.  Marianne and i had fun practice drawing the baby's face on a tissue paper... we were laughing 'coz the first one i drew was smiling too much :)  It was a hit at the party and i was happy too that the fruits i got from the store were sweet and yummy.

If i am to do it again, there are two things i would change to improve it: the handle which should be slanted at the end to make it look more attached to the stroller and the wheels which should have been more upright. 

The shower party was fun especially with all the food everyone contributed and the gifts for baby, the girls doing a great job in decorating, setting up the dessert table and facilitating the games and all the boys who participated in it.  Wish we could do baby showers more often. :)

banana chocolate chip muffins

Another ugly sorry-looking bananas sitting at our kitchen counter this morning and waiting for me to decide on their fate. In the past their only destination would be the garbage bin but after i baked my first ever basic banana bread more than a year ago, i never looked at overriped bananas the same way again.

So what's a pretty girl to do? transform them into banana chocolate chip muffins! So simple, fun and easy to make. yum-my!

BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIPS MUFFINS

Basic banana bread recipe is from Simply Recipes.  I just made it into muffins and added chocolate chips. :)

Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup chocolate chips, divided

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2.  Using a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.
3.  Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla.
4.  Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.
5.  Add the flour, mix.
6.  Add 1/4 cup chocolate chips, mix. 
7.  Spoon mixture into a muffin tray (i use ice cream scoop) and sprinkle the top with the rest of the chocolate chips.
8. Bake for 25 minutes. 
9.  Remove tray from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes.
10. Remove muffins from tray and transfer to cooling rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

To make a loaf bread, pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour.  Cool on a rack then remove from pan.

For mini-loaf bread (3x5 inch), bake for 40-45 minutes.

If you don't like chocolate chips, just disregard it.  You can also substitute chocolate chips with nuts and dried fruits.