Strawberry Bread

This is another bread that I'm making tonight. With this one I double the ingredients, add extra vanilla, extra strawberries and extra sour cream. I've also made some Strawberry Honey Butter to go with it (recipe follows) and I'll see how that goes over tomorrow at work.

Strawberries 'N' Cream Bread presented by Country Road Bed & Breakfast

1/2 c. butter or margarine, softened 3/4 c. sugar 2 eggs 1/2 c. sour cream 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 3/4 c. all purpose flour 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon 3/4 c. chopped fresh strawberries 3/4 c. chopped walnuts, toasted, divided In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add sour cream and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in strawberries and ½ cup nuts. Pour into a greased 8 x 4 x 2-inch loaf pan. Sprinkle with remaining nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 65 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sour Cream Banana Bread

This is the best recipe I've found for Sour Cream Banana Bread. I add in an extra tsp of vanilla and more bananas than the recipe calls for. My friends and family are huge fans. (If you're at high altitude, make sure to adjust the recipe accordingly.)

Banana Sour Cream Bread

Submitted by: Esther Nelson Rated: 5 out of 5 by 1319 members

Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Hour

Ready In: 1 Hour 10 Minutes Yields: 32 servings

"Sour cream gives enough tangy bite to take the edge off this banana bread 's sweetness. Dusting the baking pans with cinnamon sugar gives these small four loaves a gentle spice undertone."

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup white sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3/4 cup butter 3 cups white sugar 3 eggs 6 very ripe bananas, mashed 1 (16 ounce) container sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 teaspoons baking soda 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease four 7x3 inch loaf pans. In a small bowl, stir together 1/4 cup white sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Dust pans lightly with cinnamon and sugar mixture.
2.	In a large bowl, cream butter and 3 cups sugar. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix in salt, baking soda and flour. Stir in nuts. Divide into prepared pans.
3.	Bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

International Lefthanders' Day!

Happy International Lefthanders' Day to all my fellow lefties. It's a celebration of those of us who are in our right mind. Although I know that most people would say that I'm so far from being in my right mind I might as well be righthanded. (God forbid that I was cursed like that!) ;)
Btw, I just want to say for the record that lefthanded women are the best in bed. Don't believe me...? Just check out the following list...sure, it doesn't actually prove that we are (gotta find out for yourself) but it's a damn good preview. Keep in mind that the lefty-lefty combination is even more mindblowing. I'll post a list of famous lefty couples (of the past and present). But for now, check out these ladies and see if it doesn't get your wheels spinning:

• Emma Thompson
• Kate Hudson
• Goldie Hawn
• Lisa Kudrow
• Drew Barrymore
• Diane Lane
• Demi Moore
  
• Julia Roberts

Oh yeah, and we've got Angelina Jolie. Enough said.

Kthnkbai

*sigh* I'm in love...

Guys probably won't understand this unless they're gay but my lovely friend Mouser, who loves shoes as much as I do...especially our shared love of Docs, would sympathize and commiserate.

A few months ago I was searching on some random site...it might have been a specific search for Marc Jacobs shoes or it could have just been the linking I do from site to site to site (or within a site...I'm REALLY bad at that on IMDb...could spend an eternity there!)...and I found these shoes...I don't even like pink that much (although technically they are apricot) but I LOVE these shoes. I've been watching the price off and on for a few months and it hasn't gone down in a long time. I can't justify paying $294 for a pair of shoes...at least not one pair (a future blog on my Doc Martens will explain that much). I don't even know why I love these shoes so much but I do. *sigh* Who needs a man when you can have Marc Jacobs shoes. (I do own 1 pair and I will post a blog on those babies later as well!)

The Round Table List (finally!)

At my old job, the one I called BEC, I would pose questions to my coworkers to give them something to think about and a way to pass the time. (And these are also the strange things that I think about when I'm bored so I usually would ask them questions that were things that I'd been tossing around in my mind.) One of my most favourite questions is my "round table" question.
You have the opportunity to go out to dinner with 10 women (and then again with 10 men...normally I would say "7" of each but I had 8 guys and I wouldn't have been able to cut one of them from the list so I had to up the number to 10. Also, you can put people that are alive or dead but I can't get over the morbid factor so I tend to stick with those who are alive.)...who would you choose and why?

