Banana Bread Muffiny Muffin Tips

I just made the best banana muffins I have ever made.  Ever.  Unimaginably good.  Crispy, fruity, nutty...actually, I forgot the nuts...and they are still that good!! 

I thought I would give you some banana bread muffin tips.  I usually wait until the banana is super black and disgusting.  A day before it melts into goo.  This helps the banana break down easier and not make the bread taste banana-y.  I don't actually like banana bread that tastes too much like bananas. 

I put the banana and some old fruit.  Last time it was apples that were too soft to eat.  This time I squeezed orange juice from oranges that were too old to eat into the thing.  I put it into my off brand magic bullet blender thing and blend it up until it's all smooth.  This also helps in the breakdown of the banana.  My friend, Adiar, once added frozen raspberries, and I almost added strawberries today.

I used whole wheat flower today too.  I don't know if that made a difference or not.  Oh and I added ground flax seed for health.  I think the whole wheat flower thickened up the batter nicely and it was easier to scoop.

Finally I sprinkled wheat bran flakes on top.  I got the wheat bran from Whole Foods, but I think you can find it at Kroger in little bags in the health food area.  The wheat bran crisped up a little and added a subtle flavor and texture.  Other toppings I have done is brown sugar, or brown sugar mixed with butter and rolled oats.  You could also do cinnamon sugar, or just plain cinnamon I bet.  I don't like cinnamon so I don't use it.

There are other things I did tonight that make life easier too.  The wheat bran, flax seed, and also buckwheat flour I bought the other day all came in plastic bags that are not resealable and annoying to store in my little pantry.  I save larger glass bottles, such as instant coffee jar, pasta jar, other jars.  So I grabbed them and filled them with the flours and labeled them.  I twist tied up the bags with the left over flour in it (the jars were not large enough to hold all of it) and stuck it in the freezer.

Oh, something else unusual happened when I was making the muffins.  I didn't have eggs, so I had to run to target to get some, and then I was stuck there mulling over feminine shavers, nail polish, and deodorant...none of which I bought.  While I was doing this, the banana/orange mixture, the sugar and crisco, and milk were all sitting in the bowl together.  I wonder if that affected things??

There's sooo much fiber in these muffins.  I bet that's why they are amazing.  Fiber is my favorite.

Building Stuff and Working Hard

Every morning during the week there is a man who drives around all of the apartment complexes looking for scrap metal.  He has an old pickup truck that is blue and he welded bars on all the sides to make a pen.  I followed him out one morning to and got a good look at the truck.  The best way I can describe it is that he took parts of a cow pen (area surrounded by metal bars that holds the cows in a small area) and welded it to the bed of his truck to make it taller.  He then welded something to the front of the "cow pen" over the cab of his truck that holds a blue plastic tub. The tub is for the smaller metal bits.

I find this all genius. He has to be pretty smart in engineering to rig all that up, and then dedicated to drive around early every morning and pick up metal garbage from the dumpsters.  I'm assuming he sells it for a profit.  Sometimes he has washing machines and the like.  It's usually full every morning.  That's how much junk American's just throw away. 

I collect furniture in the same way...sort of.  I always keep an eye out for tables, bookshelves, dresser things that people are getting rid of.  I all of our furniture is second hand, except the two nice tables that my dad built.  But I'm not as smart as that guy, or as dedicated.

Speaking of amazing things that my Dad built, I just fully realized how much he has built.  I always knew he built my Oma's house, but I didn't know he built it by hand, nail by nail, built it!  I didn't really know that one person could build a house.  Then when Oma's house was done, a year or so later my parents go married and my dad built our house on the river.  It's on the Muskegon river near Reed City.  When I was one, we sold that house and moved to Fremont, where my parents and I (as a baby) lived in a little trailer in the part of our property where I got married, and he built ANOTHER HOUSE!  That's 3 houses in like 5 years and he was my age now.

All of that so I can get a cushy office job helping the Indians and blog about my life.  I need to get on top of things...I'm doing pretty poorly if I'm going to be great and amazing and change the world and all the stuff I said I would do when I was in 8th grade.

To goal or not to goal

Josh and I's long run was yesterday and we did it!  It was the first time we fully completed a long run...except when 3 miles was the long run.  This one was 7 miles.  Here it is detail by excited detail-

We started out driving to the work out room, but it was in use.  It was very cold out and

Yuck.  I just bored myself to death.  let just say we ran it outside, 7 laps around the complex and it did hurt until the last lap.  Just like Nathan, my brother, said would happen.  Today it hurts all over.  My ankles, my knees, the fronts of my thighs. My mind is exhausted too.  I fell asleep in the middle of a conversation with Josh this morning.

Heather, a friend, gave me an old spider net truck bed cover she no longer needs.  My truck is now complete, and my life has been fulfilled.  Almost all life goals have been accomplished.  Sounds good right? Wrong.  'Cause now what am I going to do?  I'm going to have to set new goals without the naivety of a teenager who thinks it's all possible and doesn't see the American dream as an evil.  I'm going to have to set realistic rational goals...and there's nothing more boring than that.  How can I reach and grow with simple goals?

