The Future Is Banana Bread

I bought two bananas with the intention of baking a loaf of banana bread for G's evening snack.  He finished up the snack sized carrot cake with cream cheese frosting last night (Downton Abbey) and the pan of Brownies I made last week is empty.  I'm just waiting for the bananas to be "good and dead" as the recipe asks.

My recipe box is about 18 inches long and filled to overflowing with 4 by 6 index cards.  I go thru it when I can no longer wedge a single new card into the box.  I try and sort out recipes I know (think) I will be needing in the season (winter) and stand them on end at the front.  I have ABC files but the most used recipes are always in the front of the box.  And I have decided to file by S for soup instead of by ingredient.  Banana bread is easy. Either way, it's B.

Here it is.  The absolutely Incredible Banana Bread Recipe.

4T of butter, room temp
1/2 cup sugar
3 dead bananas (nicely freckled with brown)  But feel free to use two if that is what you have.
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup yogurt, cottage cheese or sour cream.  Only one of the three choices.

2 cups flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
3/4 t salt (less if your butter is salted)
2/3 cup of optional raisins, walnuts or chocolate chips  ( I add the walnuts if G doesn't want our daughter eating any of the bread)

Mix all the wet stuff together with a spoon or a hand mixer.  Mix all the dry together and then add to wet.  Pour into a greased 9 inch loaf pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for one full hour.  Cool on a rack about 10 minutes and then turn out onto the rack to cool completely.  Gets better with age.

Yesterday G helped our daughter select and purchase a new flat screen television and a new camera.  she had also wanted an iPad mini but they didn't have what she wanted in stock.  Then G helped her set up the new television.  Excellent picture quality and the DVD player worked--everyone was delighted.

G had also purchased a new flat screen for us.  Thirty nine inches (bigger than the one our daughter had purchased).  He set it up and the picture quality was awful.  All the faces were either squished from the top or smeared on the screen. The faces were a terrible pink color with no definition. And the movement of anyone across the screen made me queasy.  I know there is a ratio of screen size and distance from the viewer.  I am certain the screen was much too large for the short viewer distance we have.  If the screen had been in the next room, I am sure it would have looked great.  G packed it all up and is returning the set this morning.

I had the beginnings of a migraine (which I haven't had in nearly 15 years) from just that 20 minutes or so of looking at the screen.  I felt nauseous. My temples ached.  I couldn't even read.  And Downton Abbey (on the old television) look smeary as I was having trouble with my eyes focusing.  It could also have been the odor of the unboxed new flat screen.  Very toxic.  To me.  G admitted that our daughter's new television had an excellent picture.  Ours did not.  Same brand.  Only larger.  The difference
between 32 inches and 39.

I am absolutely distressed when G brings home something he is very keen on having and I don't like it. I want to like it for his sake and have often just gone along with his purchase--never really pleased with whatever it is but wanting to keep him happy.  But this time, no matter how I tried to make it work, I couldn't get past the headache.  And I was so looking forward to Downton.  I really have very simple needs. Even though G says I am very difficult to live with. I don't need extravagant things.  I make do with whatever I have as long as it functions properly.  Twenty years with a terrible fridge.  But it worked.  But I want whatever I LOOK at to be clear, in focus and not incorrectly colored. I enjoy seeing things clearly. And not stretched sideways to fill the screen.

That being said.  I am cranky, crabby and extremely fussy when things aren't going my way or just don't "feel" right.  I have bought and returned any number of lovely things that did not make me happy.  Or didn't function properly.  Or really had no place in my life when I had them in front of me, at home.  I have returned jobs because I knew going to work "there" would make me more miserable than I could stand to be.  I tried to return my new husband after a week of marriage.