Banana Spice Bread

I had some left over bananas that were not very tempting to me anymore (I like mine to be almost completely green), so I just had to make banana bread today. I got out my Betty Crocker cookbook - for my standby banana bread recipe - but it did not inspire me today. For one thing, I didn't have all the ingredients, and I had too many bananas. But I did have bananas that were just screaming out to be made into bread. So I improvised a bit. I think next time I might add a little more cinnamon and cloves, but not much. And I think I may have discovered the perfect banana bread. Banana Spice Bread 1/2 cup butter 1 1/4 cup Splenda 2 1/2 cups mashed bananas (I had 3 smallish ones and 3 medium-large-ish ones) 1/2 cup fat-free plain yogurt 1 1/2 tsp vanilla 2 1/2 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp cloves aprox 1/2 tsp freshly ground allspice (I ground up about 4 or 5 with my mortor and pestle) Cinnamon-sugar (I make my own with Splenda) Preheat oven to 375 Cream together butter and splenda. Add bananas, yogurt and vanilla and mix until throuroghly blended. In a separate bowl, sift together the rest of the ingredients. Add slowly to banana mixture, until they are blended thoroughly. Pour batter evenly into two greased loaf pans. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and place in oven on lowest rack. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until done as much as you like. I like mine a little underdone, and 43 minutes was perfect for me.

Oh Yeah...

I finally put all of my Christmas pictures up on Flickr. /sheepish look Karen's been at me for almost a month, but I'm just too lazy sometimes. :) http://www.flickr.com/photos/lildebbie77/sets/72057594051776396/

Trying to Make it Look Pretty....

...but I'm only making a mess of things. Yes, the blog is supposed to be prettier now. Lie to me, and tell me it is. I'm not done - just frustrated. Trying to sort through code, with two males - both of whom assume I'm starving for their attention - are in the same small house....it's an exercise in frustration. I mean - is lunch REALLY necessary? Haven't they eaten 3 or 4 times in the past 24 hours? So they were happy, cause I got the hot dogs out of the freezer and let them load it up. While I went back to my computer - and made the blog look even worse. Grrr...

Lulu Titlescorer

How to waste at least 30 minutes: I Found a fun little tool through Amy at Reading, Writing and Absolutely No Arithmetic yesterday. Go play with it, and see how marketable your titles are. Out of the 4 that were dancing around in my head at the time, only 1 was more than 45%. And all four of them were books that I've bought. One of them was a best-seller that scored very low. The thing about titles: 99% of them sound stupid when you just say them out loud. Especially, for some reason, romance titles. A book like "The Secret Life of Bees" - you hear that title and can almost immediately see the levels to it. A title like you'll find on quite a few Silhouette Desires' - well, half the time I hear these titles and mentally role my eyes. Sometimes, I literally role my eyes. So, how can a title-scorer possibly work? It's all based on what parts of speech you use. Try putting in the information without actually typing in the title - you'll get the exact same results. But one action verb isn't just as good as another, and one concrete noun isn't equal to another. But you know what? I still spent time playing with it.

Snopes

Snopes.com is good for all kinds of things. Checking out internet hoaxes, usually. A laugh, occasionally. And today, it was good for re-inforcing the idiocy of the man who is our prez. These are actual words he spoke last year, taken from a White House transcript. It's supposed to be about Social Security/Medicare coverage.

Because the - all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those - changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be - or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the - like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate - the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those - if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

100 Books

Saw this on a couple of blogs a couple of days ago, and thought: Cool! I bet I read 100 books a year. In fact, I've already read about 6 or 7 this year, and I feel like I'm not reading very much right now (mostly because I'm trying to write more). So, eHarlequin wants me to keep a blog detailing what I'm reading. No way do I have time to keep two blogs...but wait...what's this in the middle of the page?

