Saturday, June 27, 2009

banana nutbread recipe

I gave this recipe out to a friend, who loved it. *We* love it, too, and my mom gave me permission to post it here. 

Jerry McGee's* banana nut bread recipe:

2 c. sugar
1/2 c butter (or oleo)
2 eggs
2 c. flour
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking soda  (put soda into milk & stir well)
1/2 c butter milk (I use regular milk and add about 1 tsp. vinegar, stir well & let sit a minute or two before I add the soda to it)
1 c. chopped pecans (I usually use Bergeron pecans, don't know if it matters)
3 ripe bananas (very ripe, soft but not too mushy - skin spotty brown)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 or 1 tsp cinnamon

Soften or melt butter in microwave, add sugar & mix til sugar is absorbed, then add eggs, mix well, add flour & milk (with baking soda in it), stir.  Mash bananas thoroughly, add bananas, pecans, vanilla & cinnamon to other mixture, mix just until blended together.

Spray pans with Pam, bake at 325 degrees, approximately 1 hr.

This makes 6 of the breads the size I gave you (I use the silicone pan you gave me one year, has six pans in it with a rack included)  
Fill pans about 1/3 to 1/2 full - divide batter evenly between the six pans.  

If you use the individual small pans, I put them all on a baking sheet so it's easier to take them in & out of the oven.

Can put all the batter in a bundt pan to make a cake.  Or you can put it in 2 regular loaf pans.

Of course the smaller the pan, the faster it cooks,  For small pans should start checking it in about 45 minutes.  Can take it out of the oven & stick a toothpick in the thickest parts to see if it's done.  If the toothpick comes out sticky, needs to cook longer!

Good luck! 


*She added that she'd found a recipe in a cookbook somewhere and altered it to suit her tastes. That's been years ago, so if someone comes across the original somewhere, let me know.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Top Five Questions People Ask That Jackie Kessler Must Lay to Rest:

I asked Jackie to give me this list, which cracked me up. So here you go:

Top Five Questions People Ask That Jackie Kessler Must Lay to Rest:

5. No, I’m not a superhero in real life. Although juggling two full-time jobs and a family with young kids should qualify as a super power.
4. Yes, I have a weakness, just as every superhero has a weakness. Mine is chocolate.
3. No, I’m not really Caitlin Kittredge in disguise.
2. My favorite super hero author is Neil Gaiman. Which is ironic, considering that SANDMAN isn’t about superheroes. A very close second: Matt Wagner.

And the No. 1 question that people ask Jackie that she must lay to rest:
1. Yes, even Jet is taller than me.

(See her NEW RELEASE, BLACK AND WHITE and the description in the post below this.)

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Charmed and Dangerous is out...

...and in the stores now. But if you're looking for other great summer reads, I highly recommend all three of these:

    

See descriptions below!


Atlantis Unleashed:

Poseidon’s warriors swore an oath eleven thousand years ago to protect humanity from those who stalked the night. Now those powerful forces are uniting. So are two souls who are all that stand between justice and the eternal darkness…

 A warrior prince…Lord Justice made the ultimate sacrifice for his brother and paid for it with an unimaginable torture. Now he’s back, rescued from death, his sanity shaken, and his mission inescapable—the search for the lost Star of Artemis. But the beautiful human female whom he has sworn to protect is shadowed by an evil that could destroy them both…

 A woman of science…The archaeological artifacts of Atlantis speak to Dr. Keely McDermott, sharing visions of life long ago. The ancient revelations have cast her into a world between past and present, between reality and illusion—and, when she meets the fierce Atlantean warrior assigned to guard her, between terror and temptation. Now as their two worlds collide, so too will danger and desire…

 A quest for a lost star…Atlantis is unleashed.




KISS AND HELL:


Delaney Markham doesn’t just see dead people, she hears them too. And FYI—communicating with tortured souls all day can really wreak havoc on your love life. Sans boyfriend, Delaney makes the best of her gift by holding séances to make ends meet—that is until one incredibly annoying ghost just won’t go away.

Besides being sinfully hot—in a college professor sort of way—all signs point to Clyde Atwell being much more than the ordinary spirit. In fact, he’s a newbie demon whose first assignment is to take Delaney back down to hell with him. Yeah, like that’s going to happen on the first date. Order Kiss & Hell and visit Dakota’s website.


BLACK AND WHITE:

It’s the ultimate battle of good versus good.

They were best friends at an elite academy for superheroes in training, but now Callie Bradford, code name Iridium, and Joannie Greene, code name Jet, are mortal enemies. Jet is a by-the-book hero, using her Shadow power to protect the citizens of New Chicago. Iridium, with her mastery of light, runs the city’s underworld. For the past five years the two have played an elaborate, and frustrating, game of cat and mouse.

But now playtime’s over. Separately Jet and Iridium uncover clues that point to a looming evil, one that is entwined within the Academy. As Jet works with Bruce Hunter—a normal man with an extraordinary ability to make her weak in the knees—she becomes convinced that Iridium is involved in a scheme that will level the power structure of America itself. And Iridium, teaming with the mysterious vigilante called Taser, uncovers an insidious plot that’s been a decade in the making…a plot in which Jet is key.

They’re both right. And they’re both wrong. Because nothing is as simple as Black and White. Order Black and Whiteand visit Jackie Kessler’s website and visit Caitlin Kittredge’s website