Month: July 2012

The Apple and the Tree

Sadie1 Comment

I’ve come to realize I’m pretty much a carbon copy of my mother.  For the most part this means we have a lot of the same mannerisms and similar speech patterns and sayings.  I’ve also been told we look a lot alike.  These are the things that other people see.

For us, the similarities mean we basically have ESP with each other.  We have fragmented conversations because it’s redundant to say every word out loud when you know what the other person means.

Though this connection is helpful, sometimes the similarities combine to too much of a good thing.  We’re both very strong minded, and we do not always appreciate compromise.  So we tend not to compromise and each do our own thing.  We also both love to cook/bake and plan family gatherings and menus.  When we have the family out to the summer house during the summer weekends we go through several iterations of menus and dishes to try.  We have trouble settling on one idea.

This past weekend, we went food shopping separately and not surprisingly we ended up with a lot of duplicates. This included an abundance of bananas.  What to do, what to do with too many bananas?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Yields 2 8 x 4 loaves

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick)
  • 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4-5 large ripe bananas
  • 2 cups AP flour
  • 1/3 cup cocoa
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup milk (any kind)
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 2 8 x 4 pans with non-stick spray and/or parchment.
  2. Combine dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, cinnamon.  Set aside.
  3. Cream together room temperature butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy.  Add sugars, mix. 
  4. Add egg, vanilla, and mashed bananas.  Mix until well combined.

    Bananas ready to go
  5. Slowly add dry mixture to wet, combine well but do not over mix.  Add milk.  Fold in chocolate chips.
  6. Pour batter into loaf pans.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean (might be longer).

    A moment for my parent’s fabulous oven.

Workout Songs: Part 2

Sadie5 Comments

Continuing where I left off a couple weeks ago with Old School workout tunes, the bulk of the songs on my workout playlist probably fit into the Top 40 category.  I can only listen to older songs so many times in a week, so I need the new stuff to keep it interesting.  Actually, I often find myself skipping through the songs on my shuffle hoping to find one of the last few songs I downloaded on iTunes.  There’s usually a new song that I want to listen to ten times in a row because it’s just so catchy.  Here are a few songs that have come out over the past couple years that I have been obsessed with:

Top 40 upbeat/catchy tunes:

  1. What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction
  2. Blackout by Breathe Carolina
  3. Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen
  4. International Love by Chris Brown and Pitbull
  5. Sexy and I Know It by LMFAO
  6. Starships by Nikki Minaj
  7. Turn Up the Music by Chris Brown
  8. Broken Hearted by Karmin
  9. Drive By by Train
  10. Without You by David Guetta and Usher
  11. Domino by Jessie J
  12. Teenage Dream by Katy Perry
  13. Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars
  14. Blah Blah Blah by Kesha
  15. Till the World Ends Remix by Britney Spears with Kesha and Nikki Minaj
  16. Where Dem Girls At by David Guetta with Flo Rida and Nikki Minaj
  17. Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 with Christina Aguilera
  18. Turn It Up by Ciara and Usher
  19. Everybody Talks by Neon Trees
  20. Good Girl by Carrie Underwood

Which ones did I miss?

Wedding Bliss

Sadie1 Comment

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend my good friend’s wedding in NYC, and I must say it was a pleasure to celebrate her marriage in such an elegant and personal way. 

I loved that you could see Anne and Josh’s personality throughout the ceremony and the reception which really made the day significant to them.  The typical events of a wedding were edited down to those that the bride and groom found meaningful, which, in turn, made more meaningful for the guests.

Anne and Josh are quinticential New Yorkers in my mind, so nothing was more fitting than celebrating their marriage at Chelsea Piers on the West Side of Manhattan.  It’s right on the Hudson River, with a beautiful view of my old stomping grounds: Hoboken and Jersey City.

The whole happy family.

Happy Couple

Fussing family

So happy

View up North

View down South (I can see my old office building)

These kids took the first dance seriously and really showed us their stuff.  All of a sudden I felt like a sports photographer trying to get a decent action shot!

No, I have no comment on the girl in the foreground wearing a completely white dress…

The cake and all of the food at this wedding was phenomenal.  So phenominal that I couldn’t be bothered to stop and take pictures.  We enjoyed a cocktail hour after the ceremony with passed hors d’oevers and buffet stations, followed by a four course dinner, and then cake!  The food was thoughtful and eclectic, and though I ate enough to start hibernating for the winter, I wasn’t uncomfortably stuffed.  I’m not sure if this can be attributed my skills as a power eater, or the appropriately sized and conveniently spaced courses.

I loved Anne’s bouquet because it was simple and beautiful.

The theme of the speeches was how much Anne and Josh belong together and were good for each other.  I couldn’t agree more, they’re such a perfect match!

Action shot skills (or lack there of).

From what I could tell the cake was chocolate with hazelnut frosting, and possibly another vanilla type of frosting on the outside.

One of the highlights of the evening for me was seeing Josh preform one of his own songs with a friend.  If I didn’t know he wrote it, I would have sworn it was right out of Stephen Sondheim’s catalogue.

Since it was a four course meal, every square inch of the tables were covered with various wine and water glasses and several silverware options.  It got to be kind of comical by the end of the night as we were trying to determine which glasses were our own and what they were filled with.  Between the open bar and the waiters attentively refilling wine, the spirits were flowing!
The wedding band was great.  Besides playing some of the standards and swing music they also forayed into some unexpected pop hits from people like Usher and Michael Jackson.  It was pretty funny.

All in all, it was a grand affair, and I wish them nothing but happiness and a fabulous honeymoon in Tuscany!