Thursday, June 25, 2009

Recipe Thursday: Banana Sour Cream Cake

Banana Sour Cream Cake
Kraft Foods.com and Jenny Lorentzon

I'll post a picture after my birthday, as my plan is to make this as my birthday cake. Either that, or beg Jenny to make it since she asked what she could do for my birthday party. ;-)

Ingredients

1 pkg yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup oil (I used applesauce)
8 oz pkg cream cheese; softened (I used reduced fat)
1/2 cup softened butter
16 oz pkg powdered sugar, about 4 cups
1 cup chopped walnut pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat cake mix, eggs, banana, sour cream and oil (applesauce) with mixer on low speed. Then beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured 13x9 pan (I used two 9" round pans). Bake 35 minutes. Cool completely.
3. Beat cream cheese and butter w/mixer on medium until blended. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition.
3. Remove cake from pan. Cut in half crossways (this is if you use the big pan, why would you do this?) Spread top w/frosting, top with other cake, frost top and sides. Press nuts into sides.
4. Refridgerate leftovers if you somehow haven't pigged out and eaten the whole thing.

Seriously folks, this cake is freakin' incredible, and I know bananas, and this is banana-riffic!
I also think this would work really well as cupcakes with nuts on top. Yummy yum yummy!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

So Many Things...

Usually my life seems boring, even to me. But lately, Mircea and I have been keeping busy with friends, time on the boat, the kitties, and a little Star Trek. We're also planning our first party, which is hilarious. I'm a nervous nelly over the whole thing (or as my friend Ben says "panicky jane") and I'm panicking about the layout of the food, drink, house, games, etc. I just want to get the flow right. "where does the keg go?" "where does the ping (beer) pong table go?" "is everyone going to want to hang out in our unfinished basement?" I've finally got the menu figured out, and I've selected some fantastic jello shot recipes. Does this party sound really immature? Well, that's the point. It's a "Return to College" Party to celebrate my 29th birthday this Saturday. I thought it would be kind of fun to do all the goofy stuff we did in college (or didn't b/c we were too busy studying or dating non-drinking guys who judged every sip of alcohol you ever took) so Mircea and I are donning Togas and having our friends over for a night of immature fun. A menu that includes a Ramen noodle salad, pizza rolls, and Doritos just can't go wrong right?

On a disappointing note, I'm still waiting to get test results back on Little Fernie. My baby has been losing weight lately and I sort of thought she was just thinning out in her old age. She's 10 this year, but as she is my baby, I expected her to live...forever. Lily is also sick, with her little back legs letting her down and not affording her much mobility. Yukon is suprisingly doing really well right now, and we have a daily argument over his plan of the day. He wants to spend the day in the garage, making a mess and peeing on Daddy's tools. We want him in our upstairs bathroom, on linoleum, peeing in his litter box and sleeping in his little blue bed. Every morning he gets carried up the stairs, swishing his tail and whining. It's actually quite adorable, and his little grumbles are so darned cute too. Why is torturing him fun? Really, I don't feel bad b/c as soon as we get up the stairs he sees his little feather toy and gets so happy so he just has a bad memory.

Ok, crappy update, but I'll let you know how the party goes!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Recipe Thursday: Mashed Cheese Potatoes

Mashed Cheese Potatoes

Ingredients

4-5 large potatoes
1-2 green onions, chopped (whites and some greens)
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Butter, salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 300

1. Peel and cook potatoes
2. Drain and add the 3 cheese (cream, parmesan, cheddar) and mash
3. Add butter salt and pepper to taste
4. Add green onion
5. Place potato mixture in a greased casserole dish and sprinkle with paprika
6. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour, covered

This was my favorite way to eat mashed potatoes as a kid. My friend's mom made these and my family fell in love. I usually make these at Easter.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Recipe Thursday: Horseradish Spiked Red Potato Salad

Horseradish Spiked Red Potato Salad
Gluten Free Goddess

Ingredients

2-2 1/2 lbs small red potatoes
sea salt
1/4 C fruit tasting olive oil
4-6 T apple cider or rice vinegar
1 small red onion, finely diced,
2 T prepared horseradish
2 T fresh chopped parsley
1-2 t dill
1 t caraway seeds

Ingredients

1. Boil skin on cubed potatoes until fork tender. Drain wel.
2. Pour in large bowl. While pototoes are still warm, add the ingredients and toss to coat. Serve warm.

