Sorry, we have no bananas

I am a fan of banana bread, and we happened to have 3 bananas sitting on our counter just asking to be made into banana bread (aka, we had 3 bananas that neither of us had eaten and that had started turning brown). My tried and true banana bread recipe is actually a vegan recipe and is quite delicious. I've probably made it a dozen times over the last four years. It also fools me into thinking it's somewhat good for me because it contains wheat germ.

Today I decided to try something new and made some Chocolate Banana Bread courtesy of AllRecipes.com. I just ate a piece as dessert for dinner, and I must say it might beat out my tried and true recipe for the best banana bread ever. It's pretty heavy on the chocolate taste, and therefore kind of rich, so I can't picture myself making it all the time, but it will definitely be added into the banana bread rotation.

Chocolate Banana Bread
NOTE: The recipe on All Recipes makes 2 loaves. I halved the recipe, and used half white sugar and half brown sugar. Otherwise the recipe is unchanged.


1/2 cup margarine, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3 bananas, mashed
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup lite sour cream
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together margarine, sugar and eggs. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking soda and cocoa; mix well. Blend in sour cream and chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean.

Acorn Squash Soup w/Pasta

Fall is not entirely upon us, at least not yet. With temperatures in the upper 70's today, I found myself wishing the weather was a little cooler. I want it to be cool and crisp and sunny, not it's-so-hot-I'm-constantly-sweating sunny. I want to curl up with a warm cup of coffee and a good book. I want steaming hot, warm-you-on-the-inside soup.

So today I decided if fall won't come to me, I'll come to fall. Soup was in order, and lucky for me I had two acorn squashes handy from the farm share. This recipe turned out to be quick and easy, especially with being able to use the handy-dandy immersion blender. I would highly recommend this recipe if you've got some winter squash you don't quite know what to do with.

Acorn Squash Soup w/ Pasta



8 ounces pasta
2 acorn squash (medium size), split, seeded and quartered
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup grated carrot
1 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
3 cans (13 1/4 oz size) chicken broth

Topping
1 cup sour cream or yogurt
1 tbsp sugar

1. Cook squash in one inch of water in covered saucepan for 15 minutes, or until tender. Cool. Scrape out pulp and put back in pot with water.
2. Add margarine, onion, carrots, sugar, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon. Cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook until vegetables are tender.
3. Add 3 cups of the broth and puree all in a blender or food processor (or even better, use your immersion blender). Return to the pot and add remaining broth, bring to a boil and add uncooked pasta.
4. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, or until pasta is done.
   
5. Before serving, blend sour cream or yogurt and sugar in a separate bowl. Put dollop on top of each bowl of soup. Serve hot.

I heart vegetables

The other day I was checking my bank balance and I became confused when I saw a check for $250 on my statement. These days I never, ever write checks. Pretty much the only checks I write are to Steven for my “rent” (aka, my share of Steven’s mortgage), and that is definitely more than $250 a month. Then I remembered that I had the brilliant idea, like every other young yuppie in Madison, to join a CSA, and that the check I had sent off the farm at the beginning of March had been cashed. Yes, I am the proud owner of a half-share in a farm located in Belmont, WI.

I knew that I wanted to join a CSA this summer, but I also know Steven and me, and we have a tendency to get busy and let our produce go bad. From what I’ve read about farm shares, I knew a full share was going to be way, way too much produce for the two of us. I did a lot of research about what my options were. Living in Madison makes this an incredibly easy thing to do. All I had to do was go to the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition (MACSAC) and find the list of farms participating. I knew that I definitely wanted a farm that had half-shares, and that would also have a convenient location for us to pick up the goods. I narrowed my choices down to one or two farms and decided that Two Onions Farms was my best bet. So every other week from June to November, Steven and I will be swinging by Atlas Deli on Whitney Way to pick up our share.

I cannot wait to have a bunch of awesome, locally grown produce to use in my kitchen. No more staring at the disgusting selection of produce available at the Pick ‘n Save, not knowing where the hell it came from (my best guess is probably somewhere I don’t want to know the details about). Instead I know that it will come from Belmont, from people who care.

Last summer I also built myself a little garden bed in the backyard to grow some of my own vegetables. It had a less than stellar turn out, but I blame that on the fact that I bought my plants way before I was ready to put them in the ground and I seriously stunted my peppers by doing so. My two tomato plants did wonderfully, and my basil plant also did very well. This summer I think I’m going to grow my herbs in containers on the deck and reserve the garden bed for tomatoes, peppers, radishes, carrots, and salad greens. I have to build some sort of contraption to keep the birds away from my salad greens because they definitely had a field day with those last year. I’m hoping that I learn from my mistakes this time around, and therefore this year will have the awesomest vegetable garden on the street. This will probably be pretty easy, since I think it’s the only vegetable garden on the street.

My other produce/garden related goal for the summer is to get a compost bin going. I have no excuse not to. I just need to figure out what will work best for me and Steven.

Seriously, Spring and Summer? Get here as fast as you can! Love, Julia.