"send you an exclusive monthly coupon code worth an additional 10% savings to fuel your reading habit"

ahh...maybe I could take a few minutes here and there to say what I'm reading. If I like it, and why. In fact, about 4 of the books that I've read this year have been Silhouette's. Do I really have time over the year to read 100 books? Absolutely. Do I have time to document them? Probably not, but if they want to give me incentives...well, it's certainly worth a try, hmm? Maybe - if I get really ambitious this weekend - I'll even update my blog template. Stick in a spot on the sidebar for books that I'm reading. Take off the NaNoWriMo meter, and update it with one for my current project (a re-incarnation of the NaNo project). So, here's a recap of what I've read so far, and what I'm reading now:

• A Lady's Guide to Rakes by Kathryn Caskie
• The Man Means Business by Annette Broadrick
• All I Want by Isabel Sharpe
• The Sins of His Past by Roxanne St. Claire
• Tycoon Takes Revenge by Anna DePalo
• A Sorcerer's Treason: A Novel of Isavalta by Sarah Zettel (Just started it)
• Black Rose by Nora Roberts
(Still reading - and yes, I know I'm late getting to this one! :) )
• Do Fish Drink Water? Puzzling and Improbable Questions and Answers by Bill McLain

So maybe I'll get around to saying what I liked. And as soon as I get the blog set up for that, I'll post the link.

Look what showed up on my online transcript today!

Name : Deborah L. Barone Awarded: Master Library Infor Studies Degree Date: Dec 17, 2005 Major: Library & Information Studies The only way this will be more official is when I get the degree in the mail.

A couple of months ago, I noticed a billboard on the interstate for Vizzini Winery - a winery at my exit. This particular exit has a few gas stations, a bank and a car dealership. The restaurant closed, and has been empty. There's also a small airport, but that's it. For two months, I've looked for signs at the exit itself, telling me which way to go. I've driven down a couple of roads trying to find the place. After all, if there's a winery only 2 miles from my house, I want to know where it is! Finally, on Monday, I found it. They've just put up a sign on their driveway, and you can't see the building very well from the road. Hubby and I went with a couple of friends, and I am in love with the place. Now, I know what you're thinking. An Alabama Winery? I can hear the laughter already. Before we went, I assumed they were talking about Muscadine Wine, that beverage that is so sweet it makes cough syrup seem good. Boy, was I wrong. At the moment, the Vizzini Winery makes about 6 or 7 wines, from white zinfandel to Cabernet Sauvignon. They did a tasting for the four of us, and we sampled all of them - along with a couple of cheeses that they brought for us. After the tasting, we went into the back and spent about 45 minutes on a tour of the facilities (which sounds fancy, but it's all in one room). Mr. Vizzini is a wonderful guide, and obviously passionate about making wine. After the tour, we went out to look through the foods they have for sale. I had to hold myself back - they had an entire display of cheeses, along with a small display of jars of goodies. The dessert case included tiramisu (had to hold myself back again) and a few other heavenly looking things. Since we had just eaten, I refrained from ordering anything. There was also a display of breads - home baked goodies that made my mouth water. We didn't eat anything from the [very small] menu, but we're planning on going back soon. We got a bottle or two of wine, of course. My hubby really likes their Cabernet - but I'm holding out for their first Pinot Noir, which should be ready at the end of the month.

Privacy and Pizza

I'm a little late finding this movie on the ACLU's website - but better late than never. Very interesting - and VERY Scary. (Make sure you have your sound turned on)

What's happened to Romance?

There's a great post on Romancing the Blog today about the crazy multiplication of romance lines. Brenda Coulter is right in her article - subgenres are getting out of control. I know that when I go to look over newly published books in different lines, I get excited when I see a new line - "Yay!" I'll think. "I love books about women CEO's" or whatever the new criteria are. But after I've read a book or three in these lines, I rarely pick them up again. They become formulaic, too predictable to really enjoy. I have a friend who will still read these - but she doesn't usually buy them. She'll pick them up off of my shelf when she comes in town for a visit and read three in an hour. Why? Because she knows the plot; she's just looking for a good line or two, hoping to find something outside of the norm. All of this results in the fact that there are more books in more lines being produced than ever - but I'm not interested in reading most of them....because I feel like I already have. Three or four times. And whatever happened to good medieval romances anyway? Julie Garwood, come back.