Thursday, May 25, 2006

Banana Bread Bumble

My day started with a laugh when I saw this on the fridge:



It was a toasty day ending in rather freaky greenish skies, WIND!!! and stormage. If you live in the States, or at least any of the tornado states, you likely know that green skies often preceed tornados. Sure enough, we were under a Watch this evening (conditions favourable for tornado development, as opposed to a Warning, which means that one (or more) has actually been spotted in the area.) It was cosy, though, cuz we were at TKD. If you're gonna die, do it with friends, LOL! I suggested that we do tornado kicks but only got groans.

This afternoon I was feeling rather pleased with my multi-tasking self as I was sewing shorts for Mollusc, had banana bread baking in the oven and had launched the kids on painting some tea towels for the Grandmas. Sadly, the banana bread sensed my smugness and imploded:
Too bad the picture doesn't really show how FAR it fell. *snort* The kids ate it anyway, and I have to admit it was pretty tasty regardless.

The Prawn had decorated a towel corner with a very nice ducky, then proceeded to disenhancify the towel with random splotchage. Oy vey!

And to top it all off, I kept making waistbands that were too small for Mollusc's shorts and then ended up with a finished project that had a slightly too large waistband. Plah! It was not my day.

Things improved when I went to teach little kid class. For a new twist, I had them do headstands against the wall during warmups and they ALL got their feet up!!! Too bad I couldn't get a pic of that. It was pretty cool. :-)

When I got home, Prawn wanted to change into her new dress for our class. It came with a matching dolly dress. Yes, I'm a sucker for matchie-matchie now and then.



Things got even better for our class, as I got to see a friend on her last day before she takes off to be a summer camp counselor. Another friend was back from her break which she had to take while training to be a phlebotomist (blood sucker, LOL!) Sparring was a series of drills and by the end of it, I felt like I had a hole in my stomach. We stopped by McDonald's on the way home, which was something different, and got 60 McNuggets. The guy thought we were joking. Obviously he hasn't seen my kids eat. They may be skinny, but they can put away the food like nobody's business. I think Gogo ate 15 McNuggets by himself, LOL! Yes, they're all gone.
During supper, Cheeto (the raccoon) came to the door for treats, so of course we gave her some. Trillian is fascinated with her.


I never end up with very good pics of Cheeto because when I open the door, she wants to come barging in (!!) and taking pics at night through the glass = crappy pics. :-P

21 comments:

C said...

Heh! Thanks, Jack. :-)

Logophile said...

Woooo hoooo
Go Candace go,
what a lovely and tasteful statue you have there!
heh heh heh

Sorry about the nana bread, I hate it when stuff like that happens, which is why I so rarely bake or cook.
I admire those who sew, I once replaced a button, that was several years ago now but I still feel pretty good about it.

Faltenin said...

A pussy shot, but not a towel in sight????

Oh, I get it... dh is mopping his brow with it... I understand... :-D

C said...

LOL! Yes, indeed, Fal. The towel was put to a very honourable use mopping up. . . something.

C said...

Thanks, Logo. :-) he he he!!

I hate it when stuff falls. Usually it's a birthday cake. :-P THough I finally found out it's cuz I was using Dutch Process cocoa instead of natural. It's good to know a chef who once owned his own bakery! :-)

Buttons! I hate buttons. I bought a snap press so I wouldn't have to deal with them. :-)

N said...

what the hell is an HNT?

Anonymous said...

The 2 HNTs are great! That's quite a hairy pussy you got there. Sorry, couldn't resist. I'm diggin' the farmer tan :)

Niel hasn't been paying attention--it's Half-Nekkid Thursday!

C said...

Oh, Niel, you should really jump on the bandwagon!!!!

Kitkat, LMAO!!! Nice one!!! Oh, yeah, LOL I have some really weird tan stuff going on. You shhould see me from the back - nice tan strip on the lower lower back, white above that in the shape of a tank top, less white shoulders, and tanner arms, farmer style. I'm a whole pallette!

Karen Little said...

Brave pics! I only finally discovered what HNT was today - I felt like everyone was in on this huge secret that I'd been left out of ;-) anyway, hopefully I'll be able to post an HNT pic next week.