Now my list is subject to change as much as my lists of people usually do (check out the following blog on the 5 guy/5 girl list).

Women:
Maya Angelou - She's an amazing, brilliant woman and such a talented writer. I'm inspired when I read the things she's written.
Vera Wang - She makes gorgeous wedding dresses that let any woman feel like a princess. It was her dream to create such beautiful things and she's living that dream.
Tamora Pierce - Her stories are wonderfully layered and the characters are never one dimensional, not even the secondary or tertiary characters. She's created two fabulous worlds and the best thing is that each one builds on itself so you see her characters again and again. I can read her books OVER and OVER again and never get bored.
Jane Yolen - I fell in love with her writing when I was just a kid. They had one of those Saturday morning shows where they animate a book and _Dragon's Blood_ was one of the chosen few. After many, many years, the Pit Dragon trilogy is becoming a quartet and I couldn't be more excited.
Queen Latifah - She is a strong, bold, fiery, talented woman. I've been watching more of her movies lately and she just cracks me up. She doesn't stand for the disrespect of women in a lot of rap music and she's such a role model for women of all sizes.
Whoopi Goldberg - A very funny comedian, strong, with a wisdom about her. A left-hander...gotta love them!
Angelina Jolie - Another strong, bold, fiery, talented woman who is also left-handed. I'm sure she'd have many interesting stories to tell.
Kate Winslet - One of my favourite actresses (although in a movie I *HATED*, _Titanic_) and I think she's be so much fun, so interesting.
Emma Thompson - My most favourite actress. She's incredibly talented and so willing to morph herself into ugly or frumpy characters even though she's really beautiful. She is also left-handed. :D
J.K. Rowling - She was (and still kind of is) one of my favourite writers although I hated book 7 with a passion and probably will never read it again. I'd also love to see the discussion between her and Jane Yolen considering Jane Yolen wrote _Wizard's Hall_ over a year before J.K. Rowling started the Harry Potter books.


Men:
Dominic Monaghan - He is so damn funny that everything he says just comes out hilarious. Sure, I'm attracted to him and plan on marrying him some day but he makes me laugh so much, especially partnered with Billy Boyd.
Cameron Crowe - My absolute favourite director. He's given us such classic lines as "You had me at 'Hello.'.", "You are home.", "I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen.", "Show me the money.", and the phenomenal scene in _Say Anything_ when Lloyd stands outside of Diane's window, holding up the stereo that's playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes".
Bill Watterson - Creator of _Calvin and Hobbes_. 'Nuff said.
Stephan Pastis - Creator of _Pearls Before Swine_.
Darby Conley - Creator of _Get Fuzzy_. Both PBS and GF are comics that I must read daily.
Kenneth Branagh - He's Irish, red-headed, left handed, and born on the same day as me. Plus, he directed and starred in my favourite movie _Much Ado About Nothing_ (okay, my other favourite movie is _Office Space_ and my favourite movie from when I was a kid is _The Fox and the Hound_).
Frank Welker - *THE* Voice God. Check out his IMDb resume.
Peter Cullen - Another Voice God. He's the voice of Optimus Prime. Check out videos of him on YouTube. It's great to hear the difference between his normal French-Canadian accent and his Optimus Prime voice. SO sexy.
Craig Ferguson - He's tall, he plays the drums, he's Scottish and he's also hysterical. I love watching his show late at night and he always makes me laugh, you "naughty monkeys"!
Billy Boyd - Another Scot and Dominic Monaghan's partner in crime. The two are comic dynamite.

(Not Really) About Me

I've been procrastinating writing this blog because I couldn't come up with a whole lot to say about myself. I thought I should introduce myself and give a little back story but it was so damn difficult that I just figured if people want to learn about me, they will by reading this blog.
I'll write about things in the news, articles and blogs that interest me, bits about my life and anything else that grabs my attention. It'll be totally random but that's me. So I'll start with one of my favourite topics to discuss...in the next post. =)