Readers, I need your help!
I have two bananas and they need to be used. I’d like to bake them into something, but my two favorite banana-based recipes (banana bread and banana muffins) require three bananas. I only gots two!
Got a good, easy recipe that uses two bananas? Lay it on me!
(If it can be frozen for a while before consuming, so much the better.)
I got a spam email yesterday asking Do you have unnecessary money? If no, learn how to save it!
As I do not, in fact, have unnecessary money (I don’t know that there’s enough money in the world for me to feel like any of it in my possession is unnecessary, really), I was almost tempted to click on the link.
I found this article very interesting (thank you to reader/ Dora & Nate‘s new Momma Katherine, who sent me the article). I know someone who swears that the reason her cats never get sick is because they don’t get shots, and I think she might have a point.
Cathy Cahlin Ryan (Corinne on The Shield) is the most wooden actress in all of Hollywood, eclipsed only by the horrific acting of Autumn Chiklis (Cassidy), who clearly does not come by her Dad’s talent in any way, shape or form. Nepotism in Hollywood is alive and well and stinking up the joint.
I can’t tell you how pleased I was (NOT) that Rumer Willis is going to be bringing her special brand of “acting” to Army Wives and CSI: New York (not that I watch CSI: New York, but the more you give the girl acting gigs, the more she’s going to think she’s an “actress.” Prediction: Rumer Willis acting book out within three years.)
Know what pisses me off?
(Yes, besides EVERYTHING.)
I know people who’ve had their credit fucked up in a big way by people they trust, and by complete strangers. As a result, over the past several years, I have become very careful with our personal and financial information. Anything that comes in the mail printed with any kind of information about us at ALL – account numbers, social security numbers, our address – goes into the cross-cut shredder.
Before I recycle any magazines or catalogs, I rip out our names and address off the back, and (in the case of catalogs) the pre-printed order form from the middle.
When the credit card statement comes in the mail, I look it over carefully, then shred it (if I ever need to prove I paid for something, it’s not that hard to get a copy of whichever statement I need.). And let me take a moment to say GODDAMN those credit card companies want you to use those fucking cash advance checks, don’t they? I must get a set of blank checks every other week, and I’m considering canceling my Capitol One account if they don’t KNOCK THAT SHIT OFF.
Once a year I get my credit report and look it over very carefully and I make sure that Fred does the same.
I don’t even put boxes or envelopes with our names and address in the trash – I shred them. Maybe it’s paranoid, but people can do some messed-up shit with the smallest amount of information and it’s better to be safe than sorry, right?
So what the fuck is the point of being careful when it’s entirely possible that your goddamn mortgage company is going to discover that they’ve had a “rogue employee” selling goddamn social security numbers and loan information to a third party?*
It’s infuriating that, no matter how careful you are, all it takes is one criminal-minded assface to decide it’s worth the risk to sell your information to someone who might or might not decide to use said information to completely fuck up your life. Or try to convince you to refinance your home. Same diff, right?
(Note: We haven’t gotten a letter from Countrywide letting us know that our information was compromised, so hopefully it wasn’t. I’m still pissed off about it.)
*My favorite part of the article letter Countrywide sent out: an ex-employee a Countrywide employee (now former) may have sold unauthorized information about you (blah blah blah). No, really? Selling your customers’ social security numbers to a potentially malevolent third party is a fireable offense? Seriously? I’m only surprised they didn’t give him a goddamn employee of the month award! Fired for selling social security numbers and loan information. Who ever would have thought?! Or maybe it’s meant like Look how on top of things we are! We fired his ass, yes we did! Don’t you feel all safe and secure now?!
Actually, it was probably meant to fend off all the well-meaning dumbasses who would otherwise have immediately called the company and said “Ah hope yer thinkin’ ’bout firin’ that boy who sold mah information! That ain’t right!”
Joe Bob chased after my favorite little chick yesterday. I assume he was mostly just playing, because he chases them from time to time when they’re wandering around the back yard and he never actually catches them, although he’s certainly fast enough and they’re getting big enough that they can’t just scoot back through the fence at any spot, they have to go under the gate, where there’s more room. Anyway, I saw the chick running across the yard with Joe Bob close behind, and even though I was sure he was mostly playing, there’s always a first time for a game to get serious, so I stood up and banged on the window with my fist, which usually startles the cats from whatever they’re doing that they’re not SUPPOSED to be doing. Joe Bob didn’t stop, though, just kept chasing, so I banged harder and harder until I caught his attention and he stopped.
And this morning, my hand hurts.
