Recipes: Banana Bread
Sunday, July 5, 2009
This has turned into one of my most-used recipes. Boy eats bananas for breakfast every morning, and we inevitably end up with a few left over at the end of the week. I then turn them into this loaf, which becomes my breakfast for the week. It's sweet enough to satisfy my pregnant-lady morning sweet tooth, but not so overwhelming that I end up jittery and sick-feeling.
The recipe is modified from the one found at the Hershey's site: they use shortening instead, and use a different method. But I find that using a stand mixer for a light batter like this can ruin the texture in just a few seconds, so I've done it my own way.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
3 bananas, mashed
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Cream together mashed bananas, butter, and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix together briefly. (By briefly, I mean no more than 50 or so strokes. There may still be a few lumps: it's not a problem, trust me.) Pour into a 9 inch loaf pan and bake at 375 for about 55 minutes.
A note on flour: I've recently become amazed at the difference brands of flour make. I grew up on one brand (which shall remain nameless) but was frequently disappointed when baked goods came out tasting less than spectacular. Then, I switched to King Arthur brand. It's more per bag, I admit. But the difference in results is absolutely stunning.
Oh, dear, it has has been awhile.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
I just realized it had been almost two weeks since I posted! Many apologies for those of you still reading. It's been a busy time: a bathroom makeover (complete with tiling), 3 family visits, much dissertation writing, and full entry into the third trimester in all its glory. (Please, can someone get this kid out of my ribs? The ladies at bible study all commented today on how ridiculously high I'm carrying. I can, quite literally, feel her poking my liver. Yikes!) But while it's been busy, it has also been very good. I'll post pictures in the next couple of days, I promise! All in all, I'm just doing what I can to get ready, while still enjoying this last several weeks before Alexandra is here!
Friday, June 19, 2009
I've blogged before about the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Artwork of the Day" feed. There was something there today that I found particularly compelling:
It's an abolitionist button, possibly sold to raise money for the cause in the 1850s and 60s. It also "may be one of the first political buttons made in America to incorporate a photograph. Believed to be unique, the miniature daguerreotype shows two hands held together, one black, one white resting on a book assumed to be the Bible."
Random post!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Reading
The Helper by Catherine Marshall. It was recommended to me recently at another site where we were discussing the Holy Spirit (AKA the part of the trinity that I had the absolute least understanding of), and when I showed up for Women's Bible Study for the first time at Bashford UMC, this was what they were reading. I can take a hint...
Watching
Lark Rise to Candleford is being run our local PBS station. It's the story of a young woman who moves from Lark Rise, a small English farming village, to Candleford, a nearby town, in order to work at the post office. It's an absolutely charming, gentle sort of show that you can apparently only get from the BBC. Lots of familiar faces: Julie French (of French and Saunders), Julie Sawalha (Lydia from the One True Pride & Prejudice production, or Saffy from Absolutely Fabulous) and Ben Miles (the tripod from Coupling) all appear.
Investigating
Last week, we received some checks supposedly from a class action suit involving J K Publications and the FTC. We were suspicious, as one generally should be when one receives a check in the mail for no apparent reason. But it would appear to be legitimate: several people have posted online that they've spoken to the FTC to confirm it.
Following
The continuing unrest in Iran. Andrew Sullivan is, of course, the place to go these days. But I'm also getting increasingly frustrated by the criticism the American President is taking over his relative lack of response. I'm no Obama cheerleader, but I think he has the right of it on this one. Any endorsement of the revolution from the American government will be spun by the Iranian government as western interference, and will weaken the position of the protestors. Of course, just like the previous administration, some folks out there will never see anything good from the White House.
Visiting
Mom and Dad are in from Indiana! Yesterday we went to New Glarus and looked around; today, if the rain holds off, we'll go to Olbrich Gardens, and then to Dad's favorite steak house for dinner. Mmm... It really is nice to have them here.
Twitter grows up
Monday, June 15, 2009
I've been following the events in Iran, partly because it's a great moment in history with the potential to seriously affect us here in the United States. But even more than that, I'm fascinated with the role the internet in general and Twitter in particular have played. Iranian students have been using Twitter to inform the world about what's happening there, to organize protests and rallies, and to call for help when besieged by riot troops. Then, last night, it got really interesting. It turns out the Iranian government was attempting to firewall off much of the internet in order to disrupt the protests. So a group of Iranian hackers were frantically setting up proxy servers to allow people to bounce around the firewalls and keep up with the information flow as it was happening. Twitter users from around the world helped by continuously retweeting (IE, copying and forwarding) the information so that it could be tracked back to no one user.
This is an amazing turn of events: it's like watching William Gibson come to life. We are rapidly entering an age where totalitarianism will be unsustainable because the information flow is simply unstoppable. If they cut the power, enough people will still have cell phones to get at it. The international nature of the web means that no one government can block access: even the Great Firewall of China has more holes than a fishing net.
This creates its own share of problems, too, of course. For every Twitter there's a StormFront. But this weekend a site that has been mocked as a worthless corner of the internet became the most important player in what may well be the eventual overthrow of a tyranical regime. How's that for a fairy tale for the 21st century?
Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's first feeling, 'Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that,' or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything--God and our friends and ourselves included--as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.
~C. S. Lewis
