Banana cake heaven

My friend Sara makes this wonderful Banana cake. I made some last weekend for a potluck. It's great by itself, without any frosting. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it would also be fabulous with peanut butter frosting. I've yet to make more, but my tastebuds are hungry for it.

Sara’s Banana Cake

1/2 c oil
1.5 c sugar
2 egg yolks
1 c milk
1 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c mashed banana
2 c sifted flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Grease & flour 9x13 or equivalent pan. Cream oil & sugar & add egg yolks. Beat well. Add milk, lemon juice, vanilla & beat well. Add mashed bananas & dry ingredients. Stir until combined.

Bake 350F for 35-40 minutes.


Peanut Butter Frosting

5 TBSP butter, softened
1.5 c plus 2 TBSP confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c smooth peanut butter
2 to 5 TBSP 2 percent low-fat milk

To make frosting, mix butter & confectioners' sugar with an electric mixer. Add vanilla & peanut butter & beat well. Add 2 TBSP milk slowly, beating with a mixer until very creamy. Add up to 3 additional TBSP milk if necessary to achieve desired consistency.

PB&J

I have no idea why, but this video struck me as greatly amusing.

I'm not a great fan of PB&J sandwiches, and if I have one, I generally like to dunk it in a glass of milk. One way I really like PB&J is in french toast. Yes, french toast. I take my slice of bread, spread peanut butter on it, then some jam, then slap another slice of bread on it, dip the whole thing in the eggy batter, and fry. It makes the PB&J kinda warm and melty, and is just yummy.

Crust Topped Broccoli Cheese Bake

Yesterday I was trying to figure out what food to make this weekend. I found a Kraft food & family magazine, plus a couple other recipes sitting here by the computer. In looking through the food & family, I found the recipe for Crust Topped Broccoli Cheese Bake. It sounded kinda good. Fred Meyers also had broccoli on sale this week, so it sounded even better.

Thanks to Kraft, I found a good recipe with easy ingredients. I'm not into the prepackaged everything to make meals, so I used fresh broccoli, fairly finely chopped, lightly steamed, and added plain cream cheese and homegrown chives to the mix. Turned out quite well... (though next time maybe I'll try making my own puff pastry)


variation of Kraft food's
Crust Topped Broccoli Cheese Bake

8-oz. cream cheese, softened
2-3 TBSP chopped fresh chives
1 can (10-3/4 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup, low sodium
1 cup water
5 cups finely chopped fresh broccoli
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 thawed frozen puff pastry sheet (1/2 of 17.3-oz. pkg.)
oil, to brush over the top of the puff pastry

Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly steam broccoli, so it's still just crisp but warmed. Mix cream cheese, chives, soup and water until well blended. Stir in broccoli and cheddar cheese. Spoon into 2-1/2- to 3-qt. shallow baking dish.

Roll pastry sheet on lightly floured surface to fit baking dish. Cover dish completely with pastry. Press pastry edges against rim of dish to seal. Brush entire surface lightly with oil; pierce with knife five to six times to vent.

Bake 30 min. or until heated through and pastry is puffed and golden brown.

Original recipe found here

Vay-cay-shun!

So it's still a few months off, but we've got tickets -

Depart: our hometown at 8:30 am
Arrive: Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos, Mexico at 5:31 pm

Hoorah!

Argh

At work, my phone rings, I answer: "Hello, this is --"

Lady who called: "Oh, hello is [my boss] available?"

me: "No, I'm sorry, he's out. Can I give him a message?"

Lady: "oh, well, I'm from blah blah blah and blah blah... Um, can I put you on hold for a minute?"

me: "uhh, sure"

Seriously, one of my biggest pet peeves at work is that people call ME, then ask if they can put ME on hold. Like I have nothing better to do than wait around, phone to my ear, to find out why it was they called me?