Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I know i've been a TWD slacker

but I was on vacation, and now I'm sick as a dog (seriously I feel like I have broken glass in my throat), but I promise I will be back in action next week.



XOXO
Stay Sweet;)

Monday, August 11, 2008

The most delicious thing in my life...



My Dearest Love,

Words cannot adequately convey how amazing this past year has been. To be blessed with the love of the most amazing man I have ever known is a miracle in itself, and if I were to spend a million nights dreaming of the perfect man he would still fall short when compared to you. I love you completely and unconditionally. I love everything about you, and you are everything that I never knew existed in life and love. I love you for the person that I have become by simply having been privileged enough to know you. I love the way you love me for all that I am, and all that I am not. You love me in every way imaginable and your love far surpasses imagination. My husband; My best friend; My soul mate; My love...who when I ask if I look thinner after being on a diet 5 minutes always says "yes, but you were perfect before"; who tells me I'm beautiful when my hair is practically an afro and I have a full force breakout going on; who acts like getting up in the morning before 10 am is the most traumatizing experience in the world; who will let me fall asleep on his shoulder night after night even though his arm always falls asleep and gets a cramp; who will always pick up at least one box of mac n cheese from the supermarket for me even though there are 3 in the cabinet because he knows how much I love it; who genuinely cares about my family and never complains when we visit them even though they are the loudest, most dysfunctional people you could ever met; who when he hasn't shaven and has a 3 day old beard makes my heart pound so hard and quick that I will forget my name just by looking at him; who I could heat up a TV dinner for and he'll thank me and sing me praises as if I just served him a 4 course meal, and he isn't being sarcastic he is sincerely appreciative and grateful; who GOD FORBID doesn't wear socks to bed at night; who has a collection of 1362245984 t-shirts who's ages ranges from 1 month to 15 years old; My husband whose amazing green eyes pierce my soul and when he looks at me they are filled with such emotion that I almost forget to breathe; My husband, My best friend, My soul mate, How I adore you.


Happy 1 year anniversary baby, and thank you for the most incredible year of my life!
Forever yours,
Laura

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Sometimes what seems like a fabulous idea...


turns out to be a nightmare for your taste buds, and so goes the story of the black and white banana loaf chosen by Ashlee of A Year In The Kitchen. Now I have to be honest and say I may have played a minuscule role in the grossness of this recipe (ok fine, I really crapped it up), but some things in life should not be tampered with and that is a strict rule I adhere to for chocolate.

This recipe was destined for disaster, as soon as my tired ass attempted to make it half asleep at 12:00 AM. Don't judge me. I know you are thinking "well that is what happens when you procrastinate", but really I wasn't (this time). I've been running around like a mad man all week because I leave for vacation on Friday, and seriously haven't had a free moment of time (ok, ok so maybe I procrastinated in other areas which in turn affected my TWD timing, but whateva, whateva, you're not the boss of me).

The first step to this disaster is that I attempted to halve this recipe while delirious from sleep. That is never a good thing, as my being exhausted is equivalent to a drunk being passed out on the bathroom floor. Attempting anything coherent in this state is borderline suicidal. The halved recipe called for 1.5 oz of chocolate, but I was too tired to take out my kitchen scale so I eyeballed it. Yeah I know, shut up. Apparently my eyeballing skills aren't as accurate as I believed them to be, but we'll come back to that later.

The next part of this disaster is that in my tired stupor I forgot I was halving the recipe and plopped the entire amount of butter that a full recipe called for in the mixer, and started adding the remaining halved ingredients blind to the fact that they were drowning in butter. I prepared to assemble my black and white loaf, and taste both the regular banana bread batter as well as the chocolate banana bread batter. The traditional banana bread batter was fabulous! Even though the grease from the butter was pooled around the edges and in the middle. The chocolate banana batter on the other hand was all kinds of nasty. The banana flavor in the background of the chocolate nearly made me gag it was so gross. Chocolate should not be tampered with people. This was borderline sacrilege, but I persevered hoping it would be better after it was baked.

I marble the layers together and place my mini loaf pans in the oven, and after about 30 minutes I hear something akin to frying. I run to the kitchen to check on my loafs and realize that the loafs are actually frying in butter, and I suddenly come to the realization "crap I added the full stick of butter".

Fast forward to taking them out of the oven and cooling them. Under the cooling rack is a pool of grease that could have drowned a kitten. I carefully cut into the loaf and butter literally seeps out of the slice. The entire loaf is so saturated with butter that it is wet and dripping. *GAG*



*Please note the loafs squishy consistency, not the least bit sexy*


I tentatively take a bite, and choke and cough. Ewww not only did a pool of butter trickle into my mouth, but the chocolate banana marble completely over powered the traditional banana loaf and it was NASTY. Once again I say CHOCOLATE SHOULD NOT BE TAMPERED WITH PEOPLE! I think the chocolate in this recipe ruined it. Or maybe it has to do with the fact that I may have added more chocolate than required, but still. Chocolate+banana=barf fest.

Also I made a discovery while making this loaf. I didnt have ripe bananas so I used gerber baby food bananas, and I think the traditional loaf would have been fabulous if it wasnt for the chocolate marble. I think i'm going to use that for my banana treats from now on.


Be sure to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll to see everyone else's barf loafs.

You can find the recipe here @ A Year In The Kitchen.




XOXO
Stay Sweet;)