Rotting Bananas

Are actually delicious. When you cover them in butter, flour, and sugar bake them into bread that is.
I have a recipe that I always fall back on when making banana bread. It's super moist, and not as dense as others that I have tried. It's adapted from a recipe I found years ago, and I always add in whatever I have lying around the house. This time it was booze, chocolate, applesauce, and raisins. I'm not sure what that says about me...

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 heaping tablespoon ground cinnamon 
• handful of raisins (I soaked these in whiskey and a bit of hot water to plump them up before adding them)
• 1 cup(ish) of applesauce. I wasn't exact. I just dumped some in. 
• handful of chocolate chips
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.Add the applesauce.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until just combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.(This is actually important, I've found. Don't over beat it at this point)

Pour half of the batter into prepared pan, add some of the raisins and the chocolate chips. Add the rest of the batter and the rest of the raisins and chocolate chips. Stir a bit with a spoon. This keeps all of the goodies from sinking to the bottom.
Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes.
If you can wait till the next day to eat it, it gets better.

Mother Nature is a Whore

Tomorrow is the 32nd annual Wurstfest in Hermann Missouri... which is outdoors.
There we eat potato pancakes, watch the wiener dog derby, and drink wine.
Today it snowed about 4 inches and it's still coming down.
How much wine will I have to drink to quit caring how cold it is?

Well. Shit.

The purpose of this blog is perspective. My head is often full of hard to comprehend emotions. Sometimes I need a place to work through whatever it is on my mind less it devours me up. Every now and again I talk about things that make people uncomfortable, and really, I’m okay with that. I try to be respectful of other people and all that bullshit, but at the end of the day this is for me. If you read this, you’re just along for the ride. Seatbelts are mandatory. I also change the stations obsessively and I’m not apologizing. With that in mind, I’ve never had the source of my writing actually read my words.

Manchild knows that I blog, but he has zero interest in wanting to read what I’m writing. If it’s not political pandering of some sort, he could care less. If I wrote about Sarah Palin it might catch his eye... but only if it gave him the opportunity to be angry about something. Dachshunds, fuckery, and my disastrous shenanigans aren’t on his entertainment spectrum. After all, he lives with me. He hears me talk about this stuff obsessively on a day to day basis. I can’t say that I blame him for not wanting to read about it as well.


But, I feel awkward knowing that some people read this. Know parts of my life I haven't got to go through the details in person with them. That we have that uncomfortable silence where I'm wondering what they know, and they're wondering what I haven't shared. Then we're dealing with that middle ground, where I never fair well. Sigh. Not that I'm a shy person, by any means. But, you know. Well, you know.

Illinoisssssss

We woke up at dawn and headed to the Shawnee National Forest today, and had one hell of a time. Every fall and spring we take the two hour drive down there for the biannual snake migration. That area has a pretty unique little ecosystem going for it. If you're a bionerd like I am, you can read more about Snake Road here: https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=ohhl4rw8mbn4

We were lucky enough to spot 11 snakes, 4 of which were cotton mouths. We also got to witness some toads getting down.

So much fun.

Shit in My Backyard

It's been awhile since I posted any pictures, and I do apologize. My camera died sometime last year, and for some reason I have a real mental block when it comes to buying batteries. Tonight, for whatever reason, I totally remembered. I got to see some pictures that I took of some adorable wildlife in my backyard that I had forgotten about until now. One is a little set of twinlette deer who visited quite often over the summer last year.... the other is a groundhog we named Gary.  The photos were taken through the glass so they aren't stellar, but I dare you not to aawww when you see those deer.

 

I grew up in the country, and now I pretty much live in purgatory. Okay, a subdivision, whatever. I used to see nature all of the time out my back door before I moved out. Now, I get unnecessarily excited when I see wild things in my backyard. Even if they're pretty common critters around these parts, I still love seeing them. Here's hoping that the twins made it through the winter and Gary will come and see us again next year.

I'm heading to Shawnee Nature Reserve tomorrow with the Manchild and that one person that still needs to be properly introduced. I'll have my camera with me so look forward to something of interest. Also, look forward to some substance on Mr. Vague. I've been hesitant and careful with him so far because, well, I feel uncontrollably protective of him, and his time here is limited. Plus, I'm still working out what exactly he'd do with his hands...

Dancing? Me?

Internet, I've been busy lately. No, I mean it. Really really busy. I've had little time for much needed social interaction, and I've caught myself doing quite a bit of people watching. It's actually one of my favorite things to do, so I wont complain too much. But dang. It makes me crave... interaction. Due to this craving I've made a pact to myself. One time a week I'm going to do something that is fucking awesome.

In the Lou there is a pretty awesome dance scene on Thursday nights. I don't mean the bumpin' and grindin' hooha, but partner dancing. Not that bumpin' and grindin' doesn't need a partner, because you usually need a partner to do the grinding on, but the kind of partner dancing that requires a conversation between you and the person you're dancing with. Salsa dancing is what I've been doing a lot of, and internet, I can't deny it. I'm hooked. I adore everything about it. Mostly, I'm addicted to the conversation you have with your partner while dancing, when no actual words are said.  A little pressure on the back tells you to do a spin. A touch of the elbow, go faster. An arm around the waist to slow down. It's just the type of interaction I've needed from complete strangers.

Maybe I'm crazy but sometimes the blah blah blah drives me fucking, well, crazy. I'm tired of talking about myself, and hearing trite things about people I've just met. With dancing, I don't have to get to know the other person. I don't care about their politics, or their job, or really, about them at all. I don't even care what their name is. I just have to say yes, and give them my hand. It makes life so much simpler. We'll figure out the rest in the three minutes we're out there. Then we can really communicate in the way I know best.

So I started to think about other ways people talk without, you know, talking. This made me think about kissing, and that naturally led down the road of thinking about... hands? No, really now. I find myself spending way too much time thinking about what someone would do with their hands. Would they go for the nape of the neck? The small of the back? Shoulders? Hips? Face? Hands in my hair?

Yes, please.

Right. Sorry for that. Anyway. Back on target.

After trying this out for a while, I realized that I actually *like* some of the people there. These now strangers, I know, will become fast friends. I feel it.  And I want it Internet, I like them. So much. They are the missing link, the part in my life I'm craving. I know it from the bottom of my heart, like I've known few things before. Now it's just a matter of time. You watch.