yak

Banana Bread Recipe

I was looking through some old files and noticed this Banana Bread recipe. This is a recipe that I've used for a while, and the bread is super tasty. I don't remember where I got it, so I'm sorry I can't give proper credit to the creator.

Banana Bread
o 3 overripe bananas
o 1/2 cup milk
o 1/4 cup oil
o 1 TB vanilla
o 2 eggs
o 3/4 cup sugar
o 3/4 cup brown sugar
o 1 tsp cinnamon
o 1tsp baking soda
o 1/4 tsp baking powder
o 1/2 tsp salt
o 2 cups flour
o 1/2 cup nuts of your choice

In a bowl mix together sugars, baking soda, baking powder, salt, & cinnamon. Add bananas and mash them into the sugar mixture completely with a fork.

Add vanilla, milk, and oil and eggs and mix completely. Once the mixture is blended mostly smooth, add flour and mix thoroughly.

Pour into nonstick or greased baking dish.

For bread pan bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees F and check for firmness and doneness with a toothpick. Continue to bake and check at 5 minute intervals until toothpick comes out clean.

For cake pan bake for 45 minutes until firm and toothpick comes out clean.

As a variation, top with your favorite crumb cake topping before baking.

A bridesmaid at last!

Yippee! I'm going to be a bridesmaid! I've known this for a few weeks now, but today, I got an email from the bride, my good friend Jenny, with some details. Check it, here is the dress she has picked:
http://www.jcrew.com/catalog/product.jhtml?id=prod63101681&catId=cat75802

How cute is that? It's versatile, tasteful, and cheap for a bridesmaid's dress. Oh, and it'll be in white. She's such a rebel. This will be my first time EVER to be a bridesmaid, and I'm actually looking forward to it. I suppose it helps knowing that Jenny will have everything planned beautifully. She is very crafty, so I'm sure she'll come up with great ideas and not go overboard into the extravagant side of things. She makes her own cards using the "Stamp It!" stuff, and they look fantastic. I hope she makes her own invitations.

What I'm not clear on is the duties of a bridesmaid. What am I responsible for? I'd like to give her something special or do something special for her. However, I'm not in Houston and won't be around much to hang with her. So, I'm struggling to get ideas.

Another Sunny October Weekend

Just when you though winter was here, London surprises you with another superb weekend full of sun and good weather. This morning, however, was a bit foggy (and no, that is not common). Luckily, it's almost 11 AM and the sun has come out to play! Here are a couple of photos of Trafalgar Square from this weekend.

The statue of the nude above is a recent addition to Trafalgar Square. Here is an article from BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4247000.stm

Btw, the last post I wrote saying that I got LASIK, but there was a photo of me with glasses... well, that was a pre-LASIK photos from July, I think. I got LASIK at the end of July. Woohoo!

Borough Market

Hi there! I know, it's been a long time (July 20, 2005) since I last wrote. But that's nothing new.

I went back to Austin at the end of July and got LASIK. It rocks! I strongly recommend it. The entire procedure takes about 10 minutes, 5 minutes per eye. After leaving the LASIK center, I went home and took a 4 hour nap. When I woke up, I could see! Amazing! Then you have a couple weeks of eye drops you have to apply. The result differs from person to person. Some people end up with better than 20/20 and others get close to 20/20. My flaps healed quickly and I have 20/20 now.

Lately, Ryan and I have enjoyed going to the Borough Market on Saturday mornings. It's an outdoor market that is covered by the railways in the South Bank. Since we live on the South Bank, we just walk along the South Bank from the London Eye to the London Bridge. It is a good 20-30 minute walk. The Borough Market is a fresh food market. Mostly local farmers with their meats and produce setup shop there. In addition, a few cooked food stands offer delicious lamb burgers, baked breads, organic coffees, vegan burgers, etc. Ryan's favorite is the chorizo and rocket sandwich. I've picked up a freshly made falafel before, but I don't crave it the way Ryan desires that chorizo sandwich. Besides buying some fresh produce from the local farmers, everytime we go to Borought Market, I would pick up a few sausages from a local butcher and make Ryan guess what flavor it is. There's a tantamount of sausage flavours. I have picked a morrocan mint and lamb sausage, a chianti and pork sausage, an apple and pork sausage, a traditional cumberland sausage, and a pheasant and venison sausage.

There is a coffee company that we really enjoy, the Monmouth Coffee Company. They use interesting coffee beans and local organic milk. I've seen them pour the milk in and it looks like it just came from the cow. It wasn't until we found them at Borough Market that we realized their original store is in Covent Garden, near the Seven Dials and Neal's Yard area --- a place we have visited often for two years.

We went there today and bought a few apples, pears, cucumbers, and salad mix from the shop Ryan is standing in front of in the picture below, Turnips Distributing. We shared a latte from the Monmouth. Ryan got a cheese from Mrs. Bourne's Mature Chesire. I picked a few sausages from the Sillfield Farm.