well, this morning, I took a break from my schoolwork – which is coming along pretty well, I must say; I feel pretty well prepared for both exams tomorrow, although I will need to review tonight of course, and one of my four papers is completed, and today I'll be making good headway with another one, so things are shaping up. My break this morning consisted of a Sudoku puzzle, a crossword puzzle, some yoghurt, a cuddle with one of my kitties, and one of my most favourite activites – baking. This morning, I took a look around, and found some bananas that were brown enough that I won't eat them anymore – I like 'em pretty green to just eat, and nice ripened yellow for my breakfast smoothie, but these were even beyond that point. So, I decided to make a batch of Banana Bread. It's baking right now.I think this is my most favourite Banana Bread recipe, so I think I'll share it with you. It's a really nice, light bread, with still enough fat to make it yummy! I got this recipe from one of my former co-workers. She is a baker and cook extraordinaire!
So here you go, try it out – you won't be disappointed. By the way, whenever I bake I use organic flour and fat-free or low-fat ingredients, and often I'll use Splenda instead of sugar. Splenda can be substituted for sugar measure for measure in most recipes without affecting the consistancy or rising factor. Good luck, and enjoy!
TARYL’S BANANA BREAD
This is a deliciously light and moist banana bread, perfect for any occasion!
Ingredients:
- ½ cup butter (my best friend tried this recipe and substituted Canola Oil here and said it worked out fine)
- 1 cup sugar (try it with Splenda!)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 or 3)
- ½ cup sour cream (if you don't have sour cream on hand, plain yoghurt will do the trick)
- ½ cup chopped walnuts/pecans/chocolate chips/dried cranberries etc. (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan.
- Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, then vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients; mix.
- Add the mashed bananas and sour cream. If using optional ingredients, add those now.
- Bake for 1 hour – check after 45 minutes by sticking a toothpick in the centre. If the top is browning too much and the middle is still raw, lay some tin foil overtop with a hole cut in the centre. This will allow the cake to continue baking without burning the top.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.
- ENJOY!
Angel has used this recipe, and they are good. I would double or triple the measurements, though, as ours disappeared rather quickly!
In addition to using canola oil instead of butter, I used less than a quarter the amount of sugar the recipe calls for. I find ripe bananas to be sweet enough to flavour the bread to not need much sugar, if any at all. Hope these extra tips help those who are health conscious!
Another fun thing to try is make your Banana bread recipe, then make cookies instead. Are the cookies ever fluffy and moist….banana ‘drop’ cookies. Excellent and my fav. Manadatory chocolate chips though.. =)
yum Dave, sounds great! thanks for the tip!
Caught you on L. guys’ site. Interesting blog. the bread sounds great. I wanted to dicuss w/you some of your ideas that we are kicking around over there. L.Guy doesn’t always like it when people talk to each other to much on his site. Namely that only certain ‘groups’ can be sexist or racist. I don’t understand that.
I veiw the human race as all being capable of sexism, racism, prejudice, any aspect? one group has, the others have, also.
I have been a victum of racism & sexism. & would honestly have to say have done both. For instance, laffing at racial jokes and calling men pigs, etc…
If you have not done these things, you are a rare individual.
I’m commenting w/all honesty & respect. Please feel free to say whatever you want to me.
Chow! I’ll be back
hey l>t
thanks for dropping by!
I’m glad you are asking about this view of mine regarding the nature of oppression. I admit, it’s a contentious view, and more people disagree with me than agree. I think I’ll write a post about it. I don’t have the time to devote to it right now, but just quickly, here’s the basic structure of the theory.
Oppression is not constituted of individual acts of prejudice. Oppression is a larger social structure based on relations of power that consists of interlocking barriers that restrict the movement of GROUPS of people.
So, in situations of oppression such as racism or sexism, there is a relation of power at work between oppressor and oppressed. When you are a member of an oppressed group, you do not have power in interactions with those who oppress you; you cannot build a systematic structure of interlocking barriers that can restrict the movement of your oppressor.
I am continuing to think of counterexamples to this theory, and I have to give some more thought to examples such as “what if white people are in the minority, and social structures are set up by people of colour?”, and whether or not oppressed people can oppress other oppressed groups. Also, people are never exclusively members of one group; identity is intersectional. For example, I am a white female heterosexual middle-class able-bodied atheist. I may not be oppressed on the basis of my skin colour, but I am oppressed as a woman, and perhaps as an atheist, because my society is dominated by white male heterosexual upper-class able-bodied christians.
