Banana Bread

On Thursday I was craving banana bread. Dying for banana bread. But our bananas weren't ripe enough. I put them in a paper bag and waited (not very) patiently.
They probably could have ripened longer, but I couldn't take it anymore, and on Friday made a yummy, moist, absolutely delicious loaf.
Today my banana bread is almost gone! There are maybe three slices left. Why can't I have a never-ending banana bread loaf?

Anyway...! I thought I'd pass on the recipe. It's my gramma's and it's mighty delicious. Even if you have your own standard, try this one, and tell me what you think!


Gramma's Banana Bread Recipe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1/2 cup crisco (i used margarine)
1 cup sugar
3 mashed bananas (mash them with your hands like Gramma does)
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 level tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup warm water

Mix all the ingredients together, pour in a well-greased pan, and bake 1 hour (I had to add about 15 minutes) at 325 degrees. Voila!

Politico

I sent in my absentee ballot. It was exciting to vote for Mike Waltner/against Phil English.
I'm anxious to see how this one turns out.

Happy Easter

Today we tried to color eggs Martha Stewart style.
The recipe says to use an enamel or glass pot. Having neither of those (it's hard to buy everything you need in life all at once!), we thought maybe it would work to make a 'double-boiler' and put a glass bowl inside one of our non-stick pots. (Are you laughing yet?) Only a few minutes into it, we heard a snap and shielded our faces, but it appeared that nothing really happened. After about 30 minutes of the water inside the glass bowl refusing to boil, I gave in and went to the store to get a new pot. Ha. Upon returning with an enamel pot, the operation really got going. Markus transferred the eggs from the glass bowl into the pot and then picked the bowl up out of pot #1. Except it wasn't really a "bowl" anymore, it was a glass cylinder with two open ends. The rest of the bowl was separated by a very clean break and stuck to the bottom of the pot! Oi! At any rate, we just finished the eggs, and I'd have to say, given the circumstances, they turned out pretty well. Next year we'll know what kinds of prints and colors work, and which don't... all of that fancy stuff.

Midwifery

So I'm in a new place with no friends, no family, no job. So how do I spend my time?...
Reading blogs of course!
One day in February I happened upon a woman's blog that linked me to another, that linked me to another, that linked me to another, and now I spend all the time I can reading these Christian/Crunchy/Green/Mommy blogs and loving every minute of it!! This surely isn't helping me quell my maternal urges, but I'm not about to stop anytime soon.
It has been so great for me to read the thoughts of all of these women who do a really great job of putting into words things that I think but can never really get out.

Last week I finished reading Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin, a book that I checked out from the library soon after arriving to Washington. Reading that book was such a wonderful experience for me! I have been feeling called toward midwifery for the past few months, but I'm trying to take it slow and really spend the time discerning the right path for me. Ina May's book really kept my passion burning. So, today, I was meandering around the blogosphere when I saw a blog that linked to this article. It is so, so reassuring for me to see that people today are really dialoguing about childbirth. Natural birth is not a thing of the past. And I'm not sure if it's simply a result of my recent delving into this material, but I'm tempted to say that the conversations are growing. Maybe our country is making a turn... or at least we can look ahead to see the corner.

I'd like to leave you with another link... to a blog that cites another blog. Hah. If I were in school I would get an F for my poor citations. My apologies to those who aren't getting full credit for their work.
Please read.

Thanks

I can't believe I forgot!

I have been meaning to post a picture of my mountain. I took this one while driving on post a couple weeks ago, so it's not of the greatest quality. I'll try again later, but for now... enjoy!

A couple pictures

Last Friday we went to the St. Barbara's Day Ball.


Here's Markus with Captain Nickolai Detert. Nickolai is getting out of the Army soon, and Markus is taking his position. The first weekend I got here, Nickolai and his girlfriend Jenny (you can see her in the background) had us over for dinner. So nice!


The real Nickolai:


The view from our balcony:

A rambling update

I haven't been blogging much lately because my life is a little boring. Not boring... I don't know... I mean, life is good, I just don't have any friends or a job... the stuff that one would normally blog about.
Other than that, I'm starting to feel a little bit settled out here on the west coast. I still think almost daily about "where I am" (out west, pacific time zone, close to the Pacific Ocean, neighbors with Oregon and Idaho, near California, et cetera), which isn't something that you do when you're truly used to being in a place.

A week or so ago I wrote the following on my facebook page:

I keep thinking about those maps of the united states that show all the city lights. And I think the lights are people that I know. And my light is really far away from all of the others. All the others are sort of clumped together, casting a glow across the east coast. Mine is a single point, wrapped up with Markus' like focused headlights, with the thick fog causing it to glow and swallowing it up all at the same time.

If that explains anything.

I'm truly enjoying being with Markus, which is good, since that's why I'm here. It's so fun to be together!
Before I came out here, Markus went to a store in Olympia called Radiance that he thought I'd really like. I asked him to take me on Monday since he didn't have to work, and we ended up spending about 3 hours in the store! It's a really great place... I felt like I could just stay there all day. Probably my favorite part of the store was the book section - it was just full of great books about natural living, spirituality, baby-having, etc. And the absolute highlight was finding a binder in their reference section that had the names and contact information for local midwives! Woot! I'm going to call them soon (should have done that already, but I'm a total procrastinator... something I'm trying to work on) to see if I can shadow/apprentice. Oh man, I'm just so excited!
Oh, AND, I asked the owner (?) if they needed any help and she said "maybe," which I took to mean, "that depends on if you're cool enough to work here." They don't have applications, and just request that I bring in a resume with a cover letter that states why I want to work there, my availability, and my experience with herbs, natural living/healing, and customer service. I have been working on my resume today and I feel like it's probably done, but haven't yet started working on the cover letter.
I think I should have them printed on recycled paper. What do you think?

Alright, I'm just such a lazy bum these days. I try to do stuff around the house and not be a total slob, but I haven't showered yet today, so I'm going to go do that. And then, since it's not raining, I'm going to go for a walk! Mmm mmm mmm... outdoors. Yummy.

Primary

I sent in my application for an absentee ballot today! I'm excited.

Erie, PA

Hey! Erie is in the news.

Totally Random

I heard on the radio that "they" are expecting gas to get above $4 a gallon.
At the risk of sounding completely "old-timery," I just have to say that the summer I turned 16 and got my license, I paid 79 cents a gallon at the gas station on the corner in Waterford.

What the crap.