STUPID CATS.
(Stupid chicks.)
Remember those guns that used to shoot hard plastic discs? I need one of those by my desk and when Joe Bob’s chasing a chick or Sugarbutt’s trying to climb the tree or someone’s kicking Joe Bob’s ass, I could just open the window and hit them in the ass with one of those discs. It wouldn’t hurt, but it would sting a little, and it would surely stop them in their tracks!
Previously
2007: Okay, birds – time to start paying a LITTLE better attention to your surroundings, please.
2006: *Of course I want my daughter to be in a relationship with someone who treats her well, isn’t a criminal, and is carrying no communicable diseases. But I flat-out do not care whether that person has a penis or a vagina.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: Dirk is a happy, happy man. Dirk is very close to orange.
2002: Instead of finding it cute and amusing, I am, instead, bitter that I’ll never get that 94 minutes of my life back.
2001: (he’s a dumbass, she’s a dumbass, they’re dumbasses, wouldn’t you like to BE a dumbass too?!)
2000: No entry.
I don’t understand the logic of shredding information that is just name/address. I admit that I’m the opposite of paranoid. I probably don’t take enough care with privacy because I figure the bad guys will get the info if they want. But if someone could get the same information from a phone book (or driving by your house if you had your name “The Coopers” on the house), what does it prevent to tear off magazine labels, etc.?
Banana + pineapple chunks + orange juice – whizzed up in the blender, makes a FANTASTIC smoothie 🙂
Just get a cap gun. Won’t hit ’em with anything, but they’ll THINK they’ve been shot.
I have 4 cats and the only shots they’ve basically had are the 1st series they give them when I brought them in to be fixed. They are indoor cats and they never get sick. My 16 year old has only been to the vet to be fixed as a kitten and once 11 years ago because his wee-wee got clogged (not sure how else to say that bit of info.) I think they do go overboard with all the shots they want to give. If any of the other cats do get sick I will probably up-date their rabies vaccine while I am there, but like I said they don’t get sick so I never go to the vet!
I am with you Robyn. Nothing pisses me off more than when we take all the precautions we can and then some assclown blows it. Happens at work, happens at stores, happens with banks. Never fails. I don’t think being fired is enough. And I don’t think a notification only if you were impacted is enough. Who’s to say your letter did not get printed, not mailed or not delivered? (sorry to insert paranoia moment) Then you would never know. They should make a call and have a conversation. Not leave a message. And the call should come from an identified phone because otherwise I would not answer if my caller ID said unknown caller. It might seem like a lot for them to do but they blew it and have possibly cause you untold pain. These massive corporations are never held accountable. See AIG, Fannie and Freddie etc. If my company screws up on that scale you can bet your ass we would either dig our way out or collapse. No bailout for us. Of course, working at a demon pharmaceutical company has condemned me to the pits of hell anyway in some minds. Oh well, back to your cheerful days everyone!
How about a super duper water pistol Robyn! You know this reminded me of something. Early spring my 3 yr old grandson was talking about guns. Guns this, guns that. Guns. Guns. Guns. Now I had three girls and none of them ever wanted a gun. I remembered a documentary that I watched about boys and how we are warping them and stifling them. So, I asked my daughter who feels the same way I do about guns if she would be okay with me getting him a squirt gun. She sighed and said she had given up and realized that she had a boy and he will never be a girl. So I got him a squirt gun and took him out on my front stoop with a bucket of water. I filled that gun a million times and let him squirt that gun to his hearts content. After about two or three visits of doing that… not another word about guns. Now it’s all about Batman.
Sorry, got a little chatty there. Heh.
How about giving the nanners to big and little pig? 😉
Robyn,
Just substitute the 3rd banana with a 1/2 cup of apple sauce. Should work just fine.
If you call your credit card companies, you can ask to be removed from any physical mailings except your statements. I did this and no longer receive those balance transfer checks in the mail. I told the CSRs that my mailbox is open and can be accessed by anyone walking down the street (not actually true, but they don’t know!). The mailing moratorium takes a few weeks to go into effect but it’s drastically cut down on my junk mail and I feel much safer knowing there are fewer paper checks with my account number around to steal.
I did have to call Citibank like three times before they’d actually stop mailing me crap. Stupid Citibank.
A couple of years ago, I realized that our county office was putting mortgage documents on their website. I thought it was a little annoying that everyone could see what interest rate you were paying, but what really ticked me off was the fact that some banks were putting ss#s on the documents. Hey fraudsters! Look right here! You can get my name, my address, my SS#, and quite possibly the name and phone number of the bank I do business with! One stop shopping!
