Thursday, April 23, 2009

Seriously y'all (plus banana nut bread)

Save Chuck.



I love this show and the season (series?) finale is this coming Monday and NBC still hasn't committed to renewing it. And so the fans are mobilizing. And it's getting lots of press. Lots and lots and lots. (And apparently this is all Jay Leno's fault for eating up 5 hours of primetime television, and from here going forward, no one under the age of 60 will watch NBC at 10/9 central.)

So this is the wee part I'm doing. If you're a fan, blog or twitter or send a good old fashioned letter or whatever it is you feel moved to do. And if you're not, if it gets renewed, promise you'll start watching this fall. It will be the bee's knees. I mean, the last couple of episodes have featured Chevy Chase and Scott Bakula. Scott Bakula folks!! You know, Quantum Leap? Dr. Sam Becket?? Hoping that each leap would be the leap home? Oh, the little 12-year-old me just lived for that show. And now you can watch old episodes on Hulu. Yay!

As for the blog name change situation, I didn't get a lot of feedback (as expected). And what little I did get was pretty much 'keep it as is,' so I suppose I will, for now. If it begins to seem as though I will always and forever be keeping Austin weird from afar (as it already does), then I'll change it. Maybe I'll give it another six months.

Wanted to finally share the banana nut bread recipe. I did make one for Easter, which stayed at my aunt and uncle's house, so I made another one last weekend and brought half to the office, where it was happily received.

You might remember the previous attempt to make banana nut bread with an unfamiliar recipe. Which prompted my seeking out this old family favorite. Like they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Maw Maw's Banana Nut Bread

¾ cup butter-flavored Crisco (no one ever said this was good for you)
2 ½ cups flour
1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 ¼ cup mashed ripe bananas
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
¾ cup nuts (we prefer pecans)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together in a big bowl. Pour into a greased and floured bread pan. Bake in 350 degree oven 45 to 50 minutes or until bread springs back when touched (or toothpick comes out dry).



It's strange, making this as many times as I have over the last six months, how many questions I have. I wish I could just watch her make it once, you know? How ripe did she like the bananas? When mixing, is there a certain order she likes things added in? How well should it be mixed? Just til it comes together? Or beaten for a bit? How much does she pack the brown sugar? And etc. Unfortunately, I was 11 when she died, and didn't share her love of baking as much then. But now I think we'd enjoy a day of baking and crocheting together. Perhaps someday.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe you should replace the pecans with chocolate chips?

Courtney said...

This recipe sounds delish and right up my alley!!

Thanks for the 'official' introduction, though I know we've 'met' several times before :) I couldn't help but laugh when you wrote that you're living vicariously through me because your life sounds pretty darn fabulous!

By the way, maybe I can fix your permanently single woos. Dear friend of ours lives in Dallas now, but is one heck of a guy. Knew him from high school and later ran into him in college when he was my now-husband' roommate! xx

tierd said...

YUM - that bread looks great. I need to try that recipe for sure. Thanks for sharing it! I can imagine having the same questions if it were my grandmother's recipe. There are so many things I wish I could go back and ask her about!