Admin note: I split the stuff about catching mice off from the Cinderella pumpkin thread.
I prefer the older style Victor traps, with the metal trigger, over than the plastic ones, but both seem to work fairly well here. I alternate which I use, because mice seem to learn how to avoid one, so I switch for a few weeks.
I tried the glue ones, a strong mouse just bounces around until he frees himself.
I'll check on the vanilla the next time I'm at our new Costco, which opened on Saturday and is only a few blocks from us. So far I've not been impressed with their website as a shopping experience, though. (Sams site is much better, IMHO.)
They may not carry the same brand of vanilla at every store, and it might be their house brand, Kirkland.
I know they only carry King Arthur flour in the northeastern US (though KAF uses mills in Kansas, among others), I'm not sure they even carry an 'unbleached' flour here.
There is no scientific evidence I can find that essential oils keep mice away. Many of the websites that recommend it, surprise, surprise, sell essential oils!
The problem with mouse and rat poisons is that you do not know where the dead bodies will be, perhaps inside your walls?
When we had our annual mouse invasion last fall, I baited several traps with some warm tempered chocolate, it did a great job catching mice.
We tend to buy the smaller sizes of bananas, but usually I make banana bread when we have anywhere from 2 to 4 bananas that got too ripe for eating, so I don't always have the same amount of banana in each batch, and the amount of banana I use doesn't seem to affect the texture much.
I'd happily send you some of my mice too, I've got multiple traps set up in the garage to catch them as they try to get out of the cold. These are sneaky mice, they've figured out how to lick the peanut butter off the trigger without setting it off, I wind up rebaiting all 4 traps nearly every day, whether I've caught a mouse overnight or not.
I just posted my banana nut bread/muffin recipe, which is pretty similar to many other recipes, except that I almost always add raisins and often add cinnamon.
Here's one of the 6 banana nut bread spiders I made using a mini-bundt pan,
So serve him the juice at breakfast. 🙂
I have wondered about that as well, all those grooves seem like places for things to stick. They
might increase the rate of heat transfer between the pan and your dough, I suppose.
--
Mike Nolan
I peeled, cored, cut up and pre-cooked about 11 pounds of Winesap apples today, the 2nd half of the ones I picked at the orchard two weeks ago. Made about 12 pounds of pie filling. (We finally had a killer frost Saturday morning, so the orchards are probably closed for the season, they usually close around November 1st anyway.)
I'll make 2 apple pies tomorrow for the Halloween buffet lunch at my wife's office on Tuesday, the rest will go in the freezer. (Depending on the size of the pie pan and how 'deep dish' it is, it takes between 36 and 48 ounces of pie filling per pie.)
I think I've got enough pie filling to last me until next fall, even if I make an apple pie every month.
I buy 18 inch x 500 foot rolls of aluminum foil at Sams Club. I also buy 18 inch wide plastic wrap in the big box at Sams. I bought a 1000 count case of full sheet pan size parchment paper at the restaurant supply store several years ago, since the half-sheet size ones are too small for my 3/4 size sheet pans. I've used less than half the box, so it'll last me quite a few more years.
Ooh, I've got a six mini-bundt pan, that might be worth trying. My wife has been asking for some banana nut muffins, maybe banana bread spiders with a cream cheese frosting?
I think I like the Spider Bundt Cake better.