I worked for an ecommerce company as a fraud analyst for quite awhile. If I had enough info, and enough time, I’d track down the owners of the stolen cards and let them know. Almost universally (among people who could figure it out), card nubmers were stolen at restaurants. The staff takes your card and walks away and you can’t see what they’re doing with it. Of course, stolen numbers are a very small percentage of all the restaurant transactions in a given day, and most waitstaff are honest, but it still happens.
Now, a more common way to steal numbers is by taking a picture with a camera phone. A thief can be fiddling with their phone while behind you in line and you’ll never realize how your number was compromised. Occasionally, there will be additional equipment added to ATMs or gas pumps that read your card as you slide it through.
You should always keep your card number as hidden as possible when handing it over to someone, and always inspect swipers looking for parts that don’t ‘fit’ with the rest of the unit before using your card.
And that concludes today’s lesson. More information than you probably wanted or needed.
Well, if it makes you feel better – according to that article, it was a sub-prime division of Countrywide – so maybe they did not have access to the A-paper info. I’ll bet you’ll be fine.
I kinda agree with Dianne, if they can get the same info out of the phone book – why bother shredding it? Please understand – I’m really asking. Is there something unsafe about it?
The fact is – some people suck, they might work anywhere.
I talked to my vet about my dogs vaccinations and I was told thatshe had to have ALL her shots every year. And I couldnt board her unless I did. Pissed me off. I just dont see it. She isnt around other dogs and stays inside most of the time. I also found out just on my own that I didnt have to give her Comfortis for fleas every month. About every 2 months works just fine. I just worry about all the chemicals and vaccinations could really do harm if used too often. My cat rarely goes to the vet. When she was spayed I had her rabies given. She is inside all the time, her feet never go outside. She is healthy as she can be.
We have 11 cats and only vaccinated the first year that we had each one. Our vet assured us that indoor-only cats, once deemed healthy, would be fine without shots. The basic drill would be taking them to the vet for a complete workup and vaccinations before they were allowed to mingle with the rest of the kitties. In the past 10 years there have been 5 health issues.
1 – Our extreme face Persian has a deviated septum. It’s a birth issue and the vet assures us it’s more annoying than problematic.
2&3 – Our Maine Coon developed cauliflower ear around 5 years ago. He was already too old to undergo surgery safely, so it cannot be drained. Last Christmas he had a stroke and bounced back nicely. He’s 18 years old.
4 – Our other rescue Persian came to our home to a drippy eye on a Friday. By Monday morning’s vet visit it was so infected that the eye had to be removed. That was 3 years ago, and it hasn’t slowed him down a bit.
5 – Our orange tabby is batshit crazy. He has no health issues that we can find, but he compulsively licks until all of his fur is gone. Sometimes so much that he develops open wounds. Prozac doesn’t help. He’s gotten lots better since we had kids, oddly enough. Apparently he’s less stressed with them around.
If you don’t want to cook with the bananas today just put them in the freezer. I have a whole basket of almost too ripe bananas that I have added the last one or two from a bunch to in my freezer. When you want to make bread or muffins or smoothies just pull out however many you need and use. You can freeze them in or out of the skins (if you skin them first put them in a bag) I don’t skin mine I just run them under a little water to soften them or let them soften on the counter and pull the skin off when I am ready to use them. The peels turn blackish when frozen but the insides are perfect for cooking.
you could always just do a half batch . cause it makes 2 loaves. or peel and freeze the bananas in a ziploc bag for another time.
Makes 2 loaves.
Prep time 15 minutes. Baking time 1 hour, 15 minutes.
2 cups sugar (1½ cups)
2 sticks butter, melted (1½ sticks)
1 cup buttermilk (1 cup skim milk + 1 T lemon juice)
3 large eggs (use 2 if you cut recipe in half!)
1 t vanilla
1 3½ ounce box of banana instant pudding. or ANY flavor actually
½ t salt
1½ t baking powder
1½ t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
3 cups flour (2 cups white flour, 1 cup wheat flour)
1½ cups ripe banana, about 4 medium bananas
1 cup chopped pecans
——————————————————————————–
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Grease two 9 x 5 loaf pans (I used butter flavored Pam).
3. Melt butter in microwave. Add to sugar once melted. Mix well.
4. Add milk, eggs and vanilla and mix well.
5. Add instant pudding (dry mix, do not prepare as on package), salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon and mix well.