Happy Half-Nekkid Thursday!

MG said...

GREAT pics, and i LOVE your profile pic.. love it.
HHNT

Toby said...

I didn't realize banana bread could fall? I've never made it, but my mom's is solid like a brick. It's really heavy and very good.

Great pics. The "amazing insights" are going to be pouring in today.

GuTTer MuNKi said...

Life is good

C said...

Thanks MG!! :-)

Toby - I didn't either. Well, wait a minute. It *may* have actually happened once before with some other sweet bread thing. It's been a long time since I made banana bread. This was a new recipe for me, but I don't think that's a good excuse. A friend of mine said she had it happen once or twice and she thought maybe if the bananas were too mushy? But you have to mash them, so I'm not sure that would be why. Plus it's a classic way to use old nanners, so they're going to be mushy, period. Maybe I need your mom's recipe. :-P I suspect it might help if I lowered the baking temp and lengthened the time.

Gutter mUnKI - holy crap, dude! Youd didn't tell me I wasn't wearing any pants!!!

jlmack said...

Tongue in cheek pics, great!
The banana bread could have sunk for a few reasons.
Overmixing, improper incorporation of ingredients, blah, blah, blah.
But, ohmygawd, I'm a huge lover of the banana bread.

Toby said...

I really thought only things that require yeast could fall. With other airy things like cakes being the exception. I'm going to see my mother on Monday. I'll ask her for her recipe. She'll be, not flatterd, she considers herself a lousy cook, more amazed that someone is interested and it will be on the "internets." She's very behind with technology and any mention of it surely amazes her.

Jaichan makes a valid point. I occasionally watch cooking shows and the things she mentioned do play important rolls. I do have to wonder about my mom's banana bread though. I bet everytime she's made it, I'm 37 so I would guess at least 150 times, she's never done anything the same way. It always turns out the same though, like a brick of banana bread goodness.

C said...

Jaichan - the first one is slightly cheeky, LOL! Hey, I bet it was overmixing! I mixed it a fair amount. :-P
Thank you!! :-)

Toby - Well tell your mom that someone on the "internets" is very eager to try her recipe! :-) MMmmmm banana bread goodness. . . :-) Have you ever had zucchini bread? Sounds gross, but tastes a LOT like banana bread. I also have some "friendship bread" starter in my freezer. It's another sweet bread. Every time you make one of the starter things (add stuff, let it set, squish it, blah blah - 10 day process) it spawns four more starters. :-P

Toby said...

I think my mom considers herself a bad cook because she tries everything. She does a great job, but "everything" is tough on most peoples palates. I love all food. I'm her biggest supporter. Her husband winks at me when I'm giving her props. Bad winks.

My mom will be proud. The "starter" thing I'm familiar with... I've never baked anything myself, but I know about it, it's like making yogurt, but making bread. My mom had some culture from some Armenian woman for years. It was called "freedom bread." It was a desert similar to banana bread, but it had no bananas.

Margret Buchaklian is her name. She's been keeping the culture alive for 50+ years. She must be at least 90 now.

Culture isn't just some thing in a petrie dish.

C said...

Wow!!! That's amazing!!! How cool is that?! I wonder how far around the world her culture has traveled? Mine's from NC originally. :-) Well, maybe not originally. That's just where my first one came from. In 50 years, hers could have gone really far! Yeah this is like banana bread with no bananas. You add vanilla pudding mix among other things. It's tasty! :-)

You're lucky to have broad food horizons. I do too. But dh didn't and it's been an effort to expand them. He's doing way better than when I met him though. :-) My dad had lived in China, India, Taiwan as well as the South and CA, so he made all KINDS of stuff for us. :-)

Trundling Grunt said...

The second photo is better - you looked more relaxed and natural.
Prawn looks delightful and delighted.

Malnurtured Snay said...

What is HNT?

C said...

TG - that was my opinion, too. Dunno why dh likes #1, LOL! But it is the more daring of the 2. I just wasn't sure when he was going to snap it. :-P


Prawnie was, indeed, a very happy girl. :-)

Snay - I should link like everyone else does, but I always forget. HNT is Half-Nekkid Thursday, a tradition that is taking part of the blogworld by storm. ;-)