It's Here!

My Southern Living magazine.

Can I just tell you how much joy that gives me? I open my mail box and give a little squeal of joy when I see that shiny new Southern Living mag sitting there all nice and pretty! It's like a present from my Southern roots.

I love it. I really, really love it!

I love the travel tips. The endless travel tips. They span the South. It's fantastic. I have a running list of all the places that I now must go.

Even though I don't garden (I have this issue with remembering to feed and water plants... what? that's God's job. don't judge me.) I love the gardening section. It's nice to know what plants and flowers to plant in what section of the South. And seeing what really, super-freaking talented gardening people can do with their backyards is enough to make me think about running out to a lawn and garden place.... for a minute.

I dream about the lovely Southern Living floor plans. And I love reading about the interesting people and places.

But the food..... oh, the food. My heart belongs to the food. I cannot even begin to describe the joy, THE JOY of reading through the recipes and gleefully working them into the dinner rotation. Pure Joy.

It's kinda like grasping this piece of my past- my family comes from Texas and Alabama. We're the South. The women who came before me were the South. And when I read through my Southern Living magazine, I remember that, I am too.

I Remembered Today, Does That Count?

First things first!

Burgers-

85/15 fat. It's a must. Deal with it. And beef~ at least for these suggestions. And I mean it about the fat content. Anytime you make a burger with beef, 85/15 people.

Spicy Ranch Burger

1 lb ground beef
1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch
a hearty dose of your favorite hot sauce (NOT salsa! there is a dif. peeps.)
shredded Gouda cheese

Mix it all together in a big bowl. Let it marinate, covered, in the fridge for an hour or two. Form into 4 patties and grill.

Makes 4 burgers.

Blue Cheese Burgers

1 lb ground beef
hot sauce
Worcestershire sauce
blue cheese crumbles
salt
pepper

Same directions as above.

Now, on to the bread.

It's your basic banana bread recipe.... tweaked
2 cups flour
3/4 cups white sugar (though I cut back just a touch on this)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 salt
4 bananas; mashed
1/4 cup milk- nonfat works best, I think
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 & a little more brown sugar
..... and chocolate chips

Oven to 350.
Coat an 8-inch loaf pan to prevent a sad ending to a promising start. In a medium bowl, combine your dry (I'm including the sugars) ingredients and mix it well. In a large bowl (and I do mean large, if you are even the slightest bit as messy as I am) peel and mash your bananas. Add the milk, eggs & vanilla and mix to combine. Add the stuff in the medium bowl to the large bowl. Mix it up, baby.

Now.... the good part. Add your chocolate chips. I'm not going to tell you how much to add. It all depends on if you want Chocolate Chip Banana Bread or Banana Chocolate Chip Bread! :-)

Fold Them in.

Bake until a toothpick comes out almost clean. About 1 hour. Let it cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan and letting it cool completely on the rack.

Slice and Enjoy!

A Miracle, I Tell You

Something amazing happened last night.

(You're all a tremble with anticipation, I know.)

I actually got to watch Army Wives when it aired and not on the DVR 2 days later!

.............
I know, I know. This may not sound like such an amazing thing when you consider all the world's problems like famine, plagues, humidity, Democrats- but, in my world, it is! It really is! I watch tv by the dvr. It's kinda pathetic, really.

I never. ever. get. to . watch. my. shows. when. they. first. air. EVER.

That's the life of a mom. In the olden days (when all we had were cassette tapes and the slogan "Be Kind Rewind" ruled our lives) one had to remember to put a tape into the VCR and set the timer to record. I do recall having several different shows smashed on one tape.... as a matter of fact, I think I still have some of those tapes under my bed... hmmm.

Anyway, back to my story. Last night, the young tot had his milk, was rocked for a few minutes by his mother and tucked into his crib.... all before 8:50pm! I scurried into my room (yes, I scurried, I'm not ashamed), giddy as a school girl & watched my show. It was glorious I tell you.

In other news, I tried out a new banana/chocolate chip bread I've been tinkering with for a while on Saturday. It's very chocolate-y. Possibly, the chocolate chips need to be cut back, but other than that- yummy! Oh, and I have a couple of burger recipes for you. Yes, I said burgers. Jump back! I know. For the well being of my father (my aversion to compacted meat patties greatly disturbs the man) I have been trying to conquer this. I figure, what the hay? I'm almost 30. Might as well. I'll try and remember :-) to throw those up on the bloggie tomorrow.

Until Then-
Peace Out InterPeeps!

Just Horrible I Tell You....

Let me explain.

I have a love for cupcakes. And fried chicken. And fried pickles. And chicken fried chicken. And ding-dongs (the food, not people). And candy bars. And greasy spoon food.

To put it simply, I was raised by good ol' southern people who cooked good ol' southern food when I was going up. You know, food that keeps cardiologists in business.

As I have approached my 30th year with whiplash speed, I've tried to take a more zen-like (what was zen like?) approach to what I put into my poor little body. I take vitamins. I drink lots of water. And, I try and eat cleanly.

What does that mean, you ask? You just try and eat without making a mess, BloggerGiRl, you inquire?

No... well, yes. But that's not what I mean. I eat more veggies. More salads. When I eat meat, it's chicken or fish with beef every once in a while. Fried foods are a rare thing in my tummy. Heavily fatty foods are minimized- I try and go for the "good fats." And, yes, I like eating this way. I do. I really do.

But.

Oh, the shame.....

I ate a Central Market cupcake the other day.... and it happened. That thing that others said might happen- it actually made me feel bad. My body didn't like it. The week before it didn't like the fried chicken we had for dinner either. I'm so upset. It's horrible, I tell you.

But I will cling to my fried green tomatoes and my fried pickles! I will never give them up! Never!

A Most Useless Post (But there is some substance)

It's true, I don't have much to say today. Sad, I know. I have been trying, desperately, to find some pithy topic that I could chat about.... but, I got nothing.

::sigh::

Oh, here's something- In Houston, Texas a little girl was given detention for a week for being in possession of a Jolly Rancher. The brazen little huzzy. Apparently in the new craze for health in fitness we've decided to steer into the crazy skid in my beloved home state.

I mean, come on.

I get the whole "let's not sell junk food & crap to kids at school" thing. (Cause, if you put a vending machine in a school, the little punks will eat from it.... I know this. I was a tried & true coke/chips/snickers girl for lunch for years.) But if candy or something is brought from home- wtf? Who cares? This little girl was given the candy by another kid.... I'm kinda surprised that kid wasn't charged with being a dealer. (only half joking.... sadly.)

Let's see. What else? Army Wives is back on. Yea! That makes me happy. Now, I just have to wait for July & The Closer will be back on. Why do I care?- hehe, Mary McDonnell will be in several eppys (double Yipppees!) & we all know she's my acting hero. I'll watch her in anything... in fact, I did (I'm looking at you Sneakers!). That movie sucked.

If you're not watching Parenthood on nbc, you should be. Just sayin'. And since we're conversing about television- Stargate Universe? Don't even bother. It really wishes it were something other ::cough:: Battlestar Galactica ::cough:: than what it really is and it's kinda sad to watch. In fact, I have stopped. Caprica, on the other hand. Good. Not great- but good. Yes, we all know what happens, but the ride to get there has & is quite interesting. (the whole secret to prequels... are you listening Star Wars & X-Men???)

Hmmm. What else can I ramble on about? I really got nothing this time. Oh well.
Have a lovely rest of your Mother's Day weekend! Go call your mom!
L8tr!