6. Slowly add flour, one cup at a time, and mix well.
7. Peel bananas, mash well, and add to mixture.
8. Add pecans and mix well. Batter will be thick and slightly lumpy.
9. Pour half of batter into each greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until knife or toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
My mortgage is with Countrywide too and they haven’t said a word to me either.
My homeowners insurance is with Farmers and they have identity theft protection now!
I’m tired and cranky enough that I probably shouldn’t be answering this, but: The point of being careful (and I, like Dianne, am probably the opposite of paranoid although at this point in my life if anyone got my credit info they could only improve it so hey) is to offset some of the risk you knowingly take any time you hand your personal info over to a third party. Until the day when ALL financial transactions are 100% ENTIRELY and SOLELY processed by computer and no records need to be kept so the data can be deleted as soon as the transaction is completed, you are going to have humans involved in handling your business. And until the day when we’re all given honesty drugs in the water, or have our brains wiped clean every day at sundown so we can become mindless automatons again the next day, you are going to have dishonest people trying to make an extra buck by whatever means possible.
If you want complete 100% safety and security, the only way to accomplish that is to never hand over any of your personal info for any reason – want a car, a house? Save up and pay cash. And you’ll have to figure out the water, gas, electric, and phone/cable/satellite stuff yourself, as well as your health insurance, employment, banking, and state or federal issued IDs, because all those companies/agencies hire human beings who are capable of being dishonest, criminal-minded, and skeevy, and require personal info before they set up your services, and they all use data storage systems that keep your info on hand and are subject to compromise or unauthorized access.
And hey, even if you achieve that 100% security level, it will be irrelevant because you won’t be able to use your credit for anything without giving out your information and compromising your security.
Bottom line: A company can have the best, most impervious, top of the line security systems, and checks and balances and protection systems in place, but as long as there are human beings involved in the process at any level, there can be no guarantees. It’s a risk one takes as part of the process.
If you’re worried enough about your credit security that you’re tearing out the order forms in the middles of catalogs, you should put a fraud alert on your credit report(s). You’ll have to renew it every 90 days, but you’ll save a lot of time compared to all the shredding.
For all that it’s getting more and more media coverage (and of course it is; there’s money to be made, both in selling stories about it and in selling “protection” against it) as a “faceless stranger” type thing, danger in the very air we breathe and whatnot, it’s my understanding that the majority of successful identity theft is perpetrated by exactly who you’d think has the most access to a person’s personal details – family and close friends – or from actual physical theft (for instance, of a checkbook or credit cards).
*But, oops, then that person will have access to all the sensitive info, and might decide to use it illegally…
“Unnecessary money?” — Is that the online version of “spare change?”
Agree about freezing bananas, but leave them in the peel. Seems to work better for me. I have a ziploc in the freezer now with two bananas waiting for a third.
My boyfriend’s step mom recently bought a tiny marshmallow gun. It shoots itty bitty colored marshmallows.
that might work – unless the cats like to eat them. then, maybe notsomuch.
“Got a good, easy recipe that uses two bananas? Lay it on me!”
I will have to keep an eye on this because I JUST put two bananas in my fridge yesterday and was mad I was short a banana.
Hey Robyn,
This is my favorite banana cake recipe – especially topped with lemon icing (but I think maybe a cream cheese icing would be good too??). It is from the absolute mainstay of New Zealand cooking – the Edmonds Cookbook. It only requires two bananas and it’s light and fluffy and delicious.
Banana Cake by Edmond’s Cookery
4 ozs. butter
6 ozs. sugar
2 eggs
2 mashed bananas
1 level teaspoon soda
2 tablespoons boiling milk
1 teaspoon Edmonds baking powder
8 ozs. flour
Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, and the mashed bananas. Then the add the soda dissolved in boiling milk, gently stir the mixture.
Lastly add the flour & baking powder, previously mixed and sieved for lumps.
Cake is be cooked in 2 greased cake pans, which gives a nice light fluffy cake.
Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350F / 180C testing from about 20 minutes onward to see if they are cooked in the center.
You can also replace the third banana with a cup of grated apple or zucchini.
Use 1 apple in a banana bread recipe in place of a banana. Process it well. Or use applesauce, like 1/2 cup. That’s what I do. However, some of these recipes above look divine – good excuse to try something new. 🙂
My parents burn all old bank statements, credit card info, old check sub books, anything with sensitive info in their burning barrel. My Dad is convinced that people can piece together shredded things, but then I tell him about cross cutting shredders and then I get the “Why buy something when you don’t have to” speech.