Aarf aarf

I woke up this morning not very pleased to find that it had started snowing. I tried not to believe what the weather people were saying. I think they make it up most of the time these days. Yesterday afternoon Steven and I took a long, invigorating walk after work. It had been a bright sunny day, and for once we felt motivated to actually do something. My poor little brain can’t even fathom how we got 6 freaking inches of snow less than 24 hours later, on Good Friday of all days. I know that Easter is obscenely early this year and every thing, but this is ridiculous. Seriously, Mother Nature better make this up to me big time this summer.

Lately I’ve been feeling bad at how I let this winter get the best of me. Granted I’ve never before seen this much snow in my lifetime, I still feel like I could have done things that would have helped me enjoy it more, or at least not despise it so much. I didn’t go cross country skiing once this winter, nor did I get any snowshoeing in. That’s just pathetic considering the amount of snow we had. I am at least partly proud of myself for going to a night hike again this winter. The weather wasn’t as great as it could have been (too much cloud cover), but it was still good to get out and get moving for one brief moment this winter.

I think that’s why I feel so disappointed at the moment. I fell for the spring tease. You would think after living in Wisconsin all my life, I wouldn’t fall for that shit any more, but then you would think wrong my friend. The tease at least did get me thinking about moving again, and I went for quite a few walks this week and even got some strength training in again. My poor muscles haven’t been the most cooperative, but I can hardly blame them because they were rarely ever exerted this winter.

Spring has also really made me want a dog. I grew up in a dog family, and now that I live in a house and am a little bit older and more settled, the time is right for a dog. I think a dog would help me stay active and that we could do a lot of fun things together. I would need to take the dog for a walk before and after work. I would need to take it to obedience class. I would need to take it to the dog park to socialize with other dogs. It would force me into at least getting out of the house, if not get me into new situations, meeting new people. It’s always easier to talk to people about their pets. Everyone can agree that pets are awesome.

I’m not so sure Steven is completely convinced that now is the right time for a dog, but I’m slowly bringing him around to my point of view. I can hardly resist the dogs on the Humane Society page at the moment, and I have been torturing him with their pictures all day. I’m going to have to try really hard not to go there tomorrow and scoop one of them up right away. Of course, I need to do a little more research. You know, find out where the dog parks are around this town, figure out which kind of breed would be good for me, find a kennel close by for when we go on vacation; that kind of stuff. Soon though, soon I hope to the proud owner of a shelter dog.

Bah, hambug!

It is official, I hate Christmas.

As a child I loved Christmas. I loved helping my Mom unpack all our Christmas decorations and carefully arrange them around the house. I loved listening to Christmas music, particularly the Muppet Christmas Album with John Denver. I loved watching the same Christmas movies year after year: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Scrooged, A Christmas Story, A Charlie Brown Christmas. And I loved the gift exchange; both the giving and receiving part.

That is gone, all gone now. I despise it and want nothing to do with it. Oh sure, I'll buy gifts for my family but instead of taking the time to carefully orchestrate some fantastic present they'll love, they're getting gift cards and booze.

As an aside, I love my family. This is the conversation I had with my brother yesterday:

ME:

Seriously, Steve and I don't want anything. Do you guys want stuff? Because we'll get you stuff if you want it, but I would prefer not to exchange gifts.

Wait, do you think that would upset Mom and Dad, if we rejected Christmas? Well, what would you guys want?

BROTHER:

Well, I was kind of thinking along the lines of booze.

ME:

Perfect. Steve and I like booze, therefore we will exchange gifts of booze. We will come over to your apartment after Christmas dinner, and we will drink the booze that we have exchanged.


I've tried, really I have, to get into the Christmas spirit but I can't. I've tried to watch the movies and listen to the music, but it doesn't stir one iota of feeling up in me other than that of disgust.

I'm not entirely sure where this hatred of Christmas has stemmed from on my part. It's partly because I've been really busy the last few months, so I almost feel like I don't have the time for it. I just want it to be over and done with. Another factor is the rampant consumerism. That is just not where my priorities are at this point in my life. Stuff does not make you happy. Well, some stuff like booze, and good food, and yarn can make you happy, but having the latest and greatest thing that every advertiser says you need to have does not a happy person make. Relationships with people, now that's where happiness comes from. I would much prefer to cook an awesome Christmas dinner for my family while having good, meaningful conversation than have any amount of gifts or money. I am just so beyond that and for that I am thankful. I guess the other part is that we're not religious, so the day itself really holds no meaning for me. The thing is, for even the people who claim they are religious, that's not what the day is about anymore either. Christmas makes people crazy. It puts all sorts of pressure on people, and before you know it your beating down some other parent for the last toy on the shelf. Where is the peace and joy and love in that?

The only thing good about Christmas will be seeing my friends and family that I don't get to see as often as I'd like. I just hate all this Christmas crap I have to put up with to get there. Really, I just want these last 10 days to go quickly so that every thing can get back to normal. I like my world surly, thank you very much.