Embarras de Riches

If musick be the food of love,
Give me excess of it
That surfeiting the appetite may sicken, and so die. (Twelfth Night)

The spousal unit came home from the store with another bunch of bananas, not realizing that we still had some left over.  I suppose we could have frozen them but I made this instead.

Banana Bread (from Betty Crocker)

 2 large mashed bananas
2/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup milk
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
2 2/3 cups Bisquick™

1/2 teaspoon cardamom*

(*not in the original recipe but I like cardamom with just about any kind of fruit dessert recipe)

Heat oven to 350F.  Grease the bottom of a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan (I used my biggest one, this makes a large loaf of banana bread).

Stir bananas, sugar, milk, oil, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl.  Stir in Bisquick.  Pour into pan.

Bake 50 to 60 minute or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean; cool ten minutes.

One of the reasons I like this recipe is because I don't have to get out the mixer; a fork or a spatula will do. I have to admit that I stirred the other ingredients together like a muffin mix first, then folded in the bananas.  The trick is not to overmix the Bisquick or you'll wind up with one tough loaf.  Betty puts in a 1/2 cup of chopped nuts, as well.  

The instructions in my 1956 Bisquick cook book call for fewer eggs and more milk and Bisquick.  Perhaps I should have made two loaves for comparison?

Caturday!

On the Road Again

Off to another conference.  I'm going to ask if I can change my compensation package to get paid by the conference.

Blogging will resume on Caturday!

Vintage Advertising - a Seed Company Calendar

I can't remember if I've posted this before, but it's nice and it's timely.  From the Henry A. Dreer company, 1899.

A Seasonal Treat

19th century children and adults coming in out of the cold on a February day would have enjoyed this.  It would have been particularly pleasing to the family cooks, since it called for no eggs, an item fairly scarce in winter at that time.

YANKEE APPLE JOHN

6 tart apples, thinly sliced
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour, sifted
3 teaspoons baking powder
pinch sal
1/2 cup shortening
2/3 cup milk (about)

Grease shallow baking dish and fill with sliced apples.  Mix sugar, spices and salt and sprinkle over apples.  Sift flour with baking powder and salt.  Cut in shortening until mixture is fine. Add milk, mixing until a soft dough is formed.  Knead lightly on a floured board, roll to fit over pan; brush with milk, bake in a hot oven (450° F) about 25 minutes, or until apples are tender.  Serve with nutmeg sauce.  Serves 5.

NUTMEG SAUCE

1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons flour
dash salt
2 cups boiling water
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon vinegar

Mix sugar, nutmeg, flour and salt in saucepan.  Add boiling water, stirring constantly until blended.  Add butter and boil 5 minutes.  Remove from fire, add vinegar.

(The New England Yankee Cook Book, by Imogene Wolcott, 1939).

Caturday!

Quote of the Day

Banquet:  an affair where you eat a lot of food you don't want before talking about something you don't understand to a crowd of people who don't want to hear you. ~ Anonymous.

Happy Valentine's Day

(Let the squee's begin).

Knitting - A 1949 Waistcoat

From the Australian Home Journal, something to get started on for Spring.  Larger image can be downloaded from my Flickr account.

Vintage Images - Romantic Edwardian Clipart

Copyright-free, from Dover.  Left-click to enlarge.

XinNian Keui Lou

Hot dang...Canon did not let me down.  There's a paper pattern for a model of this guy on their Craft page.

The Year of the Snake

Rather a cuddly-looking li'l thing, isn't it?

I have no recipes for snake.  The only time I would have gotten the chance to eat one was in the Philipines in 1981 when I was selected to attend jungle survival training (I don't know who thought that one up, but it wasn't me).

Turns out that because of a rather severe reaction I have to bee stings, the powers that be decided not to let me go; the nearest helicopter evac point was over an hour away from the training location*.  So I spent three days lounging by the swimming pool at Subic Bay while the rest of my platoon was hunting, killing and eating reptiles.

Broke my heart.

(Snake stamp image from xinhua.net).

edited to add: *and straight up a mountain.

Caturday!

Quote of the Day

Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.  ~ Colette.

The On-Line Bookshelf - Dream Blocks

I did not find the poems worth my time, but the Jessie Willcox Smith illustrations are enchanting.  From Project Gutenberg.

Supply and Demand

Xena designed a departmental scavenger hunt as part of a team-building exercise for the staff meeting today.  It was a timed event and there were prizes.

I have it on good authority that one of our most senior RNs, a charming lady with a strong resemblance to Mrs. Claus, burst into the STD clinic waiting room shouting "Condoms!  I need condoms!"

I miss all the good stuff.

"How To Have Glamorous Sweaters"

Some tips on smartening up your sweaters, from Workbasket magazine, October 1960.  Left-click to enlarge.

Chow-dah

Checking out the menu for the Fifth Sunday from the 1913 version of 52 Sunday Dinners and it does not appeal.  Looking back at January, however, there's a corn chowder recipe that would hit the spot on this cold, grey, snowy day.

(Let it snow.  The water table needs it after the drought this summer).

This part of Illinois had a heavy influx of New England settlers.  Unable to get fresh clams for a favorite soup, they weren't ready to give up chowder.

Corn Chowder

2 cups cooked corn cut from cob OR
1 can of corn
1 cup salt pork cubes
1 cup potatoes cut in cubes
1/2 onion sliced
3 cups water
2 cups scalded milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
2/3 cup cracker crumbs
Salt, pepper.

Cut salt pork in one-fourth inch cubes and try out in a frying pan; add onion and cook until yellow.  Pare and cut potatoes in one-half inch cubes, parboil five minutes.  Add to onion, with corn and water; cover and cook twenty minutes or until potatoes are soft.  melt butter in a sauce-pan, add flour, stir to a smooth paste, pour some of the milk on slowly, stirring constantly.  Combine mixtures; add crums and seasonings. Serve for dinner in cups or in small "nappies."

There are a number of puzzlers in this recipe, not the least of which is -- what do you do with the rest of the scalded milk?

Never Work With Dogs Or Children

I was handing out emergency preparedness materials at a S.O.A.R. Safety Day this morning.  Unfortunately, the county K-9 search and rescue team was doing a demonstration about fifteen feet away so no one was paying any attention to me.

Heck, I wasn't even paying attention to me.

Quote of the Day

He's not such a bad fellow...for a pirate. ~ Lord Willoughby, "Captain Blood."

(TCM is running back to back Errol Flynn movies. I pounced on the excuse to use this magazine cover again).