Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

We're starting a new feature on the blog for 2011: We thought it would be fun to post a recipe from our Black Mountain and Asheville area bed & breakfast each month. Then we thought, why not get started early and share a recipe for December? So as the year comes to a close, we bring you our banana chocolate chip muffin recipe. It originated as a bread recipe, but, as it turns out, it makes a much better muffin. [The photo above was taken this morning and is of our gluten free version. We've included that option with the recipe below.]

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
from Inn on Mill Creek Bed & Breakfast
Prep time: 20 minutes / Bake time: 30 minutes / Makes 10-12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar or sugar substitute
1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter or margarine, softened to room temperature
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
1 Tbsp milk
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (chocoholics can add up to 1 cup...your choice!)

Preheat oven to 350.

1. In a mixing bowl, mix the butter and sugar well, then add eggs one at a time.
2. In a medium bowl, combine milk and bananas. We find a fork works best to mash the bananas. Mix in the cinnamon until blended.
3. In another bowl, combine sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. Add bananas to the butter/sugar/egg mixture, then add flour mixture until batter forms.
5. Add chocolate chips.
6. Spoon into greased muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes.
7. Serve warm or allow to cool -- either way they're good!

Gluten free guests give our gluten free version two thumbs up. To make gluten free muffins, just substitute the flour with the following mixture, which we found online. This makes 1 cup, so make sure you double it for this recipe:

2 Tbsp potato starch
1 tsp xantham gum or guar gum
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Enough white rice flour to equal 1 cup with the above

Next Year's Garden Planning Begins

As we celebrate the first day of Winter, we (meaning Brigette) also celebrate the fact that the first of our garden catalogs have arrived. Gold stars go to Bluestone Perennials in Ohio, and Witherspoon Roses in Durham, NC, for being early birds in the garden catalog distribution department! What better way to get through winter than to flip through a garden catalog, with it's colorful plants and flowers splashed on every page?

We've got a few garden spaces at the Inn and in 2011, we'll be working on enhancing two of them -- the Front Porch Garden and the Well Garden.

Near the base of the stone stairs leading to the Main House's original front porch is the Front Porch Garden. For the past three years, it has been the home of several hostas, a few daylilies, and our baby trees from the Arbor Day Foundation (mostly flowering trees like Dogwood and Washington Hawthorne). The trees will be ready to graduate to their permanent homes this Spring, so we'll be converting the nursery to a flower garden. Our current thought is to use deep purple, burgundy, crimson and rust-colored tones.


Joe Pye Weed coming to the Front Porch Garden in 2011

The Well Garden is a very small circular garden that was once the well for the property. This garden is one that we experimented with our first year, with a spiral pattern of lavender, agastache (hyssop), and pink coneflowers. This year, we may move the lavender and agastache but keep our spiral and enhance this sunny little garden with different colors of coneflowers, along with some evergreens...we're still deciding.

Stay tuned, and let us know if you have any thoughts about flowers to add to the Inn in 2011!

Wrapping Up Our Kiva Loans for 2010

For the past four years, we've been participating in microloans to small business owners in developing countries through Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/).

On December 13, we got an e-mail that a journal entry had been posted about one of our loan recipients -- Babken from Armenia. Journal entries are a way for Kiva to keep in touch with lenders about the people they're helping. We've also gotten journal entries with video of one of our entrepreneurs, which was pretty cool.

The journal entry we received about Babken said he'd had good profits from his bakery business and was able to pay off his loan prematurely. What great news! To tell you a little about Babken (pictured below): he's a young man in his mid-20s with obvious business know-how, but who lacked the resources to grow his business.



With help of 113 lenders on Kiva, he secured a microloan and has taken his business and excelled at it in a very short period of time. He has been able to put himself through teacher-training school and was even able to buy a car with the profits he made, allowing him to deliver his baked goods to area shops. It's very humbling to be a part of someone's success and it was so inspiring to read about Babken's progress for the past year.

With Babken's loan paid off (congrats, Babken!), we had the option to reloan our funds, which we did. Our final Kiva loan for 2010 goes to Nelva from the Phillippines.



Nelva is in her mid-50s and has three adult children. For the past four years, she has owned her own business, making and selling snacks in her local community. She's getting a microloan from seven lenders on Kiva to buy raw ingredients, such as flour and peanuts, which will help her to keep growing her business and to improve her living situation. We're excited to see if any journal entries get posted while Nelva is paying off her loan to see how she's progressing.

2010 National Gingerbread House Competition and Display

First place winner in the Youth category
Photo Credit: Gingerbread House Competition Facebook

One sweet event that's sure to get you in the holiday mood is the annual display of delicious looking entries in the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa's National Gingerbread House Competition, now in its 18th year. The competition brings a wealth of culinary talent from across the country and the entries are divided into four categories: Adult, Teen, Youth (ages 9-12) and Child (ages 5-8). Judging takes place in November, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners being awarded in each category based on overall appearance, originality and creativity, difficulty, precision, and consistency of theme (with competitors choosing their own theme).

You can see photos of the entries at Wright Creative's website, and photos of the winners are now on the National Gingerbread House Competition Facebook page.

If you'll be in the Asheville area, you can see the amazing display in person. The Grove Park Inn and the Grove Arcade, both in Asheville, have partnered to play hosts to the Gingerbread House Competition display. The Grove Park Inn allows public viewing of its competition display Monday through Thursday, while the Grove Arcade's display is open to the public from Monday through Saturday (10am to 6pm) and Sunday (noon to 5pm). The entries will be available for viewing through January 2, 2011.