Banana Muffins

Instead of making another Super Chocolate Banana Bread, I decided to make banana muffins with the three mushy bananas I had.



Banana Muffins (from Betty Crocker)

1 1/4 c sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c mashed very ripe bananas (3 medium)
1/2 c buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c nuts (optional)

What I did:

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, stir sugar and butter until well-mixed [I don't have a mixer, so I melted the butter and they still came out fine]. Mix eggs in well. Stir in bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Stir in nuts [I used chocolate chips instead].
I used a 12-muffin pan and cupcake papers. I filled the papers halfway with batter, and baked them for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. It made about 18 muffins.

They came out pretty good. The only thing I noticed was that they were a little salty when they came out. There's nothing like the smell of banana muffins baking in the oven.

Radish Sandwich

I've been wanting a radish sandwich ever since I heard that one of my favorite authors, Ernest Hemingway, liked them (not sure if this is true since I haven't researched it). I never liked radishes when I was younger, but I thought, "there must be more to radishes. I'll give them another chance."

I'm glad I did. Radishes have a very unique taste, not quite bitter, but very sharp. The texture is great, too: very crisp and crunchy. I could munch on a bowl of radishes all day! And the color...that bright white with a bleeding red skin...

I wish I had taken pictures of the radishes, or even the sandwich, but this is all that was left.



radish sandwich:
-kaiser roll
-butter on bread
-sliced radishes
-salt and pepper, enough to taste

Mmmm... sit back and enjoy.

Langenscheidt Italian Pocket Dictionary

I just got a pocket dictionary for my Italian 101 class. I went to Borders and went through all the ones they had there. Factors included: price, size, features like pronunciation charts, inclusion of curse words, and of course, design.

It was down to three, this Langenscheidt, the Berlitz one, and another. The third was bigger and had less words, I think. The Berlitz had a nice design, but I really liked the simple yellow/blue/black contrast of the Langenscheidt. And also the Langenscheidt and Berlitz books were literally exactly the same. I'm not bothering to do the research, but I'm guessing they have the same source, for whatever reason.
I love this book; these pictures don't do it justice. In addition to teaching me Italian, it feels great. The pages are super thin, but I can still flip through them to find the right word. I also love the bendy, plastic covers, which make it more durable. It's perfect.