Also, we have two cats, one that is 9 years old and one that is three years old. Both got their initial de-worming and all their vaccinations when they were kittens, but after that, we don’t vaccinate them anymore. They never go outside and don’t come into contact with other wild animals or cats, so we don’t see a point if they are healthy.
Our cats have never been sick. EVER. (We’ve been very lucky in the cat health department.) I have never had to take the cats to vet for anything other than our younger cat had a persistent and nasty case of ear mites when we adopted her and had to be treated several times before they were gone.
I’m with the freeze the bananas in the peels in a ziplock bag or container until you have a third. Or you can just make fried bananas:
Melt some butter in a skillet (as much as you like–I like a lot of butter!)
Slice the bananas and throw them in with cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, allspice, your choice!) sugar (brown, white, maple, your choice!) let them fry for about 2 minutes, turn them over and fry for another 2 minutes and eat. You can add whipped cream or ice cream if you like. You can also throw in some fresh berries.
We received the dreadful letter from Countrywide last week. They said they will take necessary precautions to monitor our account and offered us, at no charge, free credit monitoring services with the 3 national credit reporting companies for the next two years.
I forgot to say that ours is not a sub-prime loan, so the theft was not just limited to that division.
Oh Robyn, I guess I didn’t really check that recipe properly, but when I make it, I don’t make two – I just make one large cake. My mother’s version is always perfect, but mine sometimes falls in the middle.
I’m putting my request in early for your kitty calendar(s). I am looking forward to pics of Ms. Poo. I love her.
Banana pancakes! Mush em up, throw them in the mix w a lil cinnamon. I always make a lot of extra pancakes. freeze 1 or 2 together ..nuke em. yum!
My cat was 15 when we had to put her down last year. She had been to the vet to be spayed and that was it. We moved 3 times, once out of state, and she was an indoor-outdoor cat her whole life. She never got sick once. Never! At the end, she had some type of problem with her kidneys and there wasn’t anything they could do for her.
I’ve considered cutting down on vaccinations as well. I’ve always wondered if Betsy’s cancer was the result of a FeLV vaccine that was given at a bad injection site (where her back leg meets the hip). That site made it almost impossible to try to cut out the cancer entirely.
Because of that, I get my cats screened for FeLV, but I don’t vaccinate them against it, since I don’t board them, and they are strictly indoors.
2 things people should think about though when extending the length of time between vaccinations:
1) What are your state laws concerning rabies or other vaccinations? If a state requires a yearly rabies vaccine, then you should continue to get it. Even if you have an indoor cat or dog, if it bites someone and that person goes on a rampage, it could have devastating effects for your pet if you don’t have “up to date rabies vaccinations”.
2) For all vaccinations, talk to your vet about changing the injection site to farther down on a limb. That way, if a vaccine-related cancer pops up, you have a better chance of cutting out the cancer without leaving any cancer cells behind through amputation.
I took a closer look at the house tour just now. Wow, that must have been a lot of work for you! Thanks so much for doing it–I really enjoyed it!!
Do you have a basement or an attic?
Do you still have exercise equipment in the garage–do you or Fred ever use it?? I think you get enough exercise now just taking care of Crooked Acres?
Does the Spud still have any stuff there? Is she going to visit you at all? I guess she would stay in the guest room then?
So how many bedrooms, bathrooms?
Why don’t you use the dining room–where do you eat? Just one den and one computer room, right??
Thanks!
Also, I was confused by the stairs. Are there 2 sets of stairs??
first off, i have 5 cats. Looking at your pics on the side crack me up, because its like my own life reincarnate. Second, bananas…freeze them on a popsicle stick and dip them in chocolate. Cut them up and put ice cream in the middle. I think its called a banana split. Then you only need one .
trisha
momdot.com
Do you shower upstairs or downstairs?
Back in the late ’70s early ’80s Countrywide was involved in a large class action suit. In the days before PCs and electronic payments, I had to mail our mortgage payment every month. And nearly every month I would get a late fee added. Of course I blamed the post office. Turns out that Countrywide was “holding” pmts and not actually processing them on the day they were received. I think I received about $11 in the class action suit. You would think Countrywide would have learned their lesson back then..
This might work with 2 bananas. She has a lot of recipes on her site.
http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2005/11/let-them-eat-mexican-monkey-cake.html
My lovely girl is coming up 18 years old, and she’s never been vaccinated. I found before her every single cat I ever had that I vaccinated died of some mysterious illness well before their time – this time I decided I was going to just take a chance and it seems to have paid off as she’s as happy and healthy now as the day I brought her home.