This was really really good. I've made it a couple of times and I think I added a lot more horseradish. Yummy Yummy!

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Tiny Little Update

I've been so busy at work this week that I want to scream. I'm that level of busy where you actually aren't getting anything done because you're just trying to chip away at little things and then something else gets placed on your desk. To top it off, everyone else in management is on leave, and since I'm third in line, well, I just went to the front of the class, so I'm attending all the b.s. meetings etc, while I try to catch up from a week out in training and plan for two additional weeks in training to get my logistics certification. Oh joy of joys. I totally phoned in my pre-work assignment for that and I feel a little guilty, but between every other deadline at the office something had to suffer and it certainly wasn't going to be my every day responsibility to the Fleet. So pllllfttt stupid training class.

I started the P90X system this week. Yes, it seems I'm always starting some sort of new exercise or challenge and rarely finishing it. I think the important thing to takeaway is that I keep starting. :-) P90x is definitely one of the most challenging things I have ever done and it often reminds me how out of shape I am, but there are a lot of modifications that I can make and as I grow stronger I can build into the more difficult work. The only downside to this thing is that you have to work for it. Har har. It's at least an hour a day, with the yoga class clocking in at 90 minutes. I was trying to do it when I got home, but I was just too darned hungry, tired, busy on the other house, [insert excuse here] to be motivated, so I started getting up at 5 to get it done. I will not, however, get up at 4:30 to get the yoga done so I am going to save that one for the evenings and just go to work early that day, which is what I did today and it was great to get there at 6 and get my work done.

Man my life is boring. The most exciting thing I've done all week is have banana flavored yogurt when I went to Bruster's ice cream for the first time today. I was proud of myself because everyone else got this really decadent stuff, but my heart belongs to bananas and my waistline needs the yogurt. I saved about 20 grams of fat according to the nutritional information and my thighs thank me.

Oh, I did get a haircut and I will not be sharing pictures because I HATE IT. HATE IT. It's just not working at all for me, but it has proven my point that I do actually have fairly curly hair and the thickness of my hair sort of weighs it down, making it look straight. Not now boys and girls. I have crazy curl everywhich way on my head (every way but adorable spirals) and yet the front of my hair is really straight...in one word TERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIBLE! I've got a time line...6 months: mullet, 1 year, back where I started. Next time, remind me that I went in there for a trim and only decided to go for a new style because I was paying so much.

Wow, tiny turned into jumbo, but oh well, I needed an outlet so I don't actually scream out loud.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Movie Review: Changeling

Rating: ***** (5 stars, baby!)

When I saw the previews for this movie I was intrigued. The basic premise of this movie is that a single mother (Angelina Jolie) goes to work, leaving her young son home alone, and returns to an empty home. She waits for weeks to hear any news about her missing child, and suddenly is contacted that her boy has been found. Of course she is elated, but she shows up at the train station only to be greeted by a young boy who is not her child. She vehemently denied that this was her son, but was told she had to take him as he had no where else to go. The LAPD basically coherced her into keeping the child, giving her a million reasons why she was crazy and that the boy was really hers. She continued to deny it and was placed in a sanitarium until she would agree that the child was hers. She wouldn't, and she stayed put until a pastor that she was aquainted with got her out of jail. I won't go into further details because I definitely recommend this movie and don't want to completely spoil it for those that are interested. The movie was based on a true story, and also stars sexy as hell Jeffrey Donovan from Burn Notice (which I've never seen, but would totally watch b/c he's so good looking). For more information on the true story, click here.