However, my initial instinct according to this theory of oppression is to say that there are always ways in which people could be oppressed according to the power structures in society, but while there may be situations where it may be difficult for an individual man to be a MAN – say if he is in the presence of a group of radical lesbian feminists π – it is always a disadvantage for a woman to be a woman. Thus, women are oppressed by sexism, and men are not. I am certainly not denying that oppressed groups can behave in ways that are selective or prejudiced; I an just very hesitant to call it oppression – and racism and sexism are oppression.
check back, l>t, I’ll post some excerpts from a recent paper I wrote on this subject. I’m sure it’ll draw some criticisms from my friends and readers… we tend to be an opinionated bunch!
“… while there may be situations where it may be difficult for an individual man to be a MAN – say if he is in the presence of a group of radical lesbian feminists π – it is always a disadvantage for a woman to be a woman.”
How exactly is it a disadvantage for a woman to be a woman in the presence of a group of radical lesbian feminists (who may or may not be baking banana bread)?
O.K. I get you. I think you clarified something for me by, using the word opression w/sexism & racism. You are right prehaps in your theroy. (I’ll think on it)At L.Guys the impression had to do w/the definition of the words, understand? Prejudice is a part of our intrinsic natures & not always a bad thing. not oppresion. I get it!
Very interesting conversation, thanks.
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kris – who are you calling a radical lesbian feminist? π I see your tongue is firmly planted in your cheek (as usual)!
l>t, thanks for thinking about my view more carefully. I appreciate the chance to be heard and listened to, rather than called silly. I think it’s pretty clear I’ve thought quite extensively about my position. Thanks for asking for a more thorough version.
Hmm, that discussion was spawned out of a banana bread post? Wow, I’d hate to see a haggis recipe…or perhaps ghoulash…
One thing I see is racism & sexism are opressive in any situation. If 4 black guys are beating up a white guy, someone is being opressed & visa-versa. Thinking girl, we are all individuals, we all belong to groups, but we are one human race
I am a humanist. I want to do what will benefit the human race as a whole.Division is self defeating.
division may be self-defeating, but the fact is, our species is divided on arbitrary grounds into groups that oppress one another. Oppression is a societal construct – not a construct for individual interactions or small groups. Oppression is all about large groups, and individuals matter only in the sense that they are members of those groups. 4 black guys beating up a white guy sucks for the white guy, but it most definitely is not oppression. I strongly disagree with this example, or any other similar example of “reverse” racism/sexism. it just doesn’t follow under my framework. perhaps the 4 black guys doing the beating-up are reacting to a lifetime of being oppressed by white guys just like the victim in your scenario. It doesn’t mean that suddenly the socio-political paradigm under which they have suffered their entire lives is turned on its head just because they outnumber that white victim.
do you see? oppression is not something that is able to shift from one group to another depending on which group has the bigger numbers. Oppression is something that stays in place NO MATTER the situation. individual acts of prejudice or discrimination are just that – individual acts of discrimination. They are not oppression, even when someone is really suffering. Lots of people suffer for lots of reasons that have nothing to do with oppression – even when they have to do with discrimination. Oppression is BIG, macro. it doesn’t change at the drop of a hat. the first group to really complain about oppression was the feminist movement – it came before the civil rights movement – and look at the state of the oppression of women today. 100 years of hard work and activism still gives us 2/3 pay, 3/4 more likelihood of being killed by a spouse or partner, 25% chance of being raped at some point in our lives, etc. etc. Oppression doesn’t change overnight – it is not a shape-shifter that adjusts itself according to whom is making up the numerical majority in any given room.
at the risk of belabouring the point, I’ll close this one off.
O.K., I know what you are trying to say, but the dictionary does not define oppresion as a group thing. 4 guys beating up on a guy may not be rasist/sexist & maybe they are justified(altho, I can’t believe it) is oppression. By dictionary definition. What you need is a term to descibe your type of oppression.
dictionary definitions are often flawed, for the very reason this whole discussion got started up in the first place – who writes dictionary definitions? who do these definitions reflect and represent? dictionary definitions are a good example of male-normative language.
my definition of oppression is an empirical one, that reflects what actually goes on in society. dicitonary definitions of oppression are written by privileged western folk – I’m sure predominantly male, at least in the past, and likely white and upper-middle class (who else can afford the education?). what we need is a re-definition of oppression, not necessarily one that soothes the minds of privileged white westerners (predominantly men).–>