Here's A List of My Irrational Goals:
1.  Go into space for 1 month or more
2.  Climb Mt. Everest
3.  Descend into the volcano that has a volcanic lake at the bottom in Africa
4.  See a pyroclastic flow
5.  Be in a flood
6.  Take a camel ride around the pyramids
7.  Learn Arabic
8.  Spend time in the Antarctic
9.  Make national geograpic or Nova videos
10.  Get one of those cable tv shows where Josh and I travel and it's documented and we get paid for it
11.  Live off the grid in the forests of Hawaii
12.  Own a house built underground or into a hill
13.  Sail a sail boat around the world and never be afraid of pirates
14.  Explore one of those awesome caves that's not commercialized for the public
15.  Hike the Appellation Trail
16.  Join the Peace Corp
17.  As a volcanologist near a volcano
18.  Spend time as a horse nomad in Mongolia
19.  Grow, shear, card, spin and knit my own wool sweater
20.  Own 15 kitties, maybe start a cat shelter/sanctuary
21.  Go viral on the internet for something not embarrassing and make a lot of easy money
22.  Meet Conan O'Brian
23.  Whittle something other than a toothpick
24.  Own a monster truck
25.  Live in Tokyo - but not for very long, maybe 6 months

Okay that's enough for now.  That's really fun.  I haven't thought of or listed many of those things in a formal fashion before.  I DO have goals and their not impossible.  I just have to choose them...or become beyond famous and buy a flight into space.  Which is not the same as become an astronaut!!

Saying Things

What should I say?

I ate left over Mexican and it was more delicious the second time. 

I had my job review today.  It went well. :)

Josh and I discussed Dragon Ball Z...I'm still not that interested.

I remembered that Josh's mom got us a wine stopper thing with handmade wood top and used it.  Then I drank all the wine and it's no longer being used.

I lost at racket ball, again.  This time it was closer than ever...18-21.  Soon I will win.

I do not like losing at racket ball.

I liked my apartment tonight.  Moving is going to be a pain in my ass when it happens.  That's all I can think about usually...how I'm going to have to pack everything up.

That's it.  Time to get off.

Quick List of Things

1.  Need coffee
2.  Not satisfied with life currently...
3.  Going to see Jonathan Coulton
4.  Ran 5 miles yesterday, today I have off!
5.  Have bittersweet relationship with insurance companies
6.  Figured out where my money is going....$300/month in health insurance!  It all makes sense now, and I hate it.  But all I have to do is reach down and feel the platinum screws inserted with gold drill bits in my ankle to know that I love insurance really.
7.  Watched Grandma's Boy again...still LOVE it
8.  Knitted, on round 8 of 56
9.  A woman from the IHS saw the Lions sticker on my (SWEET) truck and had to come inside and meet me and introduce herself because she grew up in Michigan.
10.  Life is better

Attack of the Binder Machine

I finished an in-depth how-to manual for the the database and data sharing software I've been working with. It's finished just in time for training of the Cherokee on how to use it. 


I  tried to use the binding machine to bind the 69 pages of magnificent manual.  The binding machine is a low tech electrical machine that punches rectangular holes all down the side of paper and then splits apart the plastic side things so you can put the paper in them, and then when the plastic side things close...whala! Bound document.

Like those, only our binder is slightly less high tech.

Instead of binding my paper it ate some of it and ignored the rest.  Then it started binding and eating all on it's own without me pressing the button!  I'm not a fan of low-tech office supplies gaining artificial intelligence, so I turned it off and put a "broke" note on it.

One of my coworkers of course didn't believe me that it was broke and thought I was just doing it wrong.  I let him figure it out on his own, and yes...it's broke.  That's cause I only look silly but in actuality, I'm quite well educated in knowing when things are broke.

No worries though, I chose not to be offended and annoyed at my coworker because I'm pretty sure I'd do the same thing to someone else.  Plus he said he would fix it tomorrow.  Tomorrow I'm just going to 3 hole punch it all and stick it into a binder.  No more of this fancy pancy stuff.

Sleeping with Water

Last night I took an Ambien to help me sleep.  Actually I took 1/4 of one and it knocked me right out.  It was amazing.  Best sleep ever...until the allergies kicked in.  I have a small persistent cough from allergies here and the only thing that helps is just the smallest sip of water.  I always have water with me now because without that sip the cough will not stop and only gets worse.  Just ask Bob and the plane ride we took together.

The cough started in the middle of the night and I reached up to my dresser and grabbed my large slurpy cup of water and took a sip.  Then the Ambien retook a hold of me, and I rested the cup on my stomach/chest and fell back a sleep.  Of course I woke up with an entire cup of cold water pouring out onto me.  It soaked the blankets, and Josh didn't know what was going on.  I was still basically asleep and tried to grab the blankets and pull the wet part to the side of the bed.  I remember saying "I can't function!  What do I do!?!?!"  then I laid down and our memory foam pad splooshed b/c of all the water in it.  I got up and went to the couch and fell asleep instantly.

Josh was still so confused as to what was going on due to the fact that most of our conversation was occurring in my head and then I disappeared.  He got up found me and got me another blanket.  He